7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like many people, your rain gutters are not something you often think about. They need biannual gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their functionality is very simple.
It’s not until rain gutters aren’t doing their job that you understand how important they are!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go unnoticed on most roofs in Oak Park. They blend into the exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … materials that are meant to stand out! Most are crafted from durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of rain gutters is to create a route of least resistance for rain to get off your roof. When they are in good condition, your gutters will route runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the foundation and basement from leaking water, and the rain gutters themselves from rust.
When they are damaged, it can lead to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your house and surrounding property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too easy to repair to be the cause of major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is easy and safe. If you notice any of the following issues, it’s a good clue that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
Once you find a gutter issue, you can decide if it’s something you feel comfortable repairing or remedying on your own or if it’s something you should trust a gutter service to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Standing water is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing the water runoff away from your home the way they are supposed to. Pooling water can lead to mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. Plus, it will make the areas surrounding your home constantly soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a sign of gutter damage, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or on the exterior of your home. Mold and mildew indicate there is a lot of moisture in that area – a possible issue with the rain gutters could be the cause. Remember that mold and mildew are more likely to grow on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where these substances are growing, it may just be because that area gets very little direct sunlight on it. This is a time where the advice and expertise of a professional in Oak Park would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will have to wait until it’s actually raining to find this gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that you have gutter damage. It could just be that the gutter is full of debris and needs to be cleaned. Either way, you want to have it checked ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Based on the construction of your basement, your leak might be due to any number of things. The pooling problem we mentioned before could definitely lead to a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls can only keep out so much water. That’s why it is so important to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain gutters pour directly onto the ground most of the time, and landscaping should be designed to work with this flow of water to help it submerge into the ground. However, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool where it isn’t supposed to. This pooling water can kill plants by force or by overwatering. It might also displace flower bed materials like rock or mulch.
Water Marks
Water marks are the first sign that there is excessive moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated. You will usually find water marks right under the gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a usually a sign that water is running down the outside of the gutters and not staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The last sign of gutter damage is the simplest to spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. Following a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your home to assess any damage to the roof, outer walls, and rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to your routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are some easy tips Oak Park Gutter Cleaning recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least one time a year. You can extend the amount of time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out. Like with anything else, the better you maintain your gutters, the less issues you’ll experience with them.
The recommended time to clean gutters is during the spring, but to be cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. Many homeowners clean their gutters themselves, but there are many local gutter cleaning companies that provide this service so you don’t have to handle the work or the risk.
Check your gutters often. Signs of gutter damage can be visible from the outside of the gutters. A fast inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – should reveal any of the problems we wrote about above.
We’d suggest that you complete an exterior home inspection at the end of each season to confirm that your gutters are working correctly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Taking care of an issue before it becomes too bad can save you time and money. A small crack, for example, can be sealed, or the section of gutter with the crack can easily be replaced very affordably.
But, if you let the problem go on too long, you might end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.