7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like most people, your rain gutters are not something you often worry about. They need regular gutter cleaning, but besides that, their purpose is incredibly simple.
It’s not until your rain gutters aren’t doing their job that you realize just how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go unnoticed on most roofs in Muncie. They fade into the exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … building materials that are definitely meant to stand out! Most are made of durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of gutters is to create a path of minimal resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof. When they are in good condition, your gutters will route runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, protecting 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 property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too easy to repair to be the reason for major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is simple and safe. If you notice any of the following signs, it’s a strong indication that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
Once you find a possible gutter problem, you can decide if it’s something you are comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s something you’d rather hire a gutter specialist to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Sitting water near your home is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not sending the rain runoff away from your home the way they should be. Pooling water can lead to mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. And, it will make the areas around your house constantly wet and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew is a bad sign, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or on the sides of your home. Mold and mildew mean there is a lot of moisture in that area – a potential problem with the gutters could be the cause. Keep in mind that mold and mildew are more likely to grow on the north side of a home anyway, so if that’s where these substances are growing, it may be because that area gets very little direct sunlight on it. This is a scenario where the advice and expertise of a professional in Muncie would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s raining to look for this type of gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you have gutter damage. It could just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. In either case, you want to have it looked at right away.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your basement, your leak could be due to any number of things. The standing water problem we discussed before could definitely cause 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 good condition!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain gutters pour directly onto the ground in most cases, and landscaping should be laid out to work with this flow of water to help it submerge into the ground. But, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it isn’t supposed to. This standing rain water can destroy plants either by force or by overwatering. It might also displace flower bed building materials like mulch or rock.
Water Marks
Water marks are the first sign that there is too much moisture on a surface. Water marks are sometimes left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated. You usually see water marks right beneath the gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a typically a sign that rain water is streaming down the outside of the gutters rather than staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The final sign of gutter damage is by far the easiest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. Following a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your home to assess any possible damage to the roof, exterior, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to your standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a few simple tips Muncie Gutters Plus recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least once each year. You can extend the time between gutter repairs by having them cleaned out regularly. As with anything else, the better you care for your gutters, the fewer issues you’ll experience with them.
The optimal time to clean out gutters is in the spring, but to be cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Most homeowners choose to clean their gutters themselves, but there are professional 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 quick inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – should reveal any of the problems we wrote about above.
We’d recommend that you do an exterior home inspection after each season to confirm that your gutters are working correctly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Taking care of a problem before it becomes too bad can save you a lot of 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 and quickly.
But, if you let the issue go on too long, you could end up making repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.