7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home

If you are like many people, your rain gutters are not something you really worry about. They need routine gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their purpose is very simple.

It’s not until your gutters aren’t doing what they’re supposed to that you realize how important they are for your home!

WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?

Gutters and downspouts go unnoticed on most houses in Columbus. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner has opted for copper or wood … building materials that are designed to stand out! Most home exteriors are crafted from durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.

The point of gutters is to create a route of least resistance for rain to get off your roof as fast as possible. When they are in good shape, your rain gutters will direct runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, protecting your home’s exterior from mildew and mold, the concrete and pavement and basement from leaking water, and the gutters themselves from rust.

When they are damaged, it can lead to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your home and property.

ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?

Gutter damage is too simple to fix to be the cause of any major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is simple and safe. If you identify any of the following issues, it’s a pretty good clue that your gutters have some kind of damage.

Once you find a possible gutter problem, you can decide if it’s something you feel comfortable repairing or remedying on your own or if it’s something you’d rather call a gutter specialist for.

Sitting Water Near Your Home

Pooling water near your home is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not directing the rain runoff away from your house the way they should be. Pooling water can lead to mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. Plus, it will leave the areas around your house 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 sides of your home. Mold and mildew indicate that there is too much moisture in that area – a potential issue with the gutters could be to blame. Remember that mold and mildew are likely to appear on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where these substances are appearing, it might be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight. This is a situation where the advice and knowledge of a professional in Columbus would be helpful.

Rain Pouring Over the Gutter

You’ll need to wait until it’s raining to find this gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you have gutter damage. It could just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and should be cleaned. Either way, you want to have it checked ASAP.

Basement Leaks

Based on the design of your home’s basement, the leaking might be caused by any number of things. The standing water issue we mentioned earlier could definitely cause a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls will only keep out so much water. That’s why it is so necessary to keep your gutters in good shape!

Landscaping or Lawn Damage

Gutters pour directly onto the ground most of the time, and landscaping should be designed to work with this water flow to help it disperse 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 rain water can kill 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 a lot of moisture on a surface. Water marks are sometimes left behind even if standing water has evaporated or dissipated. You usually see water marks right beneath the gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a typically an indication that rain water is pouring down the outside of the gutters and not staying inside of them.

Visible Gutter Damage

The last sign of gutter damage is the easiest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked in the middle, they obviously have damage. After a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your house to identify any damage to the roof, outer walls, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to any standard home inspections.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?

Here are some easy ways Columbus Gutters recommends to prevent gutter damage:

Clean your gutters at least once a year. You can lengthen the amount of time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out regularly. As with anything else, the better you maintain your rain gutters, the fewer problems you’ll have with them.

The recommended time to clean out gutters is during the spring, but to be cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. Many homeowners clean their gutters on their own, but there are many professional gutter cleaning companies that provide this service so you don’t have to handle the work or the risk.

Inspect 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 signs we wrote about above.

We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection at the end of each season to ensure that your gutters are working the right way.

When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Fixing an issue 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 be replaced very affordably and quickly.

But, if you let the issue go on for too long, you could end up making repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.