7 Signs You Need Gutter Repairs
When was the last time you looked at your gutters? The truth is, most homeowners rarely think about their home’s gutter system outside of the occasional necessary gutter maintenance. Too often, gutters become clogged or damaged and continue to be overlooked for far too long. Unfortunately, this allows water to pool where it shouldn’t, causing damage to your home.
At Budget Exteriors in Minnesota, we help homeowners with a complete range of exterior remodeling services including gutter repair and replacement services. In this post, we break down some of the top signs your gutters are in need of repair. Use this helpful checklist to check out your gutters, and then give us a call to schedule gutter repairs before winter hits.
1. Water on the Ground
If you’ve got water pooling near your home, it poses a threat to your home’s foundation, where it can cause settling and cracks over time. It may even get into your basement and cause further damage from there.
Ideally, gutters should effectively move water away from your home, using downspouts to send it out into your yard. If water is collecting or pooling, you could have a clog or a poorly aligned gutter canal. If you suspect that this is the case, get your home’s gutter system checked right away.
2. Mold, Mildew, or Water Staining in Your Attic
Once you no longer see water pooling around your home, you should look up. Go into your home’s attic to look under the eaves because you may also see that your gutters have also linked onto your roof and into your attic. If there has been leakage, you will see mold growth or water stains under the eaves.
Unfortunately, mold or water staining in your attic is another bad sign and indicates that you need gutter repair. This damage is now beyond your gutters, but can damage your roof, attic, and begin to harm the interior of your home.
3. Soil Problems
Eroded soil and bald spots in the grass near your house can also indicate there’s a problem with water pooling when it rains. Poor water drainage from a home’s gutter system is one of the primary causes of soil and landscape erosion. When water spills over a gutter clog, the stream is often a highly focused one, and the pressure can be devastating to your lawn.
Given time, the resulting soil erosion can wreak havoc on your grass, making it difficult to grow grass there again in the future. Similar to soil erosion is the problem of oversaturation. As the ground beneath a gutter clog becomes oversaturated, the vegetation below it can begin to rot or the roots of the plant will begin to die. For many types of bushes, trees, and shrubs, this can be a death sentence.
If you’re noticing similar issues near your home, it’s time to look at your gutters for possible water drainage failure.
4. Siding Trouble
When your gutter system is functioning as it should, you should never have any problems with siding getting wet. To check for this problem, take a look at the siding around your home. If you notice a spot where the wall looks especially dirty, this could mean water is splashing onto it when it rains. What you get is a sure sign of damaged or improperly functioning gutters.
If these leaks or clogs are left unchecked, the siding may become warped or the paint may begin to peel. When this happens, a gutter specialist is necessary to help determine whether there’s a clog or if a section of gutter that needs to be completely replaced.
5. Peeling Paint or Rusting Metal
When you’re having siding trouble and have noticed the paint peeling from the side of your home, this is a direct sign that your gutter is leaking. It could be aging, have been punctured by debris, or have been rusted through. Peeling paint or rusted metal or extremely apparent signs that you need a professional to take a look at your home’s gutters. You may need to replace a part of your gutters, or the system altogether.
6. Sagging Gutters
It’s easy to overlook regular gutter cleaning, but it can have disastrous consequences over time. During the fall months, gutters can begin to fill up fast with debris from falling leaves. As gutters fill up with leaves, twigs, and other debris, they can become clogged, and all of that water and debris can create added weight.
Over time, this can cause the gutters to sag or even pull away from your house. If you’ve noticed sagging gutters, a gutter repair technician may be able to repair them. However, you should consider investing in gutter guards to eliminate the need for regular gutter cleaning.
7. Obvious Gutter Damage
Often, if you look hard enough, you’ll be able to see the source of trouble with your gutters. Besides looking for signs of uneven, pulling, or sagging gutters, you should keep an eye out for broken or damaged joints, rust, and poor drainage.
Another common problem that can occur is gapping between the gutter joints. If you’ve got gaps between your gutters, they aren’t able to do their job correctly. This means water isn’t moving away from your home and could end up causing more serious problems down the road for your foundation.
Protecting Your Home’s Gutters—What Can You Do?
To keep your gutters functioning as they’re meant to, cleaning out your gutter canal system regularly is essential. But most homeowners don’t look forward to the task of climbing a ladder and using a trowel to scrape out their gutters every few months. To keep your gutters in the best possible condition, consider having gutter guards installed on your home.
With gutter covers, gutter maintenance is a breeze. Gutter guards may feel like an extra expense this winter, but in all reality, they save an enormous amount of time, energy, and money in the long run.
A gutter guard keeps critters, leaves, debris, and just about anything else from clogging your home’s gutters. Clogging causes extensive damage, so gutter guard installation quickly becomes an investment in the health and safety of your home.
Consequently, gutter guards save you from sudden, expensive repairs. They work alongside your home’s routine maintenance to prevent these surprises so that you can enjoy more important things this winter.
Budget Exteriors: Your Twin Cities Gutter Repair Team
Are your gutters in need of repairs or you’re concerned about how well they’re draining? Don’t take a chance on foundation and lawn damage by putting off gutter repair services. Call to connect with our Budget Exteriors gutter repair team at 952.887.1613 or contact us online and schedule your services today.