Gutter Problems Solved

How things can go wrong when gutters aren’t doing their jobs.

By Gloria Brown

Everyone knows the headache associated with clogged gutters. It’s a project for which you need to break out the ladder and spend hours clearing out the muck and leaves. Worst of all, you don’t know your gutters are clogged until it’s too late.

But those aren’t the real dangers associated with bad gutters. It’s time to rethink the impact gutters can have on saving – or ruining – other parts of your home.

When the gutter system is not doing its job, your house becomes more dangerous and damaged than it would first appear with just leaves clogged in a gutter. That is where it starts, but unfortunately not where it ends.

Here’s a brief overview of how things can go wrong when gutters aren’t doing their jobs.

Gutters are the first line of defense against water damage for your home. The most crucial area of your home, the one that you need to be most mindful about, is the foundation. While a moderate amount of water is great for your lawn and gardens, an inordinate flow of water poses immediate problems. Soil can expand and put unwanted pressure on the walls of the foundation. Additionally, erosion from the excess water could change the ground composition and leave your foundation unstable.

This water buildup would most likely result from insufficient draining after the water leaves the downspout. Splash blocks are one easy way to make sure water is being carried far enough from the base of your home.

Put it this way: The cost to repair your home after foundation trouble is considerably more than the cost of upgrading your gutter system or taking the time to properly clean it.

Gutter malfunction can also affect the interior of your home. Along with causing foundation problems, water that pools around the support of your home can potentially ruin your basement’s contents.

Mold, mildew, and dampness around cracks are indicators and consequences of water leakage. Gutters are implicated in these scenarios much like they are with foundation issues. Improper drainage creates an environment for runoff water to trickle into your home. From this point, your belongings and wall or floor finishes are at risk for getting wrecked.

It’s the raiders who are responsible for sacking a city, but the city walls are also at fault for not keeping them out. So it goes with gutters and water damage.

While filling cracks in the walls and augmenting the grading of the ground around your foundation are viable solutions, another option is fixing your gutters to prevent the water buildup. Again, functioning gutters are worth the time and money, especially compared to the problems you’ll face down the road if you ignore them.

Sometimes your gutter problems remain above your sight line. What about the water backup from rain and snow that pools in your gutters if they’re left clogged? While this is less likely to cause foundational problems to your home, it presents its own set of problems.

If water overflows from the gutters, it will either end up back on the roof or down the walls of your home. From here, water can leak through or create cracks in the ceilings and walls of your house. The possibility for structural damage then arises. As with the basement, mildew and mold can also grow in these spaces and present health risks like respiratory illness.

The work that gutters perform in keeping your house safe is indispensable. It extends beyond catching water from the roof to aiding in the effort to keep your home structurally sound. It only makes sense to take the role of gutters serious with how much they are implicated in the process of caring for your home. The investment in a gutter system that works pays off by keeping the most important parts of your home undamaged.

For thirty years — and counting, the Byers’ family has been in the business of keeping your family safe, warm, and dry with the highest quality gutters, roofing, and…people. As an authorized dealer for LeafGuard in Northern California, every new product and service Byers provides must meet their own time-tested set of standards before they will stake our family’s name on it.