As a homeowner, you know that gutters serve an important role in your home. They move rainwater away from your home. Beyond that, they help support your roof and your basement and help you avoid serious home problems. In fact, if your gutters are rotting away, clogged, or not allowing free run of water, you could be in for some serious damage to your home.
Avoid These 4 Home Problems with Properly Functioning Gutters
1. Premature roof replacement
When your gutters don’t work properly, the result can be damage to your roof. This happens because when the gutters get clogged with debris or freeze and form ice dams, water backs up. It then can cause damage to your shingles and soffits and cause serious damage to your roof shingles, the wood fascia, and soffits. The cost of this can be thousands of dollars in damage caused by roof leaks as well as the cost of a premature roof replacement.
2. Foundation problems
As gutters age, they can develop rusted holes. Naturally, this causes rainwater to run through these holes instead of to the downspout. In addition to old gutters, the same outcome is expected when gutters become clogged enough for water to pour over the edges. Either scenario causes areas of erosion around the foundation of your home. Whether you have a basement, a crawl space, or a slab foundation, this can mean a lot of damage. This erosion can cause cracks to the foundation or a leaky basement. The fix for these cracks is calling in a foundation repair expert to repair the damage. Sound expensive? It can be, depending on the amount of damage.
3. Landscape damage
Just as those clogged or worn out gutters can cause damage to your foundation, they can also cause damage to your landscaping. Water is a powerful force. One deluge of rain can cause the demise of your prized peony bush or damage to landscaping accessories and statues.
4. Mold and mildew spores
When gutters become clogged with leaves, pine needles, acorns, or bird nests, you can expect to have the formation of mold and mildew spores. These micro-organisms thrive in a consistently moist environment, and that’s exactly what you are providing when you allow debris to accumulate in your gutters. While the cost may not be as steep financially as roof or foundation problems, the health issues that can occur in family members are a very real concern.
How Do You Prevent These House Problems?
Now that you are aware of how important a job your gutters do, you are probably wondering how you can prevent your gutters from premature wear and clogging. Of course, you want to keep these issues from happening to you. Fortunately, there is an easy two-part solution.
First, make your gutters last longer by ensuring that they are clear of leaves and debris that hold in moisture and cause them to rot away on you. Cleaning your gutters is a headache, but it’s a necessary evil to prevent these house problems.
Second, after your gutters are cleaned, protect them by installing the GutterBrush simple leaf guard system. These cylindrical brushes are easily installed by simply placing the brush into your gutter. No cutting required, you can order them cut to the correct length. The GutterBrush leaf guard system works by efficiently blocking out leaves and debris while featuring bristles that are large enough to allow the proper passage of rainwater through your gutters, to the downspout, and safely away from your home.
Summary
Gutters do an important job. They keep your home dry and your family safe. Protect your gutters and they will protect you and your family for many years to come.
Author Bio: Deborah Tayloe is a DIY blogger and content writer for the GutterBrush simple leaf guard system. She loves to write about DIY ideas and is a particular fan of furniture restoration. When she’s not writing about DIY topics, she’s putting her knowledge to use renovating her 50-year-old home one room at a time.