If you’re like most Kansas City homeowners, chances are you’re not looking forward to cleaning your gutters this spring. In fact, many homeowners can’t even remember the last time they cleaned their gutters! However, cleaning your gutters and ensuring that they’re well-maintained is crucial to the continued well-being of your home. In today’s blog, we’ll explain a few of the ways that your gutters affect your roof and home.
Blue Springs Siding and Windows is proud to be Kansas City’s premier resource for roof installation, siding installation, and many other home renovation services. If you’re interested in learning more about our roofing and gutter services, don’t hesitate to contact a friendly member of our staff!
Overflowing Gutters and Flooding
The most common way that your gutters can affect your home is through the redirection of water when it rains. If your gutters haven’t been cleaned in a while, it’s likely that they’ve become at least partially clogged with dirt, leaves, and other forms of debris that prevent water from flowing efficiently.
The first way that a clogged and overflowing gutter can damage your home is by damaging your roof. You can think of your gutters as a continuation of your roof, and their main purpose is to prevent water from staying on and around your home for long periods of time. You can expect extensive shingle damage and structural damage if water is soaking into your roof, and these conditions also create the ideal environment for mold growth. However, the main problem that you should be worried about is structural damage, and this can take several different forms. Cracks, dips, and even collapses can occur if water has severely damaged your roof, and these can all put you and your family at risk.
Clogged gutters can also put your home at risk of flooding. Whether you have a basement or a ground-level home, improperly directed water from your gutters will likely lead to pools of water forming around the sides of your home. If you notice that pools of water are forming around the base of your home or inside of your window wells after a storm, it’s time to call a roofing and gutter expert to inspect your home.
Mold Risk
As we noted above, mold is a potential consequence of clogged gutters causing water to pool on top of your roof. Stagnant water creates the ideal conditions for mold growth, and it also provides conditions favorable to insects such as mosquitoes and maggots. While it’s certainly uncomfortable to think about insects breeding inside of your roof, the main cause for concern is unnoticed mold growth. Young children, the elderly, and those with asthma are particularly vulnerable to the effects of mold, and many forms of mold are not easily noticed until they begin to affect the inside of the home. By the time that you begin to notice signs of mold on the inside of your home, you can expect to invest in costly repairs and mold remediation services.
Landscape and Foundation Damage
As we mentioned in the first section, one of the telltale signs of a clogged gutter system is pools of water that form along the sides of your home. Pools of stagnant water can quickly kill your grass and any flowers you have near your home, and this can lead to costly repairs when it comes time to fix the damage. Grass, shrubs, trees, and gardens are all areas that are fairly expensive to re-install, and it’s almost certainly cheaper to invest in preventative gutter maintenance instead.
Many Kansas City homes are adorned with concrete walkways and driveways, and although concrete is strong, it’s not impervious to water damage. Water that continually pools and soaks into the ground around your home’s concrete can cause it to bend and crack, leading to even more expensive repairs.
Gutter Damage
Improper gutter maintenance not only poses a risk to your home and its foundation, but it also poses a risk to your gutters themselves. Gutters are designed to efficiently transport water from your roof to a safe location, but they can only handle so much weight. Extra weight from trash, dirt, and leaves can quickly add up and compromise the structural integrity of your gutters. The easiest way to diagnose gutter damage is by looking for signs of sagging and areas in which the gutter is beginning to separate from the roof. If your home’s architecture prevents you from closely inspecting your gutters, call one of Blue Springs Siding and Windows’ roofing and gutter contractors to schedule an inspection.
We hope that this information will help you as the weather warms and you begin to think about cleaning your gutters. If you’re interested in learning more about our gutter services, including our Bulldog Gutter Gaurd product, don’t hesitate to contact one of Blue Springs Siding and Windows’ roofing and gutter experts!
