Top 6 Signs Your Amarillo Home Needs New Gutters

Gutters protect your home from damaging excess moisture that can wreak havoc on your foundation, siding, paint, and more! However, if they’re broken beyond repair, they’re not transporting water away from your house like you need them to be. In Amarillo, where heavy winds, hail storms , and rapid temperature swings put extra stress on gutter systems, recognizing the warning signs of gutter failure is especially important.

Unsure if your gutters are causing damage to your home and need to be replaced? Read on below for six signs that you may need new gutters!

The most obvious reason your home may be ready for a new gutter system is if you notice visible damage, such as cracks, rust, or holes. Rust, holes, dents, or deep cracks can allow water to escape before reaching the downspout, making your gutters essentially useless. Not only can water seep through these damaged areas, but they are often the sign of more extensive damage, like additional small tears and breaks. Of course, you can determine if there is more extensive damage by monitoring your gutters during the rain. If there are multiple damaged areas, you will notice them as the rain seeps through them. Even better, hire a professional gutter installation company for their expert opinion.

If you start to notice discoloration on either the inside or the outside of your house, you may have a moisture problem caused by broken gutters. If your gutters aren’t doing their job, the rain that should be carried away by your gutter system will instead hit the side of your house. If moisture continues to leak into your home, it will quickly cause discoloration to the side of your home and can cause mildew and mold to grow on both the interior and exterior of your home. In addition to being unsightly, discoloration, mold, and mildew are harmful to your health and your home’s integrity.

Peeling paint on your fascia boards – the wood directly behind the gutters – is another common sign of too much water in your house. Staining, peeling paint, soft wood, or wood rot on your fascia boards is an indication that water is overflowing the back of the gutter and constantly saturating the wood. Paint will start to lift and peel from your home’s exterior when exposed to repeated excess water. If you’re noticing peeling paint on the fascia boards in a particular place on your home, look up and examine the section of gutters above it. Besides peeling paint on the fascia boards, as another sign of a broken gutter, you may start to notice paint peeling on your gutters as well.

This is a serious sign that your gutters have failed. Puddles forming near your foundation, soil, and mulch washing away after a rainstorm, means your gutters are not carrying water far enough away from your home, which is their entire job. If water is collecting at the base of your home after a rainstorm, it means your gutters aren’t doing their job properly. As the water pools in one spot, over time, this can lead to major foundation issues. If you consistently have erosion or puddles near your foundation after a rainstorm, your gutter system needs to be looked at by a professional.

This one ties gutter failure to a hefty cost for your home. Bad gutters cause water to get into the lowest point of your house, where it can cause musty smells, mildew, and even flooding. If gutters overflow or don’t work, the water works its way down your foundation and into basements and crawlspaces. If you’ve experienced wetness, a musty smell, or have actually seen mildew on these areas, your gutters may be to blame. This water damage can be both a structural problem for your house and an unsafe environment for you and your family, as well as a really expensive problem. Don’t ignore these signals– they mean your gutter system requires attention.

This problem is an indication that the hangers or fasteners are failing, which is most commonly due to the force of standing water or debris. A gutter that is sagging or pulling away from the fascia board is no longer functional and should be replaced as soon as possible. Although we’ve mentioned gutter breakage, there is a different type of crack that may start to form in your gutter system – seam separation. Gutter seams are the weakest portion of any gutter system, and when not installed correctly, gutters can quickly separate at the seams. Gutter seams can sometimes be mended, but oftentimes a single seam separation is just a sign of further damage to come. To help prevent separation at seams in the future, you may want to consider a seamless gutter system or ensuring your gutter installer is very skilled and qualified.

Amarillo’s weather conditions are unique in the state of Texas, which also means that gutter repair and replacement for homeowners is an important part of home maintenance in the area. Strong winds are a common feature of the Texas Panhandle climate, so loose gutter fasteners and sections pulled away from the fascia is common. Hailstorms are also a regular occurrence in Amarillo, and gutter denting, cracking, or puncturing from this type of precipitation results in immediate failure. In addition, the rapid temperature changes, from freezing overnight to toasty in the daytime, make the gutters repeatedly expand and contract. This results in seams and joints that are weakened over time. All of these local weather issues put stress on guttering in Amarillo that may not be present in more moderate climates.

While we certainly hope our above list has been a helpful way to narrow down if you have an issue with broken gutters, the best way to know for sure is to contact our experts at New Vision Exteriors. Give us a call today for a free consultation!

The post Top 6 Signs Your Amarillo Home Needs New Gutters first appeared on New Vision Exterior Solutions.

The post Top 6 Signs Your Amarillo Home Needs New Gutters appeared first on New Vision Exterior Solutions.