The Most Common Gutter Repair Issues You Are Likely To Encounter

When you live in a region with heavy rainfall you need gutters on your home, which means that gutter repair is something you have to keep in mind. It’s easy to neglect your gutters, when they are doing their job you probably don’t even think about them. But when they aren’t doing their job you are going to have some pretty serious problems pretty quickly. Your gutters are on your home to divert water off of your roof when it rains and control where it flows to.

Without gutters water will get into places that are not meant to be wet, and that’s when you start having serious problems. When you have water that seeps into parts of your home that aren’t meant to get wet you will end up with both structural damage along with toxic black mold. This is not something you want to have to deal with, so paying attention and avoiding problems is your best option here. The following are the most common issues relating to gutter repair that you may end up encountering.

1. Problems With Gutter Sealing

While you may not think about it much the manner in which gutters are constructed plays an important role when it comes to potential problem areas. Specifically at the seams where one gutter attaches to the next gutter leaks often develop. These leaks are a result of the sealer used that is in place to help bond the pieces of gutter together. While the gutter pieces are held together with rivets, it takes a tight bond to keep water from leaking.

That tight bond is provided by sealer. Over time that sealer can slowly erode away, when that happens you will notice a small amount of water dripping from the joint where your gutter pieces are connected. While this may not seem like a major problem, you have to remember that it only takes a little bit of water in the wrong place to cause major issues such as black mold.

2. Damaged Gutter Hangers

Another common gutter repair issue you may have to contend with are damaged gutter hangers. Gutter hangers are mounted to your house and are used to hold the gutter in place. Since water is meant to flow along and exit gutters there shouldn’t be a lot of weight on them even when there is heavy rain happening. But over time dirt and debris add weight to gutters, which puts additional strain on the gutter hangers. When it rains this strain becomes an even bigger problem because it restricts the flow of water as it flows along.

The water can also saturate the debris so that even when the rain stops there is additional weight, which means additional strain on your gutter hangers. All of this adds up to your gutter hangers being bent over time which will cause your gutters to leak and affect where water ends up being diverted to. This can then lead to water infiltrating your home, which then means dealing with structural damage and toxic black mold.

3. Gutters That Need Leveling Out

Frequently gutters that are leveling out is a major problem and is a common type of gutter repair that is needed. You may not notice it when you look at them, but your gutters are actually installed with a slight pitch. This slight pitch is simply a way to ensure that water flows quickly as it is entering the gutters. So what causes gutters to level out? It can be damage to the gutter hangers, or it can be a build up of debris that are weighing the gutters down.

It can also be caused by your gutters bending and deforming over time. The bottom line here is that when your gutters are leveled out water does not flow out of them efficiently. When water doesn’t flow out of them efficiently it tends to cause other problems and places additional strain on your gutters.

4. Clogged Gutters

When it comes to gutter repair having to deal with clogged gutters is probably the most common issue that you are going to encounter. How common is it? Well, if you have gutters then they are going to get clogged at some point. It really is inevitable. You can have gutter netting installed to help prevent it, but eventually you are going to end up with dirt and debris building up in your gutters.

Having clogged gutters is a fairly easy fix, but if you try to do it yourself you may be surprised at just how labor intensive it actually is. When your gutters are clogged water won’t flow properly, which means it is more likely to end up getting into places you don’t want it to. The additional weight added to your gutters from the debris lodged in them can also contribute to your gutters leveling out, your gutters deforming, and your gutter hangers becoming damaged as well. Clogged gutters are a common problem, and they are a problem you can’t afford to ignore.

Why You Need To Hire A Professional To Handle Your Gutter Repair Needs

When the time comes to deal with gutter repair issues you really are much better off hiring a professional to take care of it for you. Why wouldn’t you simply do it yourself? Well, first of all it’s a lot of work. It’s probably not how you want to spend your free time now is it? On top of that you will have to work on a ladder, and that can be potentially dangerous. Why else would you want to hire a professional to handle your gutter repair?

A good reason is that they are experts at what they do and will be able to do the job better than you can. They can also spot potential problems before they become major issues. That alone is worth the cost of hiring a professional. The last reason that hiring a professional to repair your gutters is that it’s really not going to be that expensive. When you take into account the fact that professional repairs will likely last for years, then the amount that you have to pay is really very reasonable.