7 Signs You Should Fix Your Tired Guttering

Guttering doesn’t last forever and sadly, when it does get worn down or broken it can cause damage to the rest of your property. However, unless you regularly go out and check your guttering when it’s raining or closely inspect the gutters themselves it can be hard to know when they need replacing.

Here are seven handy guttering replacement tips to help you know when you need to act to prevent damage:

1. They are physically damaged

This seems really obvious, but often people don’t take the time to look and see how their gutters are performing. Cracks, breaks, holes and other damage to your gutter will mean that they don’t work as efficiently as they should be.

What to do: depending on how severe the damage is you will either need to replace or repair the gutters to prevent further damage.

2. There is significant sag/ pitch

If your gutter isn’t properly lined up then the water won’t flow down it correctly. Any point where it dips will become the natural point for the water to be deposited which can cause water damage to the building. When the gutter pitches forward this essentially turns it into an extention of the roof, eliminating its usefulness.

What to do: If your gutters have sag or pitch that is causing the water to divert to a different path then you will need to replace this section. Often the cause can simply be lose or broken hangers, but sometimes this causes damage to the gutters themselves. Closer inspection should give you a much better idea of what needs fixing.

3. Gutters have come apart

When the joints on the guttering split apart the water will simply fall down this gap. Splits can sometimes be very obvious or more subtle, but they will all be noticeable when there is water flowing through them.

What to do: Most splits can simply be put back together, but if the join has broken you will need to replace that section of the guttering.

4. No longer hugging the roof

Guttering that has pulled away from the facia board will cause the same issues as sag and pitch. The majority of the time this will be down to the mounting brackets breaking or coming lose, but occasionally the gutters could have become dislodged by the wind, an animal or stray football.

What to do: Replace any broken brackets and damaged facia boards and ensure that the guttering is hanging properly. If the guttering has simply become dislodged then this will just need to be fitted back in place.

5. Peeling exterior paint

Damaged paint or facia boards can be an obvious sign that your guttering is leaking. Unfortunately by this stage it may require extra measures to ensure that everything is in correct working order.

What to do: Determine the extent of the damage, if it is only the paint that’s damaged you can simply re-paint this area. However, if the damp soaked through then you may need to look at replacing these sections to prevent rot and mould. You will need to determine the problem with the guttering and fix it in relation to the above points.

6. Signs of dirt and debris

This is a sign that comes before peeling paint as it is where dirt or debris has found itself due to a different watercourse. At this stage there tends to not be any significant damage to the building or the exterior, it just shows that the guttering is not working properly.

What to do: If you notice that this has happened then you want to act as quickly as possible to figure out where the issues lie with the guttering. Once you find the problem, amending it using the above points and your problem should be sorted.

7. Plants are growing

Lack of maintenance often leads to clogged gutters and the biggest sign that this has happened is when plants start to grow. Generally speaking there won’t be damage as such at this point, but if left to grow you will start seeing sag and cracks appear in your guttering.

What to do: clean your gutters of all dirt, plants and other items that are clogging the flow of water. This should completely fix any issues that you’ve been having with your guttering. If not, again, refer to the above points.