Your reasoning probably does not allow you to consider that the clogged gutter of your home can affect the wellbeing of your household’s foundation, but you would be amazed to find out how often homeowners face a problem like this.
Not only can a clogged gutter cause serious damage to the foundation of your home, but it can also lead to other problems regarding the stability and firmness of your structure. When a heavy rainfall hits your roof, there are different ways the flow will hit your house if the clogged gutter fails to let the accumulated liquid pass through.
Although gutters might seem like an inessential part of one’s house, their importance is not to be neglected. The main function of a gutter is to direct the rainwater to the drain; therefore, it is designed to relieve the roof out of surplus water. In order for the stream to be flowing continuously, a gutter must be pervious and clean.
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Unfortunately, gutters are prone to clogging from time to time mostly because of the accumulation of various impurities happening constantly due to external factors. One of the most prominent factors credited for the congesting of your gutters is the leaf piling inside their cavities. Supported by rain and dirt it forms multiple plugs that disable the rainfall from moving forward. Therefore, the maintenance of your gutters should be a number one priority to meet if you want your gutters not to jeopardize the welfare of your household.
Although the servicing of the gutters should be done regularly, the most crucial time of the year when you should pay extra attention to the gutter flow is before the beginning of the raining season and as soon as the leaves fall from the trees, that is, when autumn arrives. If you fail to check the condition of the gutters, you put the well-being of the whole building at risk. It does not necessarily mean that your home will collapse, but why would you ever bring that issue into question when you can act preventively and rule out any negative consequences before they even happen.
In order to remind you how important it is to maintain your gutters, we have created the following list so you become aware of how clogging can affect the foundation of your home. Hopefully, the following material will be enough to remind you to pay special attention to the wellbeing of your gutters.
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1. The Basement
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If your gutters fail to deliver the rainfall to its next desired destination, the chances it will flow down the walls and reach the ground around the house itself are high. The accumulation of water around the foundation will most likely continue its way to your basement, initially flooding it. If this situation occurs, you will not only need to rehabilitate your basement area but also clean the corked gutters.
If you do not know how to handle clogged gutters on your own, leave it to the professionals, since they are familiar with the potential problems and offer verified solutions. You may consider looking for services for corked gutters in your neighborhood, or simply enter your data on a specialized website offering adequate service, such as www.guttercleaningspecialists.co.uk and worry no more.
2. The Soil Subsidence
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Your trouble does not end when you restore your basement to its previous condition. Namely, the water that penetrated through your basement had to go somewhere. Although you have probably managed to remove a significant quantity of it, the chances are high that a large amount of it was sucked into the soil around the foundation. Unfortunately, the soil subsidence might cause the foundation to move, therefore causing the whole structure to become unstable.
3. The Cracks
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If your foundation ends up underwater due to corked gutters in the wintertime, when temperatures reach degrees below the freezing limit, you should be worried about the potential cracks that might occur in the base of the building. Namely, this should not happen if the foundations are built following modern standards, but certain structures were built before certain rules of the building were established. Therefore, paying additional attention to the state of your foundation is what you should think about.
4. The Wood
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Water and wood do come as a good combination, and since some parts of your foundation might be made out of this material, the chances that you will have to renovate are pretty high. Namely, the accumulated water can cause your wooden parts of a structure to rot, thus their stability would be brought into question. Since this type of restoration is significantly expensive, taking care of your gutters before things fall out of your hands sounds like a reasonable thing to do.
5. Uneven Walls and Floors
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Another visible aftermath of a flooded foundation might be the change in the visual appearance of your complete home. Namely, the floors might become rough due to deep changes in your structure’s foundation. It will not only be difficult to straighten things up on the surface where it is visible but also on the inside, where the root of the problem is located. A similar thing can happen to the walls, only they can even experience cracking, because of the uneven soil subsidence. Since the foundation is lying on the unstable ground due to the recent floods, the safety of the whole construction has been compromised and requires additional works to secure the safety standards sufficient for the people to inhabit the building without having to worry about their security.
Since you have been introduced to the hazards that a poorly maintained gutter may cause, paying additional attention to the hygiene of the rooftop and the cleanliness of the watercourses from the above should be the first thing on your “to-do” list. The moral of the aforementioned reading material is that prevention is key to securing your structure from the dangers of clogged gutters. Therefore, better safe than sorry should be your motto when talking about the safety of your place. There is no reason for you not to enjoy the autumn, so make sure you prepare yourself before the leaves fall.
