How a Blocked Down-Pipe Can Cause Unexpected Water Damage

Gutters are an essential part of the waste management system in your home and you’re no doubt aware that you need to clean them every 6 to 12 months (on average) depending on the tree coverage, to prevent any blocked gutter problems that may lead to water damage in your home. This applies to both homeowners and renters, both of whom benefit from clean gutters. Renters need to be aware that even though they don’t own the property they are still responsible for taking good care of it whilst residing in it. Maintaining clean gutters is part of being a responsible resident of a property.

However, you may not know precisely how the process of water damage from a blocked gutter pipe occurs, how severe the damage from a blocked gutter or down pipe can be to your home and what to do if your gutters overflow.

Therefore, this article is going to cover those issues. And by the end of it, you’ll probably never neglect to clean your gutters and end up with a blocked gutter or down pipe again.

A Blocked Gutter or Down Pipe Can Cause Your Roof to Leak

Downpipes are specially designed to channel rainwater away from the roof of a property towards a designated area on the exterior of the home, typically drains. When your home has a blocked downpipe, the drainage system fails and causes water to seep through your roof instead. Blocked gutter problems can cause serious and long-lasting damage to a property once the water backs up on the roof. The water then trickles or pores into the cavity of the roof and onto the sheeting beneath. The sheeting and the materials around it are typically made of wood, which will begin to rot if the water damage is not located and fixed quickly.

Worse still, water may completely penetrate the roof and make its way through to the ceiling of your home, appearing as a leak or stain. In these situations, mould may spread throughout the room in as little as 48 hours, and mould can be tough and expensive to fix. Furthermore, you could have to replace the water-damaged shingles, plaster and maybe even the entire roof.

Blocked Gutter Problems Can Damage Your Foundations

Structural damage is the worst side effect of an overflowing gutter. As gutters overflow, water can gradually cause fissures in the walls or ground, as it slowly seeps into a porous material such as concrete. Over time, these hairline fractures expand to become large cracks which, if left unchecked, will eventually compromise the structural integrity of your home.

If you live in a region that sees sub-zero temperatures, as Melbourne sometimes does throughout the winter, structural damage through porous materials can occur quickly when the mercury gets below zero. Water expands as it freezes, therefore any water seeping from blocked gutter pipes that has made its way through something porous like concrete and then frozen during a sub-zero night, could widen cracks and fissures quickly. Any repair work needed on structural damage to a home is costly as it often entails replacing entire sections of the building. So structural damage from a blocked gutter or down pipe is one of the worst-case scenarios you need to avoid and maintaining clean gutter gutters is an important way to prevent water damage to a foundation.

Your Gutters Can Become Too Heavy

Gutters that are full of leaves and other organic debris can become excessively heavy and ineffective. Leaves and organic matter trapped within the blocked gutters become soaked with rainwater, and without air circulating they’re unable to dry out. This compounds the problem as wet, heavy leaves attract more wet leaves and they all pile on top of each other creating a blocked gutter pipe that only gets worse.

As well as blocking free-flowing water, the weight of all these dead, heavy, wet leaves gradually start to peel the gutters away from the roof, and they may eventually completely detach and fall to the ground. In some situations, this could pose a serious risk to anyone standing below or near the area, never mind the damage any backed-up water is going to do to your property.

Blocked Gutters And Down Pipes Can Damage the Garden Below

It’s not just house interiors that can be damaged by blocked gutters, but gardens too.

The primary job of gutters is to channel water towards a drain, and away from areas that would be damaged by excessive water and this can also include gardens. A blocked down pipe could cause excess water to overflow into your garden as the water has nowhere else to go. In heavy rains, this will cause an excessive amount of water to fall onto your greenery, which could drown plants and foliage or crush them from pressure. Over time, repeated incidents of excessive water damage in these garden areas could lead to soil erosion and permanent damage to your garden.

Blocked Gutter Water Can Seep Into the Facades of Your Home

As we know, an overflowing gutter can spill onto your roof, walls, and even the garden. But there’s another equally damaging area it could reach: the façade of your property.

With a blocked dowm pipe, a significant amount of water can trickle off from the gutters and onto the exterior wall of your home, gradually damaging the paint on its descent. Along its journey, should the path of the water run into any windows it can also cause damage to materials like wood that will begin to rot and or the water may result in internal mould growth if the window is not watertight.

What to do if your gutters overflow

If your gutter pipes are overflowing the simplest solution may just be to grab a tall ladder, put some gloves on and get cleaning. Or, hire a professional gutter cleaner who can do the job for you and ensure your gutter pipes are up to the job, helping your home divert excess water away from the property and into the drains where it belongs. But it might also be a sign that there are going to be blocked gutter problems thanks to excess water build up that may have gone unnoticed. If you’re concerned that the blocked gutter pipe has been poorly maintained for a while and there may be damage done to the property and its roof, speak to a gutter and roof specialist like Portervac who can assess if any damage has occurred and provide a recommended breakdown of any services that might be required. Any damage is best addressed early on to prevent any structural or long term damage down the line.

As you can see, there are at least five ways the water from blocked gutters can cause significant and long-term damage to your home. By maintaining clean gutters and addressing any potential blocked gutter problems when they arise you can save yourself some serious headaches and expensive repairs later down the line. With that in mind, it pays to clean your gutters regularly.

Extend the lifespan of your gutters and roof and contact a high-quality and professional blocked gutter cleaning service in your local area today so that they can do the hard work on your behalf.