As a homeowner, you take pride in maintaining your home and ensuring it’s safe and sturdy for you and your family. You regularly check for damage and keep up with maintenance tasks. However, there’s one simple thing that often goes unnoticed but can cause major damage to your home’s foundation – a clogged downspout. This seemingly minor issue can wreak havoc on the structural integrity of your home if left untreated. In this blog post, we will explore how a clogged downspout can lead to costly repairs and provide tips on preventing this common issue.
The Most Common Cause of Foundation Trouble Is Water
Many issues could affect the home, and most homeowners are alert to most of those problems. What they may not realize, however, is just how much damage can be caused by water, and you may not see it until the issue is advanced.
One of the ways that water can affect the home is by causing soil with a lot of clay in it to expand and contract. The soil tends to expand if there is excessive water around the foundation.
On the other hand, when the soil dries, it can contract and leave voids around the foundation. In either case, it creates movement under the foundation and can result in the foundation settling.
It is not uncommon for foundations to settle, but the real problem is that most foundations don’t settle at the same rate. Certain areas of the foundation may settle differently because of poor drainage or improper construction techniques. When that occurs, you are dealing with something known as differential settlement.
Differential settlement can quickly cause issues with the foundation and many problems for the home. If it is not fixed quickly, the problem will worsen, and repair costs will rise.
At this point, you may want to know what you can do to prevent such problems with water damage to the foundation. There are several things you can do, and most of it has to do with maintenance.
Downspouts Protect Your Home’s Foundation from Water Damage
Downspouts play a crucial role in keeping your foundation safe from water damage. When it rains, water lands on your roof and runs down into your gutters. From there, the downspouts’ job is to direct that water away from your home’s foundation and into a safe drainage area. If this system fails and water is allowed to pool up around your foundation, it can cause all kinds of foundation issues.
Signs of a Clogged Downspout
It isn’t necessary to wait until you clean the gutters and downspouts to determine if there is a problem. In many cases, there will be signs of an issue, and you can see it from ground level.
Unless you are dealing with a torrential downpour that overtakes the gutters, they should be adequate for holding the water and channeling it to the downspouts. If you notice the water regularly running over and out of the gutter, you probably have a clog somewhere.
It doesn’t have to be a tremendous amount of water flowing over the gutter to be a problem. Even a small amount of water trickling down the side of your house could lead to problems. Over time, it could lead to excessive water in the soil near the foundation.
If you go out immediately after it rains and see standing water at the downspout base, this can also indicate a clog. The water should exit the downspout and flow away when it is working correctly.
The Potential Cost of Neglecting a Clogged Downspout
Most people don’t consider the possible damage a clogged downspout could cause until it’s too late. You may need a significant repair that could cost thousands of dollars by that point.
Clogged downspouts are not expensive to repair, but they can cause problems that lead to foundation damage. Due to water in the soil near the foundation, hydrostatic pressure can press against the foundation walls, causing them to crack and buckle.
Excessive water in the soil around the foundation could also lead to differential settlement, which may require underpinning to fix.
These are not issues that a weekend warrior can handle. They require a contractor to come out and repair the problem using the right tools and techniques.
Step-by-Step Guide on How to Clean Your Downspout
Since you must make cleaning downspouts a routine maintenance task around the home, it’s a good idea to prepare yourself with the knowledge of how to do it properly. It’s a relatively easy job, but if you don’t follow the steps, you may not get all the benefits.
- Access the Gutters and Downspouts: You will likely have to use a ladder to access the gutter and downspouts for cleaning. Make sure you use a ladder that is well suited for the job and follow all safety precautions, including not standing on the top two steps or overreaching, which could cause the ladder to topple.
- Remove Accessible Debris: Any debris in the gutters or clogging the top of the downspouts, such as leaves or twigs, should be removed first. You can do this with your hand if you wear heavy-duty leather gloves. Otherwise, you can use a small garden shovel.
- Flush the Downspout: Use a garden hose to flush any debris out of the downspout that can’t be reached with your hand. Make sure you have someone helping you with the garden hose, and when you have it in position, turn on the hose and allow it to flush the downspout with a full stream of water.
- Consider Gutter and Downspout Guards: Although this is an optional step, it can save you a lot of time and effort with future cleanings. You can install gutter and downspout guards, which will keep leaves and other debris from accumulating in the area and clogging the downspout in the first place.
How to Help Prevent Foundation Trouble Caused by Water
- Install Downspout Extensions: Downspout extensions stop the water from draining near the foundation and carry it to a location where it can drain away naturally.
- Clean Gutters Regularly: Keeping the gutters free of debris is also a maintenance task that should be done on a routine basis. Clean gutters allow the water to flow freely instead of spilling over the side of the house and soaking the ground around the foundation.
- Check the Landscaping: Improper landscaping can also result in excessive water in the soil near the foundation. Inspect the area around the home to ensure that the land is sloping away from the foundation.
- Keep Vegetation Away From the Foundation: Foundation problems can also result from the wrong type of shrubbery next to the home or even trees with invasive root systems that could cause damage if they get under the foundation.
- Installed Drainage: Along with installing downspout extensions, it may also be necessary to install a drainage system that would keep water from building up in the soil around the home.
This type of drainage system, often referred to as drain tile, is essentially a perforated pipe installed around the outside perimeter of the foundation at the footing level. As water enters the pipe, it is diverted to an area where it can drain naturally or be pumped to an area away from the foundation.
Downspout problems are not going to go away on their own. They will continue to get worse, and the problems associated with them will also worsen.
Ignoring the problem or hoping it will go away on its own is a recipe for disaster. The problem could easily cost thousands of dollars, and there is the potential, as things progress, for the home to become uninhabitable.
Cleaning the downspouts, installing downspout extensions, and regularly inspecting the area for potential damage is the easiest way to prevent more significant problems.
You can call on the professionals at AMC911 for help. We offer a foundation inspection for those in the area and would be happy to provide more information about how your foundation can be protected for the long term.
