April showers bring May flowers, which we can all agree is a wonderful thing. The sight of life coming back to the trees and flowers is enough to get anyone excited about putting winter behind us and getting ready for the fun of spring and summer.

But if your home’s gutters are damaged or in disrepair, all those April showers can really do some damage to your home and yard. Properly functional and clean gutters can successfully push rainwater away from your home through the downspout. But when they can’t do their job because of cracks, leaks, or improper installation, it can lead to some serious issues.

With those April showers well on their way, now is the perfect time to get your broken gutters fixed or replaced. If you delay and try to get through spring without repairs or replacement, these five issues that can result from broken, cracked, leaking, or saggy gutters are things you’ll have to contend with.

Basement Flooding

If your gutters are unable to push water away from your home, it can pool around the sides of your home. Once it does, all of that water will begin soaking into the ground and once it does it has only one place to go: straight into your basement.

Heavy rainwater can leak into your basement through cracks in your foundation or through poorly sealed well windows. A flooded basement can cause thousands of dollars in repairs, not to mention the possible damage to irreplaceable items.

Foundation Damage

As this rainwater soaks into the ground by your home, the strain it puts on the natural drainage can cause issues for your home’s foundation, even if it is currently secure. Without proper drainage, the high volume of water can erode foundation causing cracks and damage, as well causing it to sink over time.

Foundation damage can become the catalyst for many serious problems. It can attribute to basement flooding, causing unsightly cracks throughout your home, and causing unevenness to floors. All of these can be serious problems when it comes time to do home improvements and can be expensive to fix.

Yard Flooding

Your basement isn’t the only thing you need to worry about flooding if your gutters are leaky or damaged. Water spilling out of your gutters can cause flooding in your yard if natural drainage is poor, which can be devastating to your landscaping.

The soil of your grass, trees, flowers, and bushes can get waterlogged and, while trees and plants are very resilient, cause damage or death to the landscape in extreme situations. In any case, the areas where water pools in your yard can erode and cause unevenness.

Stained & Grimy Siding

Ever wonder how your siding gets so dirty and grimy? There are two of the biggest reasons. The first is wind blowing around dirt and other particles. The other is dirt and particles inside water from rain and humidity coming in contact with siding. Gutters can do a good job of protecting your home from a good deal of rain, but any leaks or cracks can cause rainwater to run down your siding.

Without that extra little bit of protection keeping rainwater off your siding, your home will accumulate dirt and grime much faster than usual and necessitate cleaning sooner. If you don’t, mold and mildew can begin to develop, which can create unsightly stains that may require you to replace your siding.

Gutters Falling Off

Whether its high winds or rain collecting inside them, the elements can put quite the strain of your gutters. If your gutters are in really rough shape, barely hanging on for dear life, all it might take is one good storm for them to come off completely.

It’s going to be a long spring and summer full of rain and storms, so there is no time to delay and put off repairing or replacing your gutters anymore. Lathrop Contracting are Indianapolis experts in gutter repair and installation. Call (317) 783-6929 or schedule an estimate online today.