Signs your gutters are blocked

The clearest sign of a blocked gutter is water spilling over the front edge when it rains instead of running away down the downpipe. Other signs are stains or green streaks down the wall below, damp patches on the inside of an outside wall, plants growing out of the gutter and a downpipe that stays dry in heavy rain.

Most of these are easy to spot from the ground if you know what you are looking for. Late autumn is the best time to check, because the leaves are down and the wettest months are still to come.

Signs you can see from outside

• Water running over the edge of the gutter in rain, often at one spot, usually a corner or the lowest point of the run
• Dark lines, tide marks or green streaks on the render or brickwork directly under the gutter
• Grass, weeds or even small saplings growing out of the gutter
• A gutter that sags or has pulled away from the fascia board, which can be a sign it is holding the weight of wet debris and standing water
• Moss hanging over the edge, or clumps of moss washed down from the roof
• Gull nesting material, which is common on Torbay roofs and often ends up in the nearest gutter
• A downpipe that stays dry or only trickles during a downpour, which usually means the outlet at the top is blocked

Signs you might notice indoors

When a gutter overflows, the water has to go somewhere. Often it runs down the face of the wall or soaks into it, and over time that can show up inside the house.

• Damp patches on an upstairs ceiling or high on an outside wall, especially after a spell of rain
• Paint or wallpaper bubbling near the top of an outside wall
• Mould in the corner of a bedroom that sits under a gutter run
• A musty smell in one room that comes and goes with the weather

Damp has plenty of causes, so these do not always mean the gutter is to blame. But if the damp sits right under a section of gutter that you have seen overflowing, the two are very likely connected.

Why it gets worse over winter

Gutters fill slowly through the year and then get tested all at once. By late October most trees have dropped their leaves, and moss on the roof loosens in the wet and washes down. In Devon the winter rain often comes in heavy bursts with wind behind it, and a gutter that coped through a dry summer can overflow on the first proper storm.

Cold makes it worse. Water sitting in a blocked gutter adds weight to the brackets, and on a frosty night it can freeze. Wet debris also holds water against the fascia board, which is how timber fascias start to rot.

Gutters, render and green walls

A lot of the green and black staining we see on render around Paignton and Torquay starts with a gutter that overflows in the same place every time it rains. The wall stays wet, algae takes hold and the stain spreads. Clearing the gutter stops the cause. Washing the wall afterwards with a soft wash for render and cladding deals with what is already there.

What you can safely check yourself

• Stand back in the garden during heavy rain and watch where the water goes
• Look along the gutter line from a distance for sagging, plants or gaps
• Check the ground at the bottom of each downpipe. A dry gully in a downpour points to a blockage above
• Look at the walls under each run for fresh staining

What we would not suggest is climbing up to have a look. Gutters are often higher than they appear, and a ladder resting against a plastic gutter can crack it or slip. The Health and Safety Executive's advice is that ladders suit short, low risk jobs on firm, level ground, and a two storey gutter clear on a sloping Torbay garden is often neither.

What to do next

If you have spotted one or two of the signs above, it is worth having the gutters cleared before the worst of the winter weather. A proper clear takes out the debris along the whole run, not just the obvious blockage, and checks the downpipes are flowing. If you want to know what affects the price, we have written a separate guide on how much gutter cleaning costs.

AbraClean clears gutters across Torbay, South Devon and Exeter. See our gutter clearing service, or find your town, including Paignton, Torquay and Brixham. Call or text Mark on 07901 563000, or send your postcode through the contact page for a free quote.