Water Damage Inside Your Walls from Clogged Gutters in Your Pensacola Residence

10/6/2017 (Permalink)

Clogged gutters can cause water damage inside the walls of your home damaging wooden framing and insulation.

SERVPRO Provides Solutions for Your Water Damaged Walls

Realizing that clogged gutters can create water damage inside your home in Pensacola might not be obvious right away. However, it is a fact. Drainage from your roof can bring water infiltration into your house in various ways. Much water moves through your gutters. Just an inch of rainfall on a typical size roof sends more than six hundred gallons of water into the downspouts and gutters. If anything is obstructing them, it can be a trigger for indoor water damage.

Leaves or other debris are typically the culprits that clog your gutters on your Pensacola home. One way in which clogged gutters bring water damage to the inside of your home is when they spill water down into the exterior wall. Siding is not entirely waterproof and cannot sustain a continuous water cascade. Seepage behind your siding penetrates exterior wood sheathing and gets into the wall spaces in your house which can deteriorate wooden framing and sheathing, saturate interior wallboard, and cause mold to grow inside the walls.

Moisture inside your wall also lessens the effects of your insulation. SERVPRO can assist you in fixing the mess that your gutters have created. We may need to remove the insulation, especially if it has become matted. Fiberglass insulation might not lose its insulating power for good, however. We may be able to dry it out instead.

Rockwool and cellulose insulation usually mat when wet. Plus, moisture affects fire resistance and the antimicrobial qualities of material that is cellulosic. Rockwool contains metal which may rust if it becomes wet. For these reasons, these kinds of insulation may need replacement.

Ventilation is necessary for drying your wall cavities. One way in which SERVPRO's IICRC certified technicians get air circulation inside the walls is to take off baseboards and drill holes between the studs. We then force air through these holes into the spaces to increase evaporation. If we find much moisture, parts of the drywall need to be taken off. We always go over everything with you before we begin any work.

Moisture meters are also used to check for moisture in the walls, and penetrating probes are used in wet areas to see how wet your insulation has gotten.

SERVPRO of West Pensacola are experts at finding and eliminating the water and moisture inside your walls from faulty gutters. If you live in the areas of Sanders Beach, Pensacola, or Goulding and have such a problem, please give us a call right away at (850) 469-1160.

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