Blocked gutters can cause damp — but it doesn’t automatically mean that if your gutters are blocked, you’ll suddenly have damp inside your home.
Damp is actually quite a complicated subject.
There are specialists who deal purely with diagnosing moisture problems because there can be multiple causes — ventilation, condensation, ground levels, plumbing leaks and structural issues.
However…
If you’re noticing signs of damp, one of the simplest and most sensible places to check first is your guttering.
Why?
Because when gutters stop working properly, water doesn’t drain away from your home the way it should. And repeated exposure to moisture is what eventually creates problems.
As an exterior cleaning company, we regularly see early warning signs on the outside of homes that — if left long enough — could contribute to penetrating damp internally.
We're keeping this as truthful as possble and as we see it, there are two main items that we commonly see when blocked or broken gutters have caused damp.
Two Gutter Problems That Can Cause to Damp
When it comes to gutter-related moisture problems, there are really two categories:
- Blocked or full gutters (a cleaning issue)
- Leaky Guttering (a repair issue)
In the vast majority of cases, it’s the first one.
Blocked or Full Gutters (The Most Common Cause)
When gutter are filled with this sandy type of material the gutter loses its capacity to hold water, rain builds up faster than it can be draining away by the guttering system and water begins to spill over the edge of the guttering.
In the image above the guttering was actually weighed down by the weight
This is especially common where:
- The gutter doesn’t fall correctly toward the downpipe
- There are long runs of guttering with only one outlet
- The downpipe itself is partially or fully blocked
And when water repeatedly overflows in the same location, it soaks the same section of brickwork again and again.
Over time, that’s where the damp begins.
Can Blocked Downpipes cause damp?
Yes when the water cannot be routed away from the home when the downpipe is blocked and if left for long enough with repeated exposure damp can appear at a property
Downpipes have bends and offsets that make them easy places for moss and debris to lodge.
When a down pipe is blocked:
- Water backs up into the gutter
- The gutter overflows at the lowest point which should be the downpipe
If you see little or no water exiting the bottom of a downpipe during heavy rain, that’s a strong warning sign that the downpipe is blocked.
Leaky Guttering (Repair Rather Than Cleaning)
Most leaky gutter failures happen at
joints — where two lengths of gutter meet or at corners that connect two pieces of guttering.
Inside these joins is a rubber seal designed to create a watertight connection.
Over time the seal loses its elasticity and begins to allow water to slowly drip through the brackets. When left for months on end, and when the gutters are full of moss and silt the seal simply fails to hold the water and begins to drip.
When a joint fails, you don’t always see dramatic overflow.
Instead, you often see:
- A steady drip from one location
- Dark vertical staining below a join
- Continuous moisture in one area
That repeated wetting, left long enough, can contribute to penetrating dampness.
In most cases, this doesn’t require a full gutter replacement — just replacing the seal or the faulty union bracket
At Squeaky Solhull, our process is to replace the whole connection rather than just the seal because what we found was that when older gutter connections are removed, they can be very brittle and prone to break when disassembling.
From out experience replacing the whole gutter union is often a more sustainable way to stop a dripping gutter leak.
Will stopping the guttering leaking cure the damp?
Gutter cleaning isn’t a damp cure.
It’s preventative maintenance.
Most homes benefit from annual gutter cleaning but it's hard to speak for every home because every situation is different
If you begin to see the brickwork getting damp due to a leaky or overflowing gutters, stopping the root cause of the problem is the best place to start.
Spot a leaky gutter early? That can allow moist brick work to dry out and and would be completely fine after a period of time
The issue with leaking guttering causing damp is the long term exposure of moisture.
Where we typically see leaking guttering
- Top of brick work where guttering joins together
- Behind downpipes that have been overflowing
- At foundation level where water is allowed to splash back up towards the brick work
Spot Leaks, Stop damp
Gutter cleaning from our perspective isnt going to stop damp.
Being aware of your home is a great place to start because damp is a slow process if the cause of it is blocked or dripping gutters
If you see a leak or a drip on your guttering, maybe add it to your to do list? Damp is typically a process that happens slowly over time rather than one big event
We hope you found this article useful, we also have a related article which goes into the
4 signs your gutters need cleaning which you might find useful in identifying if your gutter are in need of some attention
Alternatively, if you would like us to clean and inspect your guttering because you might have some drippy or leaky guttering get in touch with us today via email below
