Water is constantly attacking your home and the wood protecting it, so keeping a constant eye on the state of your home is the best way to keep small incidents from turning into large water damage problems.

Doing a weekly walk-about around the exterior of your home is a good habit to develop. These regular visual inspections will make it easier to spot a problem as it begins. Here’s what you should be looking for:

Gutters & Fascia – Green, black or dark streaks or patches on your gutters and wood fascia usually indicate that waste water is spilling over the edges of the gutters, or that the gutters themselves are leaking, which then damages the fascia. This also means water is not properly draining away from your house, and water that pools around the foundation can end up in your basement.

Wood Siding – For both wood and vinyl siding, the appearance of streaks or patches that are green or black, this could be signs of mold or signs of regular water contact. The siding can be cleaned but the water problem must first be fixed.

Landscaping Damage – Look behind bushes and large plants up against the house for signs of damage incurred while watering them. Ill-placed irrigation systems can also soak siding or shoot up at an angle that infiltrates behind the siding. Check the planks closest to the ground for signs of water damage. It’s key to keep plants and trees from making contact with the home so that air can properly circulate and dry up all water.

Window & Door Jambs – Inspect the bottom pieces of all wood window sills and door jambs for wood that is splintered or looks “chewed.” Wood soaks in water from the bottom up, so these are the most vulnerable locations which show the first signs of problems.

Wood Columns – Failing paint and splintering wood indicate water problems. As some of these columns may be structural (as on a porch or under a deck), it’s important to solve the underlying problem and then repair the columns.

If you see any of these signs of wood rot on the exterior of your home, know that you must begin with correcting the cause of the problem, followed by a repair to the area that revealed the problem. The water management experts at Mosby Building Arts are trained to trace water damage to the point where it first occurs, and then repair all points that suffered.

To have your water problems solved right the first time, call the Mosby office at 314.909.1800 or contact them here.

Related posts:

1. KMOX Audio Tip: Exterior Wood Rot
2. How To Avoid Water Damage
3. How to Handle Window Deterioration
4. Exterior Design for Beauty and Value
5. All About Exterior Siding

Learn the Art of Living at CallMosby.com.

Tags: exterior wood rot, irrigation systems, leaking gutters, rotting fascia board, rotting wood columns

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 1:27 pm and is filed under repairs & advice, water management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.