Spring roof & gutter checklist for South Shore homes

Spring on the South Shore is the window where winter damage shows up and summer damage starts. April and early May are the right time to walk the exterior of the house before leaves hide what the gutters are doing, before the first real rain of the season tests the grading, and before the roofers' calendars fill up for the summer.

This checklist takes about thirty minutes on a ranch, sixty on a two-story. None of it requires a ladder higher than the sill of your second-floor windows. The items that do require a ladder to the roof are flagged; skip those and hire a roofer for a spring inspection if you are not comfortable.

Roof: what to look for from the ground

Use binoculars if you have them. Walk the perimeter of the house slowly and look at:

• Missing or displaced shingles. Winds off Buzzards Bay and Massachusetts Bay move shingles. A single missing tab is fine to watch. A run of three or more missing is a service call.
• Lifted shingles at ridgelines or hips. Ice-dam pressure lifts shingles from underneath. If you see shadows where shingles used to lie flat, the seal is broken even if the shingle looks present.
• Rust streaks below flashing (chimney, skylight, vent boots). Rust streaks indicate a failing fastener or old galvanized flashing. Stainless or copper flashing does not run rust.
• Moss on the north-facing slopes. Not a crisis. Worth a zinc strip installation if it is spreading, which prevents future regrowth.
• Sagging gutters or gutters pulling away from the fascia. Almost always ice-dam damage from the winter. Needs attention before the spring rains overload the remaining brackets.

Coastal-town exposure (Scituate, Hull, Marshfield, Duxbury, parts of Plymouth and Cohasset) makes all of these show up faster. If the home is within a mile of the water, budget for exterior-envelope inspection every spring regardless.

Gutters: the two minutes that matter

Do this before running water through them, not after:

• Look at the pitch. Gutters should slope toward the downspout at roughly 1/4 inch per 10 feet. If you see standing water near the downspout, the pitch is wrong and water is sitting in the gutter cavity rotting the fascia behind it.
• Look for separated seams. A seam that has opened will spill water down the wall rather than into the downspout.
• Check that the downspout is connected to the gutter. A fallen downspout is a visible problem. A downspout that has pulled back from the gutter by half an inch is not visible but still dumps water against the foundation.

Then run a hose into the highest point of each gutter run for two or three minutes. Watch where the water goes.

• Good: it flows to the downspout and out the extension six feet from the foundation.
• Not good: it overflows somewhere along the gutter run. That run is clogged or pitched wrong.
• Not good, harder to see: it flows fine through the downspout but you hear it pooling at the foundation. The downspout extension is missing or the grading is failing.

Clean the gutters while you are at it. Maple and oak debris rots fast in standing water. Gutter guards help but do not eliminate the need for an annual spring inspection.

Downspouts and grading: the money items

Water that hits the foundation shows up later as a wet basement, a failing sill plate, or freeze-thaw damage on a concrete wall. Most of that damage traces back to two things.

Downspout extensions

Every downspout should discharge at least six feet from the foundation. Eight feet is better on a slope. The extension can be aluminum, PVC, corrugated, or a buried pipe to a pop-up emitter; what matters is that the water leaves the foundation zone before it enters the soil.

A missing extension is a ten-dollar fix. A buried-pipe extension that has settled or collapsed is a contractor call.

Grading

Walk the perimeter of the house and check the slope of the soil within six feet of the foundation. The grade should fall at least six inches over that six feet, carrying water away from the wall. If the grade is flat or slopes back toward the house, water is sitting against the foundation every time it rains.

Older South Shore homes in Middleborough, Halifax, Carver, and Plymouth often have settled grading. A few cubic yards of loam to re-slope is a weekend project on a small house or a half-day for a landscaper on a larger one.

Coastal and flood-zone homes: extra items

If the home sits in a VE or AE flood zone (Scituate, Hull, Marshfield, parts of Duxbury, Plymouth, and Cohasset), add these in spring:

• Check the crawlspace or enclosed area below a raised home for signs of water intrusion from the winter. Even a home built to code can take on water in a storm, and what dries over winter can hide the source.
• Inspect any flood vents. They must rotate freely and be clear of debris. Blocked flood vents are a code violation and a real problem in a storm.
• Look for shifted piers or settled footings under elevated decks and stairs. A winter of freeze-thaw cycles stresses these more than most homeowners realize.

Attic, once

You do not need to do this every spring, but once every two or three springs is worth it. On a dry afternoon, with a flashlight, look in the attic for:

• Water staining on the roof sheathing below ice-dam zones (eaves, valleys).
• Dark spots or soft wood around chimney chases or vent pipes.
• Insufficient insulation (less than R-38 in this climate is worth upgrading; current code is R-49 for new construction).
• Signs of animal entry (chewed wood, disturbed insulation, droppings).

The two things to do after you find something

First, document it with a photo and the date. If it is small, the photo in a month will tell you whether it is getting worse.

Second, get it evaluated by the right trade. Missing shingles and flashing are a roofer. Sagging gutters are a gutter installer. Grading is a landscaper. Foundation water intrusion is a waterproofing contractor. A general contractor can coordinate all of these but will markup each trade's work.

Spring maintenance is cheap if you find the problem before summer rain. It is expensive if you find it in October.