Nobody inspects their gutters. They are eight feet up, they are the same colour as the fascia, and they do their job silently until the day they do not. The good news is that a blocked gutter system announces itself in fairly specific ways, and most of them are visible without a ladder.
1. Water spilling over the front edge in a storm
The obvious one, and the most reliable. Water should run along the trough to the outlet, not curtain over the front lip. If it sheets over the edge, the trough is full or the run is pitched wrong.
2. Water pouring out of the top of a downspout
This one is specific and useful. If water backs up and overflows where the gutter meets the downspout, the blockage is in the elbow, not the trough. Debris washes to the outlet, turns the corner and compacts where the pipe bends. The gutter above can be nearly clear, which is why this gets misdiagnosed constantly.
3. Dark vertical streaks on the wall under a gutter corner
Overflowing water runs down stucco or siding and leaves a stain, usually starting under a corner or an end cap. On light stucco it shows badly, and in a neighbourhood with an active HOA it gets noticed. The streak tells you where the overflow is happening, which is genuinely helpful information.
4. Plants growing out of the gutter
Maple and oak seedlings, weeds, sometimes small ferns. A gutter only grows things if it has been holding damp organic matter long enough to be soil. If you can see green from the ground, the system has been blocked for a season or more.
5. Sagging, or a visible gap at the fascia
Wet debris plus standing water is heavy, and weight pulls hangers out of the fascia board. Sight along the gutter from one end: it should be a straight line with a slight consistent fall toward the outlet. A dip in the middle means water is pooling there, which adds more weight, which deepens the dip.
6. Birds, wasps or mosquitoes working the roofline
Standing water in a gutter is a mosquito nursery, and a packed trough is nesting material at exactly the height where wasps and birds like to build. Persistent activity along the roof edge is worth a look.
7. Stains, drips or peeling paint on the fascia and soffit
This is the expensive sign. Water backing up in a blocked gutter goes under the shingle edge and into the fascia — the wood your gutters are screwed to — and into the soffit. In Florida humidity that wood never dries out properly. Discolouration, bubbling paint or a soft spot means the water has already been there a while.
8. You cannot remember the last time it was done
Genuinely the most common one. If nobody has been up there since you moved in, the answer is that they need cleaning. New construction is the same story with different debris: shingle grit, roofing nails and bits of underlayment sitting in the trough since the roof went on, which is what everything else then catches on.
Any of these and it is worth a look. A single-story cleaning starts at $199, quotes are free, and you get photos of what came out so you are not taking anyone's word for it.
Rather not do this yourself?
Bert's cleans gutters across Tampa and the Bay area. Single-story homes start at $199, every downspout gets water-tested, and you get photos of your own roofline the same day.