Do You Really Need Gutters On A House

If you weren t aware of it water causes more damage to homes than anything else.

Do you really need gutters on a house.

The fact is there are several reasons to have gutters installed on your home not the least of which is to prevent damage to your home. The gutters play a great role in helping you protect the house walls against rain damage. Little or no overhang roofs which fit close to the home allow water to pour from the roof to within a foot of the foundation creating numerous problems. This seems like a logical train of thought but the reason clogged gutters cause damage is because they let water flow over the sides where it pools all around the foundation.

Using gutters on that side of the home will allow you to redirect the water towards a downward sloping side. If the roof overhang is short then you will have to install the gutters. For instance if your roof slopes two directions toward the front and back of the house with a peak in the middle you won t need gutters on the sides of the home but should install them in the front and back. A cabin in the woods with squeaky doors drafty windows and moss growing on the north wall doesn t need gutters.

If your roof has an overhang of more than 10 inches then you do not need the roof gutters. You have a 6 to 10 wide roof overhang. Having gutters on your home would help you to channel the water down the sloping side. A shallow trench around the field can deal with the drainage from the landscaping.

Limited or no overhang. Why does a house need gutters anyway. If the house is at the bottom of a hill the water usually collects above and below the base. It was a nightmare cleaning the gutters out.

Your roof is already constructed to direct water down the slopes where the gutters will then do their work. Why get drowned every time you leave your home in a downpour. Gutters collect rain water from the roof and through downspouts and pipes discharge it away from your foundation. Gutter guard products have been on the market for decades.

You have an apron of concrete gravel or stone around your house and an adequate drainage system to support it. The ground slopes away from your house. No you don t need gutters on your house. But most homes do need a good rain gutter system to collect the storm water that lands on the roof and direct it away from the house to prevent damage to the structure of your home and to protect your foundation and driveway and sidewalk from pooling water on the sides of your home.

My last house in cincinnati had more than 400 linear feet of gutter on it. If you don t have gutters and downspouts to direct runoff away from your home this will happen every time it rains. The truth is some homes don t need them. Your home may not need gutters if.

Here are four reasons to install gutters on your new house.