Congratulations, you just bought a house. You’re out front admiring your new investment, and something catches your eye. “Wait, where are the gutters?” “Do I really need to put gutters on?” “I hate the look of them, and I have better places to spend my money.” We understand, and we’ve been there. But here’s the thing – gutters are a very important part of your home, and we’re going to help you understand why.
Gutters are not a necessary feature on every home, but they are a big part of your home’s water damage prevention, and in many cases, are very much recommended. In this post, we will help you determine whether or not your home needs gutters.
Know Why Your Gutters Are There
Gutters are the hidden channels running along your roof line, and they have a very important place in your home’s drainage plans. Gutters are more than just a redirection tool. If you have no rain gutters, you are wasting your roof’s drainage system. Gutters are your home’s ally when dealing with one of the most powerful elements. Water is not just an enemy, it is also one of the most common sources of home damage. It can also damage your household aesthetics, leaving your exterior and foundation water soaked.
Preventing Water Damage
Gutters aren’t just for keeping your roof healthy. They’re there for the overall well-being of your entire property.
Protecting Your Foundation: Gutters divert water away from your foundation, preventing erosion, cracks, and other structural damage. Without gutters, rainwater cascades off your roof and down the sides of your home like a waterfall. The EPA estimates that 1 inch of rainfall on a 1,000-square-foot roof produces approximately 623 gallons of water runoff – that’s a tremendous amount of water pounding the ground around your foundation. Over time, this constant pounding can wash away soil and erode the ground supporting your foundation, which can lead to settling, cracks, and expensive structural damage.
Basement Flooding: Gutters help keep water from pooling around your house and seeping into the lower levels, preventing basement flooding and moisture issues. Water will always follow the path of least resistance, and if your home doesn’t have gutters to direct it elsewhere, that path will often lead straight into your basement.
Preventing Soil Erosion: The landscaping, plants, and topsoil you’ve worked so hard to establish need to be protected from the erosive forces of uncontrolled roof runoff. Gutters keep these things from getting washed away during heavy storms.
Siding and Paint Protection: Keeping your siding constantly exposed to water stains, rot, and weakening it. Gutters help keep your siding free from water damage so that it looks good and stays strong.
Walkways and Driveways: Water dripping from your roof onto your walkways and driveways without gutters can damage the surface of your sidewalks, create ice patches in the winter, and cause these important areas to wear out faster than they should.
3 Signs That Your House Doesn’t Have Gutters, But Should
There are some signs that your home could use the addition of gutters. And if your house has them and you see any of these warning signs, now’s the time to get them in order, before there’s too much damage.
1. Your Basement Floods
If rainwater is seeping into your basement or crawl space during or after storms, you’ve got more of a problem than just damp, musty odors. When this moisture can’t escape, it creates a perfect breeding ground for mold and mildew, and can damage the clothes and other items you’ve stored there. That “new home smell” you might notice when you first move in will quickly turn into the musty basement smell you can’t seem to get rid of without professional help.
2. You Have Rotted or Moldy Siding
Inspect the exterior of your home, with special attention to the areas just below your roofline. If water damage has been uncontrolled, you’ll be able to spot it by some of these signs: dark stains on your siding or exterior walls, peeling or blistering paint, warped boards, or even visible mold and mildew. Some of these signs may also show up in your landscaping, such as dead patches of grass and soil erosion.
3. There Are Troughs in Your Landscaping or Next to Your Foundation
Roof runoff scours your property as it heads to the ground, creating channels or troughs in your landscaping and soil. Look at the ground around your home. After a hard rain, you may notice a distinct trench in the dirt. You may also see these bare spots in your lawn where no grass will grow. If the troughs are near your foundation, this is where you may start to notice settling in your home. You may then notice visible cracks in your walls, sticking doors and windows, and uneven floors.
If your home has no gutter system, you may experience one or more of the following: floods and water infiltration, soil erosion, foundation problems, siding damage, and mold and mildew growth. The above issues only get worse as time goes by. They start as small inconveniences, but soon turn costly.
When Gutters Aren’t Needed
A house can sometimes be perfectly fine without gutters. These cases are very rare, and you should always consult a professional before deciding that gutters aren’t required.
3 Reasons Why Your House Might Not Have Gutters
1. Your roof has a very steep pitch. Certain architectural styles result in very steep rooflines that cause rain to quickly run down and far away from the home’s foundation. Also, they can incorporate overhangs that project a few feet or more beyond the face of exterior walls. Features like this might be sufficient to fully protect your home, but it can still be beneficial to install gutters in certain key areas.
2. You live in a very dry climate. If your area averages less than 20” of rainfall a year, then the potential for water damage might not be significant enough to warrant the expense of installing gutters. This is especially true if you have a bona fide desert climate. Of course, even in the driest areas of the country, an occasional torrential downpour can occur. In fact, in desert climates, the majority of rain that falls is likely to come in the form of a downpour, which can be even more damaging.
3. Your home is very old. There’s a chance that your home was built before gutters were in widespread use. In fact, many of these homes were designed specifically to avoid the use of gutters by using a graded landscape, stone drip edge, or architectural elements to direct water away from the foundation. If you have one of these homes and it’s been gutter-free for decades, you might want to consult an expert on historical preservation before proceeding.
Benefits of Not Having Gutters
There are advantages of not having gutters for the small minority of houses where this is safe: less maintenance (no cleaning or repairs), appearance (architectural designs that look better without them), and lower first costs. In most cases, these are minor compared to the benefits gutters provide in protecting your home.
Expert Gutter Installation by New Vision Exterior Solutions
Don’t make the mistake of thinking gutters are not needed or don’t want to spend the money to have them installed. According to the Insurance Information Institute, water damage accounts for nearly 24% of all homeowners’ insurance claims, with an average claim of $11,650—far more than the cost of installing a gutter system.
The answer to the “Should I Install Rain Gutters for My House?” Most of the time, we’d say “yes.” To keep your foundation, siding, landscaping, and the overall structure of your home in good condition, gutter protection is a good idea.
Don’t wait until water damage costs you thousands; get ahead of the problem with expert gutter installation. At New Vision Exterior Solutions, we’ll design and install a system that protects your foundation, siding, and landscaping for years to come.
Call us today or request your free estimate online to get started with professional gutter installation.