Should You Replace Your Gutters?
People ask if they should change their gutters when they replace their roofs. This is a question that can only be answered by asking several questions. This will allow you to understand some of the current guides to water management.
Determining Factors
Several years ago, it was pretty standard to see gutters on houses of all sizes and roof configurations. The most common configuration was the standard three-inch gutter running around the house. This is no longer the case. Proper water management dictates that we need to consider factors to find the right gutter system. These factors include the overall size of the roof and the amount of water to be handled.
We also need to consider some climate changes that have occurred over the years. As some of our rain storms seem to grow more intense, a larger gutter will be needed to handle this additional water. Some homes with gutters that are four inches wide. Meanwhile, other homes have gutters that are five or six inches wide.
So, who can help you decide which width of gutter should be in your home? Eastbrook Construction can help with those decisions. As professional roofers, we also understand your rainwater guttering needs. If water from your roof is not diverted away from the home properly, it can damage the foundation. The first step in diverting this water away from your foundation system is by installing gutters along the lower part of your roofline where water has the opportunity to fall directly onto the ground below. We need to capture this water rather than let it make its way straight down.
Drain It Away
Of course that doesn’t mean we want to keep all of that water at the edge of your roof. We must also drain it from the gutter system. In the past, this meant that your gutter system would have a three-inch downspout attached to the gutter. Why three-inch standard instead of larger downspouts? For appearance purposes. Many people felt that a downspout detracted from the appearance of the home and the less showing, the better off everyone would be. This also meant that there often would not be enough downspouts attached to the gutters to allow for proper drainage of the gutter. This of course created problems of water overflowing the system and water seepage into the foundation.
All of this became even more problematic on larger roofs or on roofs where there was a wider gutter installation.
Understanding Your Gutter Needs
Thankfully, we have come to a much better understanding of what a gutter system is for and what it takes to correctly do the job that a gutter is intended to do. We know that a larger roof means more water flowing into the gutter. With this additional water flow, we need greater capacity to handle it and that happens with a wider gutter than three inches. When we replace your roof we will use formulated calculations that take into consideration the roof area to be drained off and we will suggest gutters that are capable of handling the amount of water expected to fill the gutter. We will also take into consideration the number of downspouts needed to drain the gutter system correctly. We will also install these downspouts where they will do their best to prevent problems from water not being drained correctly.
In addition to having the correct size of gutter around your home and the right downspouts, we also need to consider the grade of your landscape. Water must be drained far away enough from the home to prevent backup as well it must hit land grade (incline) that diverts water away from the home. Once again as professionals, we will look at everything and make sure that the gutter system that is on your house when your roof is being replaced by us is correct. If we notice problems we will make suggestions to either enhance what you already have or that you replace your gutter with something better suited to handling the task of moving water away from your home foundation system.