Three Reasons Why You Should NOT Go Without A Gutter System On Your Home
Posted on: 19 May 2016
Gutter systems on your home and outlying buildings (e.g., garage, gazebo, storage shed, etc.) play a very important part in preserving your property. If a storm or other disaster removes part or all of a gutter system, you need to get that repaired or replaced right away. Just to let you know how serious this is, here are three reasons why you should not go without a gutter system on your home.
1. Gutter Systems Prevent Water Damage to Your Basement/Foundation
If you have ever looked at a gutter system, it is comprised not only of the eavestroughs across the edges of your roof, but also of downspouts. The water from the eavestroughs moves into the downspouts, and the downspouts move all of that rainwater, melted snow and melted ice away from the foundation. Without the gutter system in place, all of that water goes straight down to your foundation and can seep into your basement through cracks in the walls that you may not see. No gutters equals a wet basement and water damage to your foundation, which is far more expensive to clean up and fix than attaching gutters to your roof.
2. Gutter Systems Prevent Water Damage to Your Home's Roof
Not all of that water, melted snow and ice goes straight down to the ground either. Some of it hangs around the uncovered eaves of the roof, the areas that would otherwise be protected by the connecting caps of the eavestroughs/gutters. What happens next is that the water begins to rot the edges of the roof, and the wood underneath the eaves gets wetter and wetter, until there are several weakened areas along the edges of your roof. Now water and melted snow and ice can begin to flow back inward towards your attic, roof boards and roofing structures. Now you have to replace large sections of your roof as well as cap their ends with a gutter system to fix the damage and prevent it from happening again.
3. Gutter Systems Collect the Organic Debris That Could Collect around Your Foundation, Rot and Attract Pests
Sure, climbing up a ladder once or twice a year to clean out the gutters seems like such a horrible chore. However, you probably did not know that without a gutter system, that organic debris would collect along your foundation, begin to rot, and attract the attention of many crawling bug pests. When those pests would come to check out that decaying ground cover, it would give them direct access to your home, and then you would have lots of problems with bug pests like roaches, earwigs, centipedes, millipedes and silverfish. The gutter system prevents an onslaught of these pests because the debris is caught up high, where most of these pests are not likely to go unless they are desperate.
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