Rain gutters are an essential investment for homeowners. The purpose of gutters is to move water away from the home to prevent water damage to the property. Gutters are crucial if your home sits at or near the bottom of a hill, where rainwater can gather around your home's foundation. If your home has a basement or crawlspace foundation, it can also be susceptible to water damage, and gutters can protect it. Gutters can also be essential if the soil around your foundation is especially rich in clay.
Gutters Protect Your Foundation and Basement
Gutters help keep rain from damaging a house's foundation. The damage happens gradually over time through erosion. Basement foundations can get hit even harder through the added threat of flooding, basement leaks, and even structural damage. Regardless of the type of foundation involved, repairing water-damaged foundations can cost upwards of $4,500.00 or more. Using gutters can prevent much of this damage that can occur over time. Gutters can also help avoid rainfall from forming trenches around your foundation, which can lead to further water damage. Crawlspace foundations are also susceptible to water damage from rain and can significantly benefit from gutters' protection.
Gutters Protect Your Siding
In addition to protecting foundations, gutters can prevent rainwater from damaging the siding of your home. As rain falls from the roof and drips down your siding, it can carry dirt, debris, and tiny particles of asphalt, which can collect on the outer walls of your home, whether brick, wood, or synthetic siding, which can be an ugly sight to behold. Not only can this unsightly debris stain your siding, but it can also stain your driveway and even sidewalks. Also, rainwater can gradually cause the wooden siding to rot over some time, which can be significantly expensive to repair. Installing gutters can help redirect the water, runoff, and dirt particles away from your house's siding and concrete driveways and sidewalks.
Gutters: Additional Protection for your Gardens
Gutters are essential if you have gardens or flower beds near your home. Excess runoff from rain can cause the soil in and around gardens to wash away and take the flowers, shrubs, and other plants with it. Even at a minimum, runoff can cause puddles to form in your flower beds, drown your plants, and even kill evergreen shrubs. Additionally, the excess moisture can attract pests, such as fire ants. Gutters help add extra protection from these various elements.
“A gutter system is a vital part of a home in rainy climates. It protects the house, keeps the foundation safe, and has many other benefits."
Proper Gutter Maintenance to Protect Your Roof
Carrie Boos of Realm Inspections explained that when gutters aren't properly maintained as well as shared the importance of a gutter system. “Roof drainage and runoff mitigation are critical to the longevity of your home. Something as simple as cleaning your gutters regularly will prevent thousands of dollars in repairs.”
Proper gutter maintenance is necessary to protect the roof from damage. Not only is it easy for your home's foundation to be damaged from excess water and runoff, but your roof can also be damaged by it. There are two parts of a roof that gutters help protect: the soffit and the fascia. The soffits are on the underside of the roofing, while the fascia covers the roof's edge. Clogged gutters can cause water to overflow, and damage the soffits and fascia over time, so keeping the gutters clean and free of debris is essential to prevent this from happening. Installing gutter guards can help prevent the gutters from becoming clogged over time.
The United States leads the world in ladder deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Each year falls from ladders cause more than 164,000 emergency room visits and 300 deaths in the United States. International Association of Certified Home Inspectors
Remember, gutters are a critical investment for homeowners, and all homeowners should take their importance seriously. From top to bottom, roof to foundation, properly installed and maintained gutters will add a significant protection barrier for many years. Regardless of the expense involved, installing gutters can prevent thousands of dollars in cumulative damage to your home and help protect your home's financial value for years to come. Avoid becoming a statistic and an emergency room visit by looking to the professionals at Herring for all your gutter and roofing needs. Reach out to the experts at Herring today for a free gutter replacement estimate.