Question: Why do I need a gutter system?
Answer: First things first, gutters and downspouts have one sole purpose in life and that is to simply collect rainwater from the roof and move it away from the home and it’s foundation in order to protect it from water damage. This is accomplished utilizing a multitude of different extensions, drain lines, splash blocks and guards. Gutters are a great DIY project for homeowners but it’s advised to stick within your own comfort zone when looking to either install a new gutter system or simply just repair an existing one.

Question: Why is gutter cleaning so important?
Answer: You will hear tons of stuff about “the best thing that you can do for your home” and different peoples opinions, but we feel that one of the best things that you can do for your home is to maintain a properly functioning gutter system. If your gutters are not functioning properly it can lead to some pretty hefty damage around your homes exterior. You could get water (or ice dependant on what part of the country you live in) backing up against the fascia boards and underneath your roofing shingles. It can even lead to damaging the soffit vents and even go as far as deteriorating and discoloring siding on your homes exterior. But by far the worst damage you could probably receive from an improperly functioning gutter system would be damage to your foundation especially if your home has a basement or crawl space. Malfunctioning gutters can lead to the soil being eroded away from the homes exterior and causing problems with the underlying foundation.

Here’s one thing that you might not have thought of before but do you know which part of your home takes more abuse from weather conditions other than your roof? Your gutters. Especially if you live in an area prone to rain, ice or snow. Your gutter system can suffer from these types of conditions. Not only that, even perhaps if you do the annual gutter cleaning ritual yourself, you might not even realize that you could be subjecting your gutters to more damage from the ladders you prop up on them to clean them out. Even more so if you actually get on the roof to do the gutter cleaning and accidentally step on them. Not to mention the annual spring cleaning of the yard when you trim those trees and bushes, a good size limb alone can crush a side of the gutter system on your home faster than you could imagine.

Question: Is installing gutters hard?
Answer: Gutter installation is not very hard as long as you don’t mind working off the ground and on a ladder. One important thing to remember about installing rain gutters for the DIY people out there, your gutter system should be sloped. Now I’m not talking about looking like a 45 degree angle here, but they should run on a slope of at least 1 inch every 35 to 45 feet dependant on the length of the run of your home. Typically you could take the median of that and say just 40 feet but it really depends on how long of a run for that side of the guttering. You need them to slope a little so the water can run from the gutters to the downspouts and out the other end. If it’s perfectly level or pitched to where the slope doesn’t end at a downspout opening, you’ll end up with standing water which could cause the gutters to sag or even pull away from the facia and possibly fall off in time.

Question: What size of gutters should I use?
Answer: Bigger is better, well not always. When you are looking to install a new gutter system and are going to acquire all the pieces needed, you should keep in mind that on professionally installed gutter jobs, they are typically sized based on the amount of roof area that they drain. There has kind of become an “industry standard” so to speak for guttering in general. Typically what you will see is that 5-in wide K-style gutters are pretty much the industry standard for any residential dwelling. Look around your neighborhood, most of them have this. If you do live in an area where the houses are somewhat larger and would thus inevitably have a bigger roof, you would normally see 6-in wide K-style gutters.

Question: What are the different styles of gutters available for my home?
Answer: Now, there are a ton of different types of gutters to choose from (K-style, half-round, wooden, copper rain gutters) but for the most part what you will find is the K-style gutters. We’ll get more into the other types a little later. But if you are ready to roll now and don’t really like the K-style gutters there is another alternative. These would be the half-round gutters. Half-round gutters are exactly what the name implies, half-round. One thing that you need to keep in mind though when using this style is that to maintain the capacity and flow of the regular K-style you will need to go up a size. That is if your roof would call for using a 5-in K-style gutter but you want to use the half-round, you would need to use a 6-in half-round gutter to get the same effect.

Question: How wide of guttering do I need?
Answer: So far you’ve heard me talk a lot about 5-in and 6-in guttering and that’s for a reason. It is very rare to find, or even have a use for 4-in K-style gutters or any other style unless you have a very small roof. Just keep in mind though, these are just standards and your roof, dependent on it’s style and material could call for a wide style gutter to be used. You’d only want to do this though if it fits the mold to keep the water from jetting over the edges of the gutters and not going out the downspouts. For example, you might have an extremely high or steep roof. This would cause the water to run down the slope of the roof much faster than it would a regular pitched roof. Or you might have some kind of tiled roofing that doesn’t have the frictioned surface like shingles do and would let the water really slide off. A much wider gutter may be called for in these situations. If you do have very steep roofs you will need to be careful when thinking about using some kinds of gutter covers or gutter leaf guards as it might ill-effect the gutter system you plan on putting in place.

Related posts:

1. Protect Your Home From Above Through Gutter Installation
2. Copper Gutters Q&A
3. Rescue Your Home Gutters with Gutter Cleaners