So, while I was spraying roundup the other day, i noticed some significant erosion/sinkhole like stuff going on at the foundation at the front of the house. My GUESS is due to the massive amounts of rain over the last year. And insufficient rainwater management.
We have gutters. Im scared E36 M3less of heights, so i can't tell you what shape they are in. I have them cleaned every year, but they are still a waterfall in heavy rain. Have been since we bought the house a decade ago. Gutter guys never said they were bad or anything, so my guess is they are undersized.
Im going to be paying the man for this. I cannot get up there on the roof to do yhe work.
I see seamless gutters, leaf guard, etc. Lots of options, but don't know where to start the research or learning.
What do i need to know, and should I know?
Metal leaf guards over plastic.
You can find people with a seamless machine that will come and make them on site. Pricing is eh reasonable around here for the service.
Sizing, materials, anything like that I'm useless.
Manage the landscaping near your house. Gutters will not always handle what you have coming down, so you need to make sure the water can get away.
Jyst don't bring the soil level up anywhere near the wood on your house.
I used to sell roofs so I've seen a lot of gutters. It was very often that I would point out that there was a lot of granular loss (stone from shingles) in the gutter- and the homeowner would tell me that they just had them cleaned.
For anyone on here- I'd ask that the gutter cleaner shows you a video or similar of what they did. Often they will clean out leaves, but leave the stone and dirt that really cause you to lose quite a bit of the ability of the gutter to shed water.
You could have water coming over the gutters because they have a couple of inches or crap in them, you could just have a huge slope dumping water and they fill before they can drain, or they don't have enough downspouts. metal gutter guards work great until you have a ton of water. They work off of water tension but that can be overcome with enough water and they will waterfall as well.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Thats part of the plan, honestly. I figured to start at the top (gutters). After thats fixed, truckload of dirt and a wheelbarrow to regrade in front of the foundation for a few feet, then some shrubs or bishes to help break up the water and keep the soil in place with roots (thinking holley bushes)
Grover: dunno about the roof. Its assumed original to the house (built in 2000), which means its coming up on end of service life according to what im told. Don't know how true that is. However the gutter guy swears its in great shape when hes up there. But hes a gutter guy, not a roofer that I know of.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
If you think gutters are gutters think again. You are aware that gutters come in different sizes based on roof deck sizes, pitch, rain volume, etc.
With regard to leaf protection. None work perfectly. They all compromise the function of gutters.
One serious thing to deal with is flow. Not just the pitch of the gutters themselves but drains and disposal of water. I had to go from a normal 4 inch gutter to a 6 inch to deal with not only the volume but drainage. Still on very heavy rain days my gutters overflow and the drain pipes fill up almost to the gutters.
Gee the story of why my front yard looks like a gravel pit. It all started with cleaning the gutters and realizing the water wasn’t going anywhere so now I’m working on drainage. At ground level you can check your drains to ensure they take the water away. Roots and silt can block the drains and rock pits can fill with silt.
Do you have clean outs (access to the ) and sumps where the drains shed some solids?
I hadn't thought about the drains. Ill see if they are clear as well. I was assuming so, as i was assuming the gutter guys would take care of them.aswell....
I've had Leafguard brand gutters on my house for around ten years now, and they've worked great for me - they don't collect any leaves or other debris, and only in very extreme events (maybe two or three times in that period) has there been heavy enough rain that water ran over them. I do check them periodically, whenever I have occasion to get up on a ladder, and they stay very clean inside. I have plenty of deciduous trees so I get a ton of leaves, but don't have any evergreens so I can't say how well they handle needles. They are more expensive than standard open gutters, but the added cost vs. the need to clean them has been well worth it to me. As pointed out, the size of the gutter is important so they can handle the amount of water coming off the roof. https://www.leafguard.com
I actually have them on my list of folks to call for a free estimate. But my concern is i don't know enough to not be sold a line of bullE36 M3.....
Im glad to hear they work! Were all deciduous trees here as well, but theres a few with damn tiny leaves. Think theyre called pin oaks, but don't quote me as i never cared enough to verify....
grover said:
Metal gutter guards work great until you have a ton of water. They work off of water tension but that can be overcome with enough water and they will waterfall as well.
To add a little physics fanciness to your point, it's known as the Coanda effect:
I live in Southern California so I know little of this "rain" you speak of but when I see commercials for those gutter guard type products, I challenge myself to come up with as many factors that would defeat the effect before the commercial ends....tree sap, bird poo, rust (anything that would interrupt the lamiar flow)...dents, deformation (caused by previous ice or branch hits)...high winds, intense downfall (anything that overwhelms the surface tension that the effect relies on).
Again, I don't have practical knowledge so maybe the systems are more robust than I give them credit for but from a pure physics prospective, I have a lot ideas when thinking about "what could go wrong".
In reply to RX Reven' :
I would tent to agree with what you say regarding the effect of tree sap, etc. effecting the flow of water on a Leaf Guard gutter system is that some the water would flow past the opening in the gutter and fall on the ground below. This is what happens when a gutter gets clogged with leaves but then the whole section of gutter overflows. In the case of the Leaf Guard gutters this would only happen where some foreign substance effects the normal flow of rain over the gutter. The amount of water missing the gutter would not come anywhere near what a totally clogged gutter results in.
