Why Gutters are Important
Gutters Are Very Important and People Want To Know Why. To Put It Most Simply They Are Necessary To Protect Your Home From Its Worst Enemy – Water.
If your gutters are old, damaged, sagging, missing parts or improperly installed, it is likely exterior damage to your home is sure to follow. A gutter that is missing, or that drains too close to the house will saturate the ground. This wet saturated ground can produce a variety of problems.
It is a breeding ground for mold and mildew. It will eat away at foundations and basement walls. Leaks and cracks will develop and will worsen quickly in the winter months when the ground freezes and expands.
Driveways and walkways will sink and rise, interior and exterior walls and floors can warp, bow or become wet, molded or stained. Entire homes have been destroyed due to water damage, which could have been easily and affordable prevented with a quality gutter system.
Unless there are long overhangs on your roof and your property is steeply graded, they’re essential for routing roof runoff away from your home. Installed properly, gutters keep basements and crawl spaces dry, preserve topsoil, protect siding from backsplash stain and rot and shield windows and doors from water infiltration and damage.
It is extremely important that roof gutters and down pipes clear away rainwater quickly and efficiently from the roof of a house. Poor rainwater drainage, if ignored, leads to the probability of very expensive remedial bills – which cannot be ignored!
If water overflows over the back of the gutter, damage to exterior and interior (via the cavity) walls can occur and damp can result. The gutter should be check for debris and blockages and the fascia brackets also checked as they may have been damages, causing the gutter to sag.
If water overflows over the front of the gutter, this can be very annoying, both to walk under and because of the noise it can create. This is generally due to broken brackets or the gutter not being installed correctly to catch the rainfall from the roof tiles.
If joints are leaking, the rubber seals inside the joint will probably need re-sealing, or sometimes the joint itself should be renewed. You will find this job a lot easier if attempted in hot weather, as the plastic is much more pliable.
