Does your house really need gutters?

Article written by M.Ward and A.Pheiffer

Home gutters are long, narrow tubes used to reroute rain that falls on the roof of a home or building through a downpipe and out to the drainage system and away from the home. This keeps the near proximity ground around the house from becoming waterlogged and potentially being absorbed into the foundation where it will cause severe damage to the structure as well as surrounding structures.

Without gutters, rain runs down the roofline creating a waterfall effect. If the roof has a wide overhang, this may not be too much of a problem for the foundation, however entering and leaving the home without getting wet can be more difficult especially during heavy rains.

While gutter maintenance can be a nuisance, fixing damaged gutters is not difficult or expensive. Holes can be patched and plugged with roofing cement. Sagging or loose gutters can usually be hammered back into place. If gutters are badly damaged, a single section can be replaced. Home gutters are most commonly made from vinyl, steel, aluminum or copper.

Gutters start at around R5000 and are a worthwhile investment to your home and should be considered should you want to extend the life of your house.

The Components of a Gutter System

The Roof – It takes a well designed roof to drain all of the storm water into the gutters or roof drains.

The Gutter – The gutter (or roof drain in some flat roof) needs to be designed to capture all the roof drainage and direct the water into the downspouts.

The Downspouts – These are the pipes that carry the water from the gutters to the drain system.

The Drain System – This is the in-ground set of pipes the leads the water away from the structure and into a storm drain or on site system.

A world on climate change

Our weather is changing. The Highveld no longer experiences summer flash storms and dry arid days of old. Summers days and nights are now much higher humidity and can even be classified as subtropical.Humidity opens the pours of plastered wall allowing water to enter and flow through it, causing rapid plaster rot. Prolonged soaking rains also ensures that much more water seeps into the plaster pours, leeching away cement. Acid pollution also destroys the cement which is a strong alkali.

Once the cement is gone, your plaster turns to sand and is then hydrophilic (attracts water like sugar of salt).

Here’s an example

In around 2008, our summer became more humid and sub-tropical. From 15 December 2011 to 11 March 2012, there were only three days of cloudless days. Twenty years ago there would have been perhaps 60 days or more of no cloud cover.

Building standards

Building standards and the way we maintain houses has correspondingly changed. 30 years ago, even the cheapest houses installed gutters. Many of these old houses will still be standing in 100 years as a result of this and other good building practices. Today we build Mansions with less concern for good building practices and expose huge areas of wall to rain and without gutters and expect them to last. If not attended to, repair costs will soar and if unattended, will seriously effect structural integrity and value of our property.

Consider the following

• You all need to be pro-active
• SA Damp has upgraded standards and made many advancements to the way we apply
• products
• Our Damp Proofing plasters are the best in the industry and are the only fully waterproof plasters available in South Africa, surpassing SABS standards
• We install neat quality membranes to prevent the parapet tops from cracking and degrading
• We use high quality latex primer on all walls as extensive protection for extended life
• Preparation is key to all painting. Our preparation is the best in the industry and painting is merely the final aesthetic touch
• Our waterproofing is of the highest standard and we can provide most solutions at the
• highest quality.
• Point sprinklers away from walls so they remain dry
• Consider installing a perimeter drain around your house
• Finally consider installing gutters to prevent the water from pooling at the base of your house

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