A complete water management system will get the water off of your roof, into the gutters and down spouts, and away from your home. The gutter system is only half of the equation because when it clogs it fails. Gutter protection completes the system by keeping the gutters free flowing.

If you could find a way to effectively get the water off of your roof, into your gutters, and away from your home, it would last longer. Rain water flow directed toward the wrong part of your home can do a great deal of damage. After all, note how a small river carved the Grand Canyon.

A large part of the country receives a great deal of rain. It is estimated that 120,000 gallons of water flows across our roofs each year. Knowing that water flowing over areas of the house could do major damage, can you imagine if just 10% of the rainfall or 12,000 gallons didn’t make it into the gutters. Would you want that 12,000 gallons of rain water flowing over vulnerable areas of your home?

Gutters are considered by many to be the water management system for your home. This is true, if the home is in an area with no chance of debris getting into the gutters. Unfortunately, most gutters are going to fail, because along with the areas that get large volume of rain, there are a lot of trees. It’s no accident that if you were to align a map of the US and Canada showing rainfall and trees, they would match up very closely. And with trees comes debris that gets into your gutters and clogs them.

The clogs create a problem by directing the flow of water behind or in front of the fascia board, into the soffit, behind the siding, dropping down to the foundation, or on to the landscaping and walkways before exiting the home. Water has a chance to cause damage along the entire path.

Gutters don’t have to be fully clogged to be an issue. A one foot section of a standard 5”gutter holds 1.75 gallons of water. If there is any debris in the gutter, then the efficiency of the gutter is compromised. During a substantial down pour, water may be overflowing in the wrong places. An example to illustrate this point is as follows:

You have a bowl of water that is filled up even to the brim. If you drop an ice cube into the bowl, what happens? It spills all over, and makes a mess.

This is the same situation that happens with partially clogged gutters. The worst part is that you may not notice the problem because it’s not easily apparent.

Gutter Protection successfully completes the water management system by keeping the gutters free-flowing in areas with trees. There are numerous systems available varying widely in price and effectiveness. Most of them deal with issues with leaves and other organic debris.

In the northern climates, ice protection is needed as well to keep the gutters free flowing. This should be no surprise since frozen water doesn’t flow. But ice does a great deal of damage. Water as it freezes, expands and pries apart components of the home. The resulting melted water flows to the critical areas of the home.

This Post Is From GutterRoof.com’s Gutter Protection Article Section