Gutters or Gutterless? (roof, foundation, drains, installing)

[testmo]

I'm looking for people's experiences of having gutters on their home and people who don't have them (or have removed them) here in Houston.

PROS:
I understand gutters are meant to divert water flow from the roof through the downspouts as a managed way to keep the moisture from the foundation/walls. For that it is important as (typically) Houston gets a lot of rain and heavy rain at that. We also have bad soil prone to swelling/shrinking due to moisture level.

CONS:
I understand gutters that aren't installed properly, sagging, missing proper stops, or are clogged aren't doing their job. I understand they aren't the best looking and who really wants to add gutter maintenance on top of doing everything else you need for your home.

QUESTIONS:
I guess most of my questions are for people who took off their gutters and how that is working for them. Then I'd like some people to convince me not to do that =)

1. Without gutters what kind of drainage do you have set up around your home?
2. Is your plan for #1 working out well for you?
3. Where water tunnels off the roof (I have a simple roof with pretty large overhangs - at least 2 ft), is the pounding water damaging/making ineffective your drainage plans? i.e. killing the plants in the area, eroding away the soil, washing away the stones, or creating water channels running up against the home?
4. If so and you fixed it - how?
5. Are gutters just an absolute necessity here?

I am not interested in putting in an extensive array of expensive french drains right now so that is not an option. My home is older (1960s) without the best grading in some spots. I do not wish to tear out all of my landscaping to get everything perfectly graded though

Not many people in my neighborhood have gutters despite this area being prone to foundation issues due to the soil. Some people have suggested I take mine off. When I purchased I had an inspection for the foundation and of course they recommended me improving upon my gutter system (missing a few end caps and had some sagging in the back).

I'm thinking of just tearing them off but leaving the ones around my back patio. I do tend to get tunneling on the non-driveway side of my home where there currently are no gutters. The ground there is not graded well. For this area (and on the side of my garage) I was thinking of installing Rain Handlers to get rid of the tunneling and create more of a rain garden type landscape in the back.

Also, anyone here with Rain Handlers? How do you like them?

[TimBomb]

There no cons with rain gutters.

[escanlan]

Have to agree strongly with TimBomb that there are no cons with gutters! You have listed all of the bad points of not having gutters and that you are on expansive soils. Gutters are a must here with these soil conditions. If you are the only one in your neighborhood that has and maintains their guttering system then you are the one least likely to have the foundation problems due to rain runoff. Let your neighbors do as they wish and you continue to protect your home's condition.

[lhafer]

Installed gutters after we built our 1st house - never regretted it.

We didn't install gutters on our current house we built either, and we've lived here 2 years come December. I can't WAIT to get gutters!! There's already a trench in my grass around the back and sides of the yard from rain off the roof.

Had friends who have a 2 story house - never put up gutters. It's been about 7 years, and they now have some foundation issues, SERIOUS cracks in their walls/tile throughout their house. They called their builder (Lennar) and had them investigate. They said it's because they didn't have gutters. It was a long process, but the builder ended up installing gutters on their house for free.

Get gutters. You won't regret it.

[MNCold]

I don't understand. Why would you want to remove the gutters? It is important to have it and important to have it installed properly unless you want to invite trouble down in the road.

If you're worry about maintenance, invest in a seamless gutters system .

[Va-Cat]

I get it. With older homes its expensive to replace old and deteriorating gutters. Its very tempting to just tear them off and be done with it. DON'T DO IT! The only drainage your house knows is using the gutter system. You are setting yourself up for a potentially very expensive regrade of your whole property. That could run twice what a new gutter system costs. Rot, termites, algae on the north side of your home, all of this is not just possible but probable if you just tear down the gutters and don't do other assessments of the drainage.

Finally - home value. Even in bad shape, your gutters are worth on average about $10,000 onto your home's value in a resale market. Do you really want to strip that away?

Obviously......I'm advising - don't take them down. You may not need to replace them all either. Fixing gutters as a DIY project is not that difficult. Thats the route I advise. Goggle "DIY gutter repair" to see if its something you could take on yourself. Good luck!

[travelguy_73]

We tore ours off our 1930's house when we bought it in 2007. They were probably very nice when they were installed (looked custom), but without maintenance they will fail like most other components on a house. We went about a year without them while the exterior was rehabbed. What I noticed was that the steep pitch of our roof caused serious velocity and really messed up plants and grass. Since we are pier and beam, we didn't notice any foundation issued, but that doesn't mean that over the long-term we wouldn't have seen them.

My siggestion is to get gutters, or repair what you have now.

[jack paul]

Really depends on where you live. Here in Bend, OR, high desert with little rain but it can snow a lot, therefore causing lots of ice dams. Due to lava flows nearly everywhere, basements are rare, and so are gutters. Lots of ponderosa pine needles constantly clogging them throughout summer and fall, and lots of ice dams due to poor exhaust of attic air. So, don't really see any benefit to gutters in this location. The homes around our neighborhood that have gutters ALL have huge ice dams, and on the portion of our home that has gutters, huge ice dams there -- but NOT where we don't have gutters. Will be removing them next spring!

[DSL_PWR]

Crazy thought but if you have/live in an HOA they usually require that homes have them. Check the bylaws.

Get gutters, otherwise you will issues.

[Marlin84]

Originally Posted by jack paul

Really depends on where you live. Here in Bend, OR, high desert with little rain but it can snow a lot, therefore causing lots of ice dams. Due to lava flows nearly everywhere, basements are rare, and so are gutters. Lots of ponderosa pine needles constantly clogging them throughout summer and fall, and lots of ice dams due to poor exhaust of attic air. So, don't really see any benefit to gutters in this location. The homes around our neighborhood that have gutters ALL have huge ice dams, and on the portion of our home that has gutters, huge ice dams there -- but NOT where we don't have gutters. Will be removing them next spring!

Isn't this the Houston, TX sub-forum?

In any event, I moved to Houston from FL and was surprised at the number of homes that were built with either no gutter system or a limited gutter system. There is a portion of my roof that was built on without gutters and I hate it- I don't understand it. The rain pours off and absolutely destroys anything beneath it. Do gutters require maintenance and upkeep? Absolutely. Is the payoff worth it? Without a doubt.