How Open Style Gutters Can Leave You Disappointed
In theory, rain gutters are simple components that protect your home from water damage. In reality, traditional gutters are dogged by their flawed, open-face design. Installing open-style gutters on your Massachusetts or Rhode Island home could quickly leave you disappointed.
Read on to discover why this gutter system could be a disastrous mistake.
A Place for Pesky Creatures to Congregate
Open-style gutter systems will likely become a harborage for various pests, including mosquitoes, squirrels, mice, earwigs, carpenter ants, and wasps.
The gutters quickly accumulate twigs, pine needles, and leaves, which are the building blocks that rodents and certain insects rely on for their nests. The trouble begins when they chew through wood and find their way indoors.
The damp, decaying environment created by clogged open-style gutters has a great chance of luring mosquitoes. These pose a threat to your comfort and peace of mind.
Your Home’s Aesthetic Appeal Will Suffer
Your home’s exterior is the first thing people see when they pull up to your property. And because gutters are a crucial component of your home’s exterior, they are often noticed at first glance.
Open-faced gutter systems are prone to clogging and overflowing water that they become discolored and stained over time, creating an eyesore.
Moreover, when open-style gutters are clogged and overflowing, that water will reach the wooden fascia board, causing it to rot and deteriorate. The gutters may also sag when the fascia is rotted.
Clogged open-style gutters can also result in damaged landscaping. When torrents of water fall off your roof and around the yard, they will flow in unpredictable ways, indiscriminately destroying your landscaping. All the hard work you put into your shrubs, flower beds, and grass will go to waste if your open-face gutters clog.
Fire Hazard
Fire is probably the least expected danger of open gutter systems. But you would be shocked at how often clogged gutters cause home fires during hot and dry weather.
Open-style gutter systems cannot stop leaves, twigs, and branches from collecting in them. This creates the ideal conditions for a fire, which can easily be started if you or a neighbor is shooting off fireworks, having a campfire, or using the fireplace. It only takes one spark to ignite a fire.
And if the water seeps into your home and reaches your electrical wiring, it could cause a short and an electrical fire at any time.
Damage to Your Home’s Foundation
The primary role of your gutter system is to direct water from your roof away from your foundation. Because open-style gutters are prone to clogging, water from the roof can get stuck or spill out closer to the foundation.
This might seem like no big deal, but water seeping into the ground around your home will exert pressure against the foundation. This will create dangerous cracks over time, causing structural damage and allowing water to enter the basement and cause extensive damage.
And if the problem goes uncorrected for a long time, the foundation may fail, leaving your home vulnerable to collapse or cave-in.
Increased Chance of Ice Dams
Open-style gutters can do more harm to your home in winter than at any other time of year. This can be attributed to the risk of ice dams forming when it’s truly cold outside.
When temperatures dip, snowmelt flowing over clogged open-style gutters freezes before it falls. The accumulating ice results in the formation of ice dams on the roof, preventing water and additional snowmelt from draining off.
But the thing is, that water has to go somewhere, and chances are that it will leak into the home, wreaking havoc on the ceilings, roof trusses and decking, walls, and anything else it comes into contact with.
Having to Climb a Ladder
You’ll need frequent cleanings to remove leaves, branches, twigs, and other debris with open-face rain gutters. Climbing a ladder demands full attention and focus. And when combined with the reaching and leaning actions that go into gutter cleaning, you could have a recipe for disaster.
One wrong move and the ladder could slide, shake, or wobble and cause you to fall. In fact, nearly half a million people are treated for injuries related to ladder accidents every year.
One Simple Solution: MasterShield Gutter Guards
Tired of the hassle of dealing with clogged gutters season after season, year after year? Why not install maintenance-free gutters like MasterShield?
Gutter guards from MasterShield are the gold standard for keeping your gutters free of debris while allowing water to flow seamlessly through your downspouts. With a multi-patented filtration technology, MasterShield guards allow nothing other than rainwater to enter the system.
The stainless steel screen includes 3 strips of copper that naturally breaks down oil and organisms, such as moss and algae, to keep the screen clean and free-flowing.
Moreover, MasterShield has an adjustable forward slope, allowing the guard to quickly shed the smallest and most challenging pine needles, leaves, and organic matter. The rigid aluminum construction can withstand 20 lbs. of materials on its surface and won’t warp, collapse, or deteriorate like other micromesh guards.
With MasterShield, you’re done cleaning gutters forever!
Couto Construction is the exclusive dealer of MasterShield in Cape Code, Southeastern Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. We’re proud of our work for homeowners and are confident you’ll be satisfied with our gutter installation services. We want to help you fix your gutter and drainage problems once-and-for-all. Contact us today for a free estimate.