Good gutters and downspouts can protect not just your roof and it’s soffits, but your exterior walls, interior walls, your home’s foundation, your landscaping and yes, even the land your home sits on.
Let’s learn more about each of these things:
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Properly functioning gutters and downspouts are essential to prevent the wood of your roof from being waterlogged. This not only prevents wood rot of the roof and it’s fascia but it also prevents infestation from termites, wood beetles, wasps and boring insects.
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Leaking Gutters or no no gutters lets wood soak trough the fascia into the soffits which then become water logged. Since most soffits are wood this can cause rot. Wood rot not only makes wood crumble away but also is an open invitation to insects and fungus. And if you don’t replace the soffits fast enough they rot away. Then they can’t do the job main job: Keeping animals out of your attic.
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Water tries to stick to the surface it is on. When you pour something from a glass slowly, it rolls down the outside of the glass and makes a big mess. This also happens with roofs. Water running down the outside wall of your home can be a really bad thing. Especially in older homes that don’t have a water barrier in the exterior walls.
But the most gutter failure water damage to walls comes from gutters either aren’t there or don’t drain properly and it just spathes on the ground. Some of it splashes up and soaks the exterior wall. If it doesn’t have awesome siding, That wall is going to last more than a year or two before it crumbles away. Especially with older building with no water barrier and/or home without siding at all. Repeated exposure to excessive moisture will even make stucco and concrete crumble.
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Just like with exterior walls except some of that moisture always seeps through. The older the house, the more seepage. Just think of all the mold that’ll make in the space between those walls.
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Almost all of the buildings in Florida have a concrete foundation. If the water rolling off the roof isn’t directed away from the wall, it”s saok into the foundation, excessive moisture will shorten the life of your concrete foundation. This is more of a concern in northern state where homes have basements. It’s still a concern here in Florida though.
Another factor effecting your concrete slab foundation is the erosion under the foundation the excessive water can cause. If there’s no earth under the slab, it won’t withstand the weight of your building and collapse.
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Not a big concern but extra where you hadn’t planned for it is a problem for your plants, shrubs etc.
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When your gutter fail, extra water flows into places around the edges of your house that weren’t planned for. This causes excessive erosion. Erosion can literally remove the earth from beneath your home. Just a little of this earth loss can cause crask all over your hoems walls. The longer it’s unchecked the more damage occurs to the home.
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