Roof Drainage Without Gutters

How to divert water without gutters or downspouts everyone knows the importance of diverting water away from a house but sometimes a traditional gutter and downspout simply won t work.

Roof drainage without gutters.

Roger cook evaluates a couple alternatives for moving rainwater effectively. The right grading around your home is a great way to ensure that water drains away from your house instead of staying near the foundation where it can cause a lot of damage. You just want to stick a lot of them in the ground to divert the hard flow of rainwater since the ground can t absorb that much. Any amount of water greater than zero starts to put the system at risk.

A concrete apron poured at least 6 inches around the foundation will also drain away the rainwater if it is constructed in a sloping manner. This is typically at a sloped corner or. This is especially true of older homes where the roof seam for a first floor expansion has begun to leak. How much risk are you willing to live with.

What are my options. Drill a hole in the bottom of the bucket. Drainage systems work best when they have no water to remove. Legitimate reasons to omit gutters have been given above and a good roofer will point these out when telling you not to replace or add gutters.

Dig several small trenches under and away from your house heading downward. When done correctly grading can improve the appearance of a home without detracting from its beauty with items such as rain chains. Mix the bricks with the other materials sunset that will diffuse the water even more. A path made with large pebbles or stones can also be laid all around the house which however makes it necessary to channel the water to an underground drain.

While not a permanent solution the way that gutters and other options are this. Purchase a gutter cleaning kit that can connect to your leaf blower. If you have no gutters and you dump your roof water into the ground around your foundation you may overwhelm your drainage system and then it will no longer be effective. Then just dump into a bucket to dispose of when you are all done.

Homes that were constructed with no gutters may have been built that way for a reason. Check out your roof slope. The one challenge with flat roofing is ensuring proper drainage. Select a corner of your roof that sheds rainwater in a vertical stream.

Use a garden trowel or gutter scoop to clean it out by hand. Poor drainage can lead to serious issues with flat roofing from leaks to structural damage. For best results start at the drain outlet near the low end of the gutter. It is best to do it when the leaves are only slightly damp not real soggy.

In a few cases the roofer may suggest extending the roof instead of adding a gutter. Unlike other roofing types that are slanted or sloped to allow water to drain automatically flat roofs need a built in drainage system to help remove moisture and debris.