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How Gutters Protect Your Home From Water Damage

  Have you ever thought about the risk of water damage to your home? There’s a risk of water damage to your home daily since the weather is often unpredictable. There are many pop-up thunderstorms or rain showers on any given day throughout the year, more common in spring, summer and fall not to mention the chance for heavy snow and ice storms in the winter months, which are fast approaching. All precipitation lands on your home with your roof catching most of it. Think about where the water would go without a gutter system – it would need to go somewhere, and the gravitational pull would pull it all down the ground. Think about all the things the water would touch along the way or get trapped inside or on.  Continue reading as we discuss how gutters protect your home from water damage to truly understand how crucial it is to have them installed or working properly on a home.  

Gutters Keep The Roof Drier

Roofs keep the inside of our homes dry and protected by blocking the elements and pests from entering our homes. Think about all the precipitation we get in a calendar year and how our roofs keep all that water from entering our homes, flushing it toward a gutter system. Lynchburg gets a little over 43 inches of precipitation per year, higher than the national average of 30 inches. With all that precipitation, it’s crucial to have a gutter system to collect and flush all of that stormwater and meltwater away from the home. A gutter system that’s working well will collect all of the precipitation that falls from the roof, carry it to the downspouts and disperse it away from the home’s foundation. When all of these components work well together, a home’s roof remains drier, allowing it to continuously flush excess water off the roof so it can dry. However, when a gutter system isn’t working well, water will remain, causing damage to one of your home’s largest investments. Water that’s left to sit and collect on the home’s roof due to an inadequate gutter system or lack of a gutter system will inevitably cause damage. Water will seep under the shingles, causing them to warp, and water can enter the attic and cause HVAC issues, or it can seep under the shingles and through the roofing layers to your home’s ceilings, causing leaks that are pricey to fix.  

Gutters Keep The Foundation Drier

The foundation of a home quite literally holds it all together; it’s part of the home’s structure which was built to keep the home standing. When the foundation is damaged, the home can develop structural damage, which is a major repair and costly to fix. So how does a gutter system keep the foundation drier? When water can flow through the gutters, water won’t spill over the sides and land underneath the gutters right next to the foundation. Unfortunately, gutters that aren’t cleaned often or have suffered damage can’t drain stormwater and meltwater, forcing water to overflow and land near the home’s foundation. When water spills over the sides of the gutters and lands near the home’s foundation, it’ll create a trench. This trench will get worse every time it rains or snow melts, getting wider and deeper. All of this excess water will seep into the foundation, causing foundation damage and weakening it over time, and forming cracks in the foundation.  

Gutters Help Prevent Soil Erosion

As previously mentioned, without gutters or with a damaged gutter system, water can’t flow freely through the system or has nowhere to go, so it falls from the roof and directly into a home’s lawn. Heavy rainstorms and snowmelt after a big snowstorm can produce significant amounts of precipitation, all falling to the ground surrounding your home. Eventually, soil erosion will occur, ruining your lawn and causing damage to the home’s foundation. When a home has properly working gutters that don’t have a blockage or force water over the sides due to damage, excess water won’t spill over the gutters, keeping it moving throughout the gutter system as it should. Gutters can handle large amounts of rainwater, some more than others. A home with a properly functioning gutter system will have a drier lawn and soil. Therefore, gutter systems can help prevent soil erosion if they’re working well.  

Gutters Protect The Home’s Landscaping

You worked hard to get your landscaping to look the way it does. Whether you hired professional landscapers or enlisted the help of friends and family, your home’s landscaping was an investment that you hope to keep looking fresh and healthy throughout the years. Gutters can help protect your home’s landscaping by keeping excess water from overwatering your plants, bushes, and flowers. Unfortunately, a gutter system that isn’t working well will force water over the sides of the gutter and onto the ground around it, which is most often full of beautiful plants and shrubs planted by the homeowner. Some plants require large amounts of watering, while others require very little. Water displaced by a faulty gutter system will overwater your plants and shrubs, causing root rot and other damage that will ruin your landscaping.   Gutter systems play a big role in protecting homes from water damage. They keep the roof and foundation drier, prevent soil erosion, and protect a home’s landscaping. Gutters play a major role in keeping homes drier, which is why they should be in the best shape possible year-round to protect against heavy rains, snow, and strong wind gusts.   If your gutter system isn’t working well, is damaged, or just needs replacing, K-Guard/One Stop Home Improvement Shop can help. We proudly install the K-Guard Leaf Free Gutter System, a complete gutter system that stands against the elements, never clogs, and adds to the beauty of your home. Our gutters keep water flowing through the system at a rapid pace, never impeding water flow due to clogs or leaks.   We also install seamless gutters and gutter guards that ensure a leak-free performance and durability unmatched by other gutter installation companies in Lynchburg. Our Xtreme Mesh Gutter Guard System is an extra layer of protection that is installed over our seamless half-round gutters to keep all debris out. Whichever gutter system you install, K-Guard/One Stop Home Improvement Shop offers premier gutter systems that others can’t.   K-Guard/One Stop Home Improvement Shop can help with all your home improvement needs, whether you need help with an insurance claim or a quote for installing a new roof or gutter system. We’re here to help every step of the way throughout the entire process. Contact us today for a free consultation!

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