Why your house might not have gutters.
Why do houses not have gutters new orleans.
I believe it s a combination of the fact the sandy soil means there usually are not drainage issues and that most homes are built on concrete slabs without basements.
This is especially true of older homes where the roof seam for a first floor expansion has begun to leak.
This causes your carefully sloped landscape to wear down allowing runoff to flow toward your home instead of away from it.
Mine was built in 1960 and doesn t have them.
Either you have to climb the ladder and do it yourself or you need to hire a professional gutter cleaning company to do it for you.
After the tragedy of new orleans and the failure of much of the architecture houses in that area are now being designed to be hurricane proof traditional architecture in new orleans reflected the heritage of the city and was well known for its combination of architecture houses from creole to grand mansions were all built during new orlean s history.
The higher the slope of a roof is the lower the chances that you ll face any type of water damage.
The rule of thumb is to clean your gutters at least twice a year but more if you have a lot of trees hanging over your house or you live in an area that experiences a lot of storms.
Steep slope roof if your home s roof has a very steep slope and a long overhang it might already be working to direct rainwater away from your house.
It s very common for homes in florida not to have gutters.
The purpose of gutters is to divert water away from the base of the house.
Your home has a very shallow roof.
Check out your roof slope homes that were constructed with no gutters may have been built that way for a reason.
Steep roofs allow rain and snow to slide right off very easily and if your overhang extends more than a foot past the side of your home you re unlikely to experience much damage from the displaced.
Now that we know why rain gutters exist let s figure out why your house doesn t have them.
Erosion also causes the foundation to settle.
You need them when you have a basement to avoid water seepage through the foundation walls of your basement especially if you have a finished basement.
The truth is your home may not need rain gutters if.
As the gutter experts most homeowners are shocked when we tell them every home doesn t necessarily need gutters.
As there are typically no basement in the new orleans area they don t serve a purpose.
The water hits a peak of your home and essentially just slides right off onto the ground where it belongs.
If rain flows off your roof because you have no gutters the water causes massive erosion washing away more and more soil each time it rains.
In a few cases the roofer may suggest extending the roof instead of adding a gutter.
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.