Minnesota Leafless Gutters | Seamless Gutters MN
Gutters have one job. To protect your home from its worst enemy-WATER!
If your rain gutters and downspouts are working properly they will prevent roof and fascia board damage as well as prevent water damage and basement flooding by re-routing water a safe distance away from your foundation. But left to their own, rain gutters can clog, grow weeds and fungus, and overflow causing all sorts of problems.
With water weighing over 8 pounds a gallon, it poses a significant threat to a house and its inhabitants. The weight of rainwater standing on a roof has caused roofs to collapse.
The first question to ask for any gutter system is what it actually has to do.
The gutter system must be capable of draining the roof fast enough so that the structural limits of the roof are not exceeded.
This procedure for sizing your gutter system is based on roof size, your area’s likely rainfall intensity, gutter volume and downspout size and frequency.
1. Calculate your roof’s watershed area — A roof’s watershed area isn’t obvious. Maximum rainfall is likely wind driven, so steep roofs may collect more water than flat roofs. To figure a roof’s watershed area, multiply its surface area by the appropriate factor on the table.
2. Find the maximum likely rainfall intensity — Residential gutters are often planned to handle the most intense five-minute burst of rain, measured in inches per hour, that’s likely to occur in a ten-year period. Find yours on the map.
3. Determine the gutter needed to drain your watershed — Divide your favored gutter’s 1-in.-per-hour watershed (see the chart below) by the five-minute rainfall intensity (from the map above). This determines the maximum watershed level gutters can serve between downspouts. Pitch your gutters by 1/8 in. per ft., and you can multiply the watershed by 1.4.
Going from one downspout to two doubles the watershed that a section of gutter can drain.
Sample house — An 8-in-12 pitch shed roof in Washington D. C. is 40 ft. wide, and its rafter length is 20 ft. The roof’s area is 800 sq. ft. The pitch factor for an 8-in-12 pitch roof is 1.1; when multiplied by 800 sq. ft., that gives a watershed of 880 sq. ft. The theoretical 5,520-sq. ft. watershed drained by a 5-in. K-style gutter, divided by Washington’s 6.6-in.-per-hr. rainfall intensity, shows a maximum watershed of 836 sq. ft. Close, but to be safe, the builder should either pitch the gutter, use a larger gutter or add another downspout.
A house in Minnesota is going to have very different needs from a house somewhere else. Find out the average rainfall in your area, and also calculate the square footage of your roof. That will tell you how much water you get, and how much surface area you’ll have to drain. The more water you get, the larger the gutter and downspouts you’ll need. Gutters come in 5, 6 and 7 inch wide varieties, and each inch adds price, so do your math carefully!
This link will give you the yearly rain fall in your area. //countrystudies.us/united-states/weather/ (Courtesy of countrystudies.us) For Minneapolis Minnesota
Seamless gutter systems are specifically designed to withstand years of exposure to weathering, the abrasive characteristics of harsh Minnesota winters and the damaging effects of the hot summer sun.
An expert Minnesota gutter installer will install your gutter system correctly to specifications insuring the reliability for years to come. They will show you gutter size and style most suited for your home, and the various types of materials and colors that are available as well.
Call us today to discuss your options in gutters and gutter covers to keep water where it belongs—outside your house!
