January 07, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

An ounce of prevention. . .

by Mari Sapina-Kerkhove

You own a home, so you expect to remodel, redecorate and keep up your yard. But cleaning your rain gutters?

If this seemingly miniscule task has been at the bottom of your to-do list, it may be time for a re-evaluation.

"A lot of times rain gutters can cause entire buildings to fail," said Gene Simpson, vice president of operations at SimpCo, a Palo Alto company specializing in water-related construction damage and repair. In his 40-year career, Simpson has all too often seen the results of poorly kept or improperly installed gutters.

If gutters aren't cleaned regularly, he said, slush from decayed leaves and debris will inhibit the water flow and cause the water to pool.

"After two years of pooling, the pool becomes a mud bath," he added.

The weight of the mud and water may cause gutters to leak or break, but it is just as common for the standing water to cause the roof edge to rot.

Bob Henderson of Palo Alto Hardware said sometimes the moisture in the roof area can go as far as corroding the interior walls of a building, a phenomenon that is caused by fungi and referred to as "dry rot."

In addition to destroying a building from the inside, water from clogged gutters also tends to spill over to the ground, Henderson said.

Since the main idea of a gutter system is to keep the water flowing away from the foundation of the house, such spill over often has serious consequences.

"If it just stays around the foundation it can over time cause damage to the foundation," he said.

To avoid dealing with the cost and hassle of such serious damage, Simpson said it's best for homeowners to make sure their gutter system is intact as the rainy season approaches.

How often one should clean rain gutters depends on the area you live in, as well as the number and types of trees (when they drop leaves) around your house, Simpson said, but it's a good rule of thumb to do one cleaning before the rainy season begins.

Leaf screens installed on gutters can minimize the amount of debris falling in, but Mark Anderson, manager at Menlo Park's American Rain Gutter, said it still won't spare homeowners from an occasional cleaning job, since debris falls through the small holes.

"(Especially) if you have a one-story house, you just need to get up and clean them out," Anderson said.

While the step on the ladder seems inevitable, there are several tools out there to make the job easier, such as the "gutter blaster wand," (sold at Palo Alto Hardware for roughly $10), which is attached to a regular garden hose.

For roughly the same price, customers can also get small scoops, which can be helpful in removing mud from gutters.

Keeping downspouts from clogging is also important, Henderson said, especially since they're harder to clean than gutters. He suggested small metal screens that are attached to where the downspout connects with the gutter to prevent clogging.

To ensure all downspouts work properly, Simpson said it's a good idea for home owners to take a walk around the house while it rains, and make sure the water is flowing properly.

Clogged downspouts can be cleaned with a garden hose or a plumber's snake, he said. "If it's a really bad clog you might have to take it down," he added.

While clogged downspouts are a problem, it's equally troublesome when they are installed in the wrong location, a phenomenon Simpson often observes in apartment complexes.

"Put it where the water will run down to the street," he said.

If water coming from downspouts can't flow away from the house, it begins to pool and damage the foundation, he said.

This is especially the case when downspouts are installed close to weaker structures, such as doors and windows, Simpson said. Consequently the first tell-tale signs of damage to the foundation are often 45-degree cracks going out from door and window corners.

Downspouts are also a good way of adding a little spunk to your gutter system -- there are ornamental models that look like a chain and look especially nice with flowers growing around them, Anderson said. Coming in handy in areas where regular downspouts are hard to install, he said, they also have a practical side.

As for materials used for rain gutters, homeowners seem to be moving away from galvanized steel gutters -- about 85 percent of the customers at American Rain Gutter go for aluminum, Anderson said.

Aluminum gutters have been around for about 30 years, he said, but early models were not as easy to install and had the reputation of being flimsy.

While aluminum rain gutters may be not as sturdy as steel, their quality and ease of installation improved considerably over the years, Anderson said.

And they seem to have many upsides compared to gutters made from other materials.

Aluminum rain gutters are among the most cost-effective (on the Peninsula they are between $5 and 7 a foot) and easy to maintain. Since they are already painted, homeowners don't have to fuss with that side of the job.

Another selling point seems to be their durability.

"Aluminum gutters around here -- I've never seen any wear off," Anderson said.

One big advantage, he said, is that aluminum is a good material for seamless gutters, which are installed in one piece with a roll-form machine that is taken directly to the job site. Because they are seamless, there is no leaking or breaking at the seam due to wear and tear, which makes it currently very popular with his customers.

Some, he said, still prefer steel (between $7 and 8 per foot). While there are seamless steel gutters, the weight of the material makes such an installation more difficult.

"You can also get seamless copper; it's about three times more expensive," Anderson said.

Aesthetically pleasing and extremely durable, copper gutters are often used in restoration projects as well as on some upscale homes.

While aluminum, steel and copper all have their advantages, Anderson didn't speak very highly about do-it-yourself plastic models available in hardware stores. He said the material doesn't stand up well to the weather, which makes it last for three to four years at most.

"We call it toy gutter," he said. "We basically take it down."

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