Gutters on a Garage?

[racecougar]

It was a code requirement here; not that I would have gone without them if it wasn't.

 

[Plump]

Yep, keep that rain off my neck! Also, I use it to fill my rain barrel. Just the side where my service door is though as the other side will immediately fill with tree debris and NEVER get snow raked.

 

[dcg9381]

My problem isn't cost or grading. It's finding a place for the gutters/downspouts to output the water. I have an area where the logical downspout location would be dumping water on the driveway in front of the garage. I see this as problematic, especially in winter.

I'm skeptical of running the downspouts into the ground and moving it to the perimeter via in-ground PVC as that has the potential for getting clogged with leaves, dirt, etc.

There are fairly cheap option to attach a downspout to a corrugated drain then direct the water to wherever you want it. If you're worried about clogs, add rain water "leaf eaters" and you'll be golden.

Outside of that, we've got residences with a lot of large trees, adding screens (or similar) over the gutters is another solution to this problem.

All of our drinking water comes off our 40x60 shop. Residence (just built) also has gutters for directing water.

 

[nadogail]

Here on our little island gutters on a house and garage are not considered necessary.
Our climate can be considered a “Marine Desert”. The classic book, Two Years Before The Mast, described San Diego weather before we started irrigation. Anything green owes it’s life to water piped in from outside the county.

 

[Wheelingit]

Gutters on mine.

 

[kwb]

Not on the shop - I hate heights and I hate cleaning gutters. I do have washed rock along the drip line.

House - yes but it is only 1 story and easy to get on the roof to blow them out. Went without for several years but wife didn't like the waterfall for guests as they walked up to the front door and I finally gave in.

 

[jkuro]

Very much a regional thing. In the expansive clay soils here (upper TX gulf Coast) foundation watering systems are common to keep the soil from drying out and shrinking.

This is the fix for a poor foundation. A lot of Texas homes were built slab on grade and now need leveling, The builders got away with murder.

 

[HPRifleman]

Gutter solution was to discharge the downspouts into pipe that is below grade. The pipe then takes the water away from the garage/driveway. You can see the installation in my build thread.

 

[rburke65]

The Soil and Water Conservation visited my shop build site and wanted to know where I would be putting all the water that was to be draining from my roof of the 32x56’ shop. I told them the same place that its been draining from the beginning of time….onto the ground! I have 5+ acres and that wasn’t good enough for them. They wanted me to dig a dry well. I had planned on it but when he returned to the site sooner than we expected…we hadn’t begun to dig the dry well, he said to just run the drain line into the woods, gave me the orange INSPECTED sticker and said he wasn’t coming back. Inspectors can be nuts or nice. Yes, I had to put on gutters.

 

[johnharris]

Glad you found the right water discharge solution. Living on a hill my house discharges water easily down the hill. The shop I'm currently building will also have downspouts facing the hill. Owning a gutter business I get them for a reasonable price.

 

[ambenz]

My hip roof has 32 feet of white seamless gutters with black leafguards over the front car doors with downspouts to the side....

The gutters go all around and the black leaf guards attracts the suns heat and melts ice dams in the winter.
Dang near burned my hand installing them this past August!

 

[kaymccampbell]

I had gutters. They were great. Pulled them off for new roof and residing. Need to put new ones on. The splash really tries to get up inside the wall and ruin things.

 

[sweetk30]

As a person who seals blacktop / ashphult for a job were you do NOT put gutters the years of water dropping will eat the blacktop surface for and i have even seen it eat cinder block and concrete over time .

 

[jetnow1]

Had to draw up a water management plan for my garage roof to show how I was handling the water from my garage roof and have it signed off by the town engineer to get a building permit. gutters, downspouts draining into a dry well on each side did it, they were worried the rain water would flood next door. I would have put on gutters anyway, I have had to repair
too much rot on buildings where water splashed on siding etc. Also keep any wood at min 8 inches from the ground both for water and insect damage.