aemeijers wrote:
ed_h wrote:
On Mar 5, 7:38 pm, wrote:
On Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:40:28 -0800, Steve Daniels
wrote:



I'm going to have my house painted. The last guy who gave me a
quote looked at my gutters and called them an anachronism.
He knows from nothing. While there may be some areas of the
country where that may be true, most areas do need them to protect
your home. Many areas require them in the building code.
I would not consider a house painter as an authority on the
subject, and the fact that he would say that would disqualify him from
my list of possible contractors, even for painting, which he might
know something about.

I didn't want gutters on my house for aesthetic reasons, so I didn't
put them on. I paid special attention to basement waterproofing and
grade around the house, and now after 23 years, no basement water
problems yet. There are a few other downsides, though: There can be
some erosion where the water falls if it hits unprotected soil. You
can get a little wetter entering and leaving. For me, it's been worth
it.

Agreed. When I win the lotto and build my dream house (like I often muse
about on here), the plan is for a standing-seam roof, and broad
overhangs, and suitable yard grading and soil composition, so that
basement flooding is not an issue. Not a fan of gutters, since they are
a pain to clean and usually look pretty ugly. But I do recognize that on
a typical house on a typical almost-flat lot, there are few practical
alternatives.

Wonder why it got written into code in some areas? Public health issue,
trying to avoid creating mosquito breeders below open windows to
sleeping rooms? The perception that gutterless houses were not as
civilized looking? Any historians out there have any actual knowledge,
as opposed to my guesses?

--
aem sends...
Hi,
My cabin has standing seam steel panel roof which supposes to last 100
years. I don't have gutter on this one. Being high pitch and heavy snow
area. sliding chunk of snow/ice will knock them down in no time.
In this case gutter is a big no, no. My house in the city has gutter for
sure. After having 5 houses, a cabin built, still don't have dream house
yet. I think dream house only lives in my head, LOL!