Gutters in Snow Country?
Sep 19, 2018YES INDEED! – While it is wise to be strategic where you place gutters on your home in snow country, gutters remain a crucial component of your home’s protection system against water, snow and ice damage. Elevation, directional facing, roof material and pitch, and potential impacts of water and ice below the roofline should all be considered when properly evaluating your gutter system. The absence of gutters will allow water to go unmanaged and will likely create longer term problems which undermine your home’s fascia, foundation, and crawl space. A cracked and sinking foundation, rotted fascia and siding, interior water damage from ice dams or mold in the crawl space create expensive problems that are easily solved by properly managed water around your home.
Cold Winters = Gutter Stress
Snow and ice can wreak havoc on gutters. Ideally, snow and ice should melt and run through a guttering system, but constant subfreezing temperatures tend to hinder that process. As a result, ice and snowpack can build up inside the gutters, which produce additional weight on the gutter sections and the fasteners that hold them. Over time, this added stress can cause gutters to buckle, bend, separate, or pull away from the roofline of a home.
Keep Gutters Clean in Winter
This is yet another reason why it’s so important to keep gutters clean. If pine needles, leaves, twigs, and other debris are allowed to build up inside gutters, it facilitates the formation of ice and snow blockages which retard the progress of runoff water. When this water has nowhere to go, it does one of two things: either drips onto the ground below, causing landscape erosion and icy patches on pavement; or freezes inside the gutters, creating even more stress on the entire guttering system.
The solution? Equip your gutters with a gutter guard to keep debris out of your gutters while allowing runoff water into them. And the top choice for gutter protection in the U.S. is Gutter Helmet®.
Gutter Helmet® Can Withstand Wintry Conditions
Gutter Helmet® strengthens your entire gutter structure with it’s engineered horizontal-rib design and reinforced heavy gauge brackets. Gutter Helmet® forms a solid protective barrier over the gutter openings while leaving a slim opening through which runoff water can flow. As snow falls it lands on the Gutter Helmet® panel, keeping the snow out of the dark cold gutter below. Solid debris simply slides off of the barrier onto the ground, leaving your gutters clog-free and fully functioning. More importantly, Gutter Helmet® is strong enough to withstand winter’s harsh conditions. Not only is Gutter Helmet®’s unique horizontal-rib design engineered to strengthen the entire gutter structure, it’s affixed to the roof with reinforced heavy gauge brackets that stand up to the stresses caused by excessive snowpack and ice buildup. In fact, Gutter Helmet® has been tested in areas with heavy WET snowfall (unlike our typical drier lighter Colorado alternative) like Minnesota, New York, and even Canada… and let’s not forget Colorado, where Gutter Helmet® has been installed on over 30,000 homes.
Be sure to inquire about Helmet Heat® to give you the YEAR ROUND PERMANENT SOLUTION!
