Contrary to popular belief, gutters are not your best defense against water that is trying to make its way into your home. In fact, if you live in an area that experiences all four seasons, then it is likely that for a quarter of the year, your gutters are completely useless.
“People have too much faith in them,” warns Vincent Boccia of Boccia Inc., a waterproofing company in Garden City, New York. If water is getting into the basement, gutter work will not resolve the problem.
The need to be cleaned. A lot: Most people fail to realize just how much gutters need to be cleaned and how quickly they can become clogged. Once October rolls around, you may need to clean them four or five times before the month ends depending on how many leaves get trapped.
Only a nine-month solution: If the area in which you live is subjected to the elements of winter, then for those three to four months, your gutters may be rendered useless because of the amount of ice that is the frozen in the system.
Gutters might be draining water to weak spots: If your gutter is dispersing water at the base of the house where a corner meets, the buildup of water in that particular area can make your house susceptible to water leaks because of the slight space in the concrete foundation where the wall and floor meet.
Fixing gutters is not basement waterproofing. If water is entering the basement, Boccia recommends waterproofing your basement from the inside and/or out. Depending on our diagnosis, a sub-floor drainage system can be installed which acts like a wet-vac suctioning up any water before it enters the home. On the outside, a waterproof seal can be placed on the foundation walls to fill cracks and act as a protective membrane.
Once your house is sufficiently waterproofed by Boccia inc, you will enjoy year round protection during any storm … even if your gutters fall down.
