A Logical Solution to a Hydrological Problem

Many structural elements of your multi-unit homes exist for the sake of one fundamental goal – keeping water out. Your roofs, siding, windows, doors, drain tile, sump pumps…they all function to keep the rain and snow-melt moving away. While these elements all function well when installed properly, they can perform even better with a little help from a rather simple solution: gutters.

Heavy rain and natural snowmelt rolling off your eaves creates ruts, destroys landscaping and worst of all leads to basement flooding. Consider this:

1 inch of rain on 1 square foot of roof yields 0.6 gallons. 

That’s 60 gallons for every inch of rain on 100 square feet of surface area.

With an average US duplex roof being 4800 sq ft and the average precipitation in the southern half of Minnesota being 34 inches, you’ve got 97,920 gallons of water racing toward your foundation every year.

Gutters might be the solution you need before your association installs an irrigation system or sump systems.

Most gutter contractors offer a variety of colors and they’ve got the timeline down to a science. The process is rather non-invasive as they only need to access the exteriors. Ironically, however, they can’t work in the rain. Rain work is generally an insurance “no-no” due to roof and scaffolding slippage.

Drain tile working in concert with your gutter system is an additional option toward foundational peace of mind. A small trench is dug heading away from the building then a hole is dug a little deeper at the end and filled with rocks. A molded plastic pipe is then placed in the trench. One end is attached to the downspout, the other drains to the end of the trench into the erosion-resistant rocks. This moves the rainwater an even safer distance (and down about 3’) away from the structure.

One increasingly popular alternative is the rain barrel. These items are the definition of “green” and can save a lot more than the environment. Rain barrels are a dry season option to turning on the sprinkler, thereby reducing the utility bill. A barrel with hole in the top and a spigot at the bottom is placed underneath a downspout so rainwater fills the barrel itself. Residents (or your landscaper) use the water for their flowers and lawns during dry times. If you’ve ever visited an extremely dry climate, you’ve seen these next to a lot of home and on many roofs, but in a much larger size. Those that are used in Minnesota’s continental climate are more discreet and decorative. You can pick your styles and colors.

Gutter prices range widely depending on the type of material you use. Vinyl and plastic are about the cheapest and you’ll get what you pay for with almost assured maintenance required within two or three seasons. Copper gutters look beautiful and function well, but the price is rather high starting around $10/ft just for the gutters. The downspouts are priced separately and are generally a little more per foot. Copper gutters are normally installed on higher end homes and are custom fitted so the price can be much higher depending on the layout.

Aluminum and steel seamless gutters are the most popular and the most durable. Most come with a lifetime warranty on the product and 10 – 15 years on the installation. Installation warranty is different as there is a sealant used on the end caps that can wear down. The seamless aspect is made possible by a machine that actually transforms a giant roll of aluminum into what you see on the building. It is known as a “K” style gutter due to its shape when viewed from the end. Aluminum and steel can be rolled out at nearly any length. Aluminum gutters for a large project can usually be found for $5 – $7 per foot. The price depends on the company and will reflect their willingness to come back for repairs if needed. Estimates are almost always free.

We’ve seen fancy ground irrigation set-ups, expensive sump-pump installs and flooded basements all because water was allowed to be near the foundation.  Gutters might be your multi-unit’s straightforward solution to simply keeping the H2O away from your HOA.