Foundation First: How Proper Gutters Protect Your Amarillo Home’s Slab

Most homeowners do everything they can to protect their roof from hail, with thousands of dollars of protection every hail season. But while you’re busy looking up at the sky, the threat to your home’s foundation is right beneath your feet.

Here in Amarillo, where most yards are clay-filled nightmares, it’s easy to worry about hail ruining your roof. But the moisture we do have is the worst enemy of your home’s slab, and gutters are your first line of defense.

Think about what people tell you gutters do: they keep you from getting soaked when you drop your keys at the front door. They could keep your siding free of water stains. It’s helpful, but not required.

In Amarillo, gutter systems are foundational preservation systems.

How important is it? We’re talking about the difference between hundreds of dollars in gutter upkeep versus thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars repairing your home’s foundation. We’ve seen foundation leveling costs as high as $15,000.

When you look at it that way, gutters aren’t a home maintenance expense. They’re one of the best investments you can make.

If you’ve lived in the Panhandle for any length of time, you know our soil isn’t like other places. In Potter County, we have abundant clay and caliche, a mixture that retains water well.

What does that mean for you and your foundation?

• When we get rain: That clay expands (actually lifting up your slab)
• When it stops raining, and the sun comes out: That clay dries up, and your slab shrinks with it
• The result : Each wet-dry cycle creates “differential movement” that damages your foundation.

The drying and shrinkage continue to exacerbate the problem each year. What may have started as a small crack can become significant structural damage that requires professional repair.

You may have already noticed one or more of these signs if your slab has been affected by soil movement:

• Doors/windows that stick (but used to open easily)
• “Stair-step” cracks in your home’s exterior brickwork
• Cracks between your garage door and the pavement
• “Trenching” under your eaves where water pours off of your roof and erodes dirt/mulch
• Wet spots on your concrete slab

Does your home have more than one or two of these signs? Gutters can help.

By moving water away from your home’s foundation, gutters provide a critical service for Amarillo homeowners. Think about how much water comes off your roof during a heavy spring storm:

A 2,000 square foot home can dump over 1,200 gallons of water off its roof in 1 hour.

Imagine all that water running unchecked off your roof. It would fall immediately next to your foundation, the absolute worst place for it to be.

Gutters prevent tons of water from saturating the ground around your foundation. They also avoid the dreaded trenching effect, where runoff water cuts a channel all the way down to your foundation.

For homes with basements or crawl spaces (few in Amarillo, but we do see them), gutters keep the soil beneath your home dry, reducing the risk of mold and wood rot caused by moisture in enclosed spaces.

Gutters aren’t just gutters. When it comes to defending your foundation from moisture-related soil movement, there are features you need and ones you don’t.

Here are the three things you should look for in a gutter system:

• Seamless gutters: Sectional gutters have seams. Those seams are where leaks start. By going seamless, you eliminate 90% of potential leak points.
• 5′ downspout extensions : We want water to drip 5 feet away from your home (or much farther if your lawn slopes towards your foundation). Let your downspouts know they are loved by not dumping water right next to your foundation!
• 6″ gutters: When big storms hit Amarillo, a 6″ gutter will overflow much less frequently than a 5″ gutter.

Even the greatest gutter system can’t protect your foundation if it’s clogged with leaves and debris. If your gutters are clogged, they might as well not exist.

Take 5 minutes twice a year (spring and late fall) to look for these red flags:

• Peeling paint on your fascia boards
• Pooling or running water near your foundation after it rains
• Discoloration on your concrete slab

These are clues that your gutter system needs some TLC. Addressing issues early could mean the difference between a $100 gutter cleaning and a $15k foundation repair.

The fact is, we don’t know when the next hailstorm will hit; we know our soil is drying and swelling each year, and foundation problems won’t correct themselves. But you can install one of the most critical defenses for your home’s foundation: A gutter system so beautiful, effective, and invisible, you’ll never notice it until you need it.

Let New Vision Exterior Solutions put our knowledge of Amarillo weather and Potter County clay to work for you. Call us today or request an appointment. We know Amarillo soil, and we know how to fight it.

The post Foundation First: How Proper Gutters Protect Your Amarillo Home’s Slab first appeared on New Vision Exterior Solutions.

The post Foundation First: How Proper Gutters Protect Your Amarillo Home’s Slab appeared first on New Vision Exterior Solutions.