South Carolina - do homes not have gutters?

[sirsavesalot]

A close friend is looking to buy a house in SC soon. He showed me a few houses he and his wife are considering, and I noticed that some of them have no rain gutters and some have a gutter installed "here or there". Here in Ohio, we have gutters all around our houses.

Just curious...

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I grew up in NC. We only had a couple strips.

[Brdofpray]

Upstate South Carolina here. Our home, and all homes in our area have gutters, all the way around.

[sirsavesalot]

They're looking in the Bluffton area, which is near Savannah, GA.

[savory]

DW who grew up in a small town in SC, thought her family home had gutters. In another house we owned, I do not remember gutters except at the front door redirecting the water.

I looked it up and while there is some discussion on approach, the key reason seems to be that houses down south are built on slabs. Consequently, no basement water damage to prevent which is apparently the main reason for gutters. Others suggest slabs could be damaged by not directing water away from the slab.

My conclusion is gutters are not a bad idea but not required as much in places with basements.

[euro]

In the Carolinas, many, or even most houses are built on heavily wooded lots. Therefore, clogged gutters (pine needles and leaves) become a huge problem (hence, there s a big gutter cleaning service and "gutter guard" industry). So, leaving the gutters off is one way to solve that problem. I would say maybe half of my rental properties did not have gutters when I bought them and I ended up installing gutters on some of them. Others, I left without. So far, I don't see much of a difference as far as potential foundation issues or roof/fascia wear. If the grading around the house is done properly, gutters seem optional - I probably would leave them off, given the choice.

[SilentWalker]

In our area in rural MN more than half of the houses don't have gutters. This is despite the fact nearly all houses have basements. My house does not have them but should have since I have minor water leaks through basement walls if we get over 0.5" rain fairly fast. The house is a tall historic brick home and the downspouts would look terrible and would require drilling into the 130 years old bricks. Anyone have experience how well these Gutterless Rainhandlers work? https://www.rainhandler.com/

[Scrapr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilentWalker In our area in rural MN more than half of the houses don't have gutters. This is despite the fact nearly all houses have basements. My house does not have them but should have since I have minor water leaks through basement walls if we get over 0.5" rain fairly fast. The house is a tall historic brick home and the downspouts would look terrible and would require drilling into the 130 years old bricks. Anyone have experience how well these Gutterless Rainhandlers work? https://www.rainhandler.com/

One idea to get around downspouts is rain chains. There are some very nice options out there.

Our home in the high desert of Oregon does not have gutters. About half of the homes in our Sub have them & the rest do not. Once in a while (1-2x/year) it rains hard & some landscaping gets washed out. I rake it back up & GTG. My thinking at the time was that snow would sluff off the roof & destroy the gutters. Or create ice dams. The houses in our sub have not really had either issue.

[Hermit]

In the Hamton Roads area of SE Virginia some relatively new homes were built with concrete splash pads around the foundation and no gutters. Think of a narrow sidewalk around the foundation. Almost all houses were 2 story and no basement in that area.

[Dtail]

Many houses in our development in Florida have gutters all around, except the front. Seemed odd to me.
We finished the front and it keeps the garden from getting flooded.

[travelover]

I think the slab foundation difference is a valid answer. My house in Michigan had a basement and if my gutters got blocked or over run in a huge downpour, water dumped near the foundation would try to get inside the basement. I actually retrofitted with larger, 3"x4" downspouts to handle heavy rains and to not get blocked so easily by pine needles.

[euro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover I think the slab foundation difference is a valid answer. My house in Michigan had a basement and if my gutters got blocked or over run in a huge downpour, water dumped near the foundation would try to get inside the basement. I actually retrofitted with larger, 3"x4" downspouts to handle heavy rains and to not get blocked so easily by pine needles.

Valid point, but basements are quite rare in the Carolinas

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by euro Valid point, but basements are quite rare in the Carolinas

You missed my point. I'm saying that they probably don't have basements in the Carolinas, so they don't need downspouts, but my experience tells me that basements are prone to leaks without working down spouts.

[mz44]

Recently saw several homes in coastal south Carolina with gutters, but instead of downspouts,there were chains hanging from the gutters...

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirsavesalot A close friend is looking to buy a house in SC soon. He showed me a few houses he and his wife are considering, and I noticed that some of them have no rain gutters and some have a gutter installed "here or there". Here in Ohio, we have gutters all around our houses. Just curious...

[rodi]

The slab thing makes sense to me too. Here in SoCal most houses are slab w/no basement. And most older houses don't have gutters unless people added them. I've seen some newer construction with gutters - I think it's a style/sales feature. We have a metal diverter above the porch where you enter the front door.. Just pushes the water to either side of where you'd walk. But it never rains in Southern California (It pours)

[FrankiesGirl]

I live down in Texas and slab foundations are like 95% of the area.

My neighborhood originally was built to have gutters all round the runoff areas of the roofs, but people pull them off for whatever reasons and don't think them necessary until they realize that with the excessive rain in our area, they'll need to have perfectly graded yards to prevent swamps and pitted, flooded areas. All the gutterless houses in my neighborhood also have obvious issues with water erosion/rotting fascia boards.

In the very early days of our first home, naive me had a section of gutter removed due to damage on our house (tree fell and partially ripped it off). Shortly after, realized we started seeing water being pulled into a corner of the house up through the slab and dampening the carpet slightly on heavy downpours. Outside, observed the water sheeting off the roof pooling into that low spot (a corner) without the redirection the gutter provided. Put the gutters back up as soon as we could after that, and the problem went away.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirsavesalot They're looking in the Bluffton area, which is near Savannah, GA.

Coastal area, sandy area, slab houses. It is not unusual.

Quote:

Originally Posted by davef My conclusion is gutters are not a bad idea but not required as much in places with basements.

Yes.

A diverter above the door is helpful if you have no gutters.

Upstate is different than coastal.

It is a trade off. Cleaning gutters with pine needles is a pain. Upstate, the pain is worth it, especially on sloped lots with a basement or crawl space. It helps to have a drain that collects the downspout output and and discharges it down slope.

I'm in NC on a sloped lot. Yes, we have a basement. Basements in the Carolinas are "walk out," such that one side is basement, the other side is at grade. It is very good to have gutters on the upslope side, with water diverted through drainage pipe past the house downslope.

As mentioned above, if you don't have gutters, try to do something under the drip line, such as a rock/gravel area, otherwise you'll carve out erosion.

BTW, one problem with all of this non-gutter area is if you have a deck attached to the house. In my opinion gutters are crucial in that case. Otherwise, you get constant splash back from the deck to the house siding. This happens even without rain near the coast. Dew drop off the roof occurs through the summer and early fall. This will eat your siding and even framing under the siding. I've worked on enough disaster recovery projects like this to see the damage to houses and decks without gutters to verify they are pretty much essential in this case.

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davef DW who grew up in a small town in SC, thought her family home had gutters. In another house we owned, I do not remember gutters except at the front door redirecting the water. I looked it up and while there is some discussion on approach, the key reason seems to be that houses down south are built on slabs. Consequently, no basement water damage to prevent which is apparently the main reason for gutters. Others suggest slabs could be damaged by not directing water away from the slab. My conclusion is gutters are not a bad idea but not required as much in places with basements.

My childhood home was pier and beam. But the lot had good drainage and my dad just didn't put on gutters with the exception of around the doors. Didn't need it. My granny house also went about 100 years without gutters. I think My dad finally did one at the front door. My house in S Texas is not fully guttered either. Just front and patio. It is built on a slab. I'm summation: yes its possible to live well with no damage without full gutters

[MrsHaloFIRE]

And agree very very rare to have basements in NC. Only ones I'm aware of are officer qtrs on Ft Bragg. Suspect they get water.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsHaloFIRE And agree very very rare to have basements in NC. Only ones I'm aware of are officer qtrs on Ft Bragg. Suspect they get water.

Depends on the definition of basement.

4 walls below grade? Rare.

3 or less below grade or part below grade? Common. Comprises 25% of the houses in my neighborhood.