Traditional Metals Blog

The fact is that, with very few exceptions, every structure on the planet should have a way to move the water that falls on its roof away from the structure itself. The reasons are pretty simple:

- A roof captures a significant amount of rain, and it has to go somewhere. Depending on how big your roof is and how much it rains in your region, you can be dealing with significant amounts of water.

- The steeper your roof pitch is, the faster water will run off your roof.

- As water hits the ground, natural erosion will begin to degrade the foundation of the structure.

- In addition, water accumulation at the base of the building will increase the chance of water intrusion either into the building itself, basements, or other underground substructures that might be part of your structure.

- Water accumulation around the perimeter of a building also increases the opportunity for mold and fungus growth onto the building itself.

- And not to be forgotten, water free-falling from a roof also has the tendency to damage and wash out landscaping.

In general, the ability to manage water run-off from a roof always works to the benefit of the owners and inhabitants of a structure. In other words, make the water go where you want it to go in order to minimize or eliminate water damage and/or erosion.

The mechanism to manage water from a roof is accomplished via gutter and downspout systems. Gutters capture the water as it drains off the roof and the downspout systems channel the water to an intended location.

Gutters and downspouts systems come in a wide variety of materials ranging from vinyl, plastic, aluminum, copper, lead or zinc-coated copper, galvanized steel, galvalume (aluminum made to look like galvanized steel), and even cast iron. Believe it or not, even wood gutters are available. The prevailing top materials are Aluminum (for cost and color availability), Copper (because it just looks so good and lasts forever), and Galvanized Steel (for that “tough” industrial look).

Seamless gutters are gutters that are extruded by a machine to a desired length. This has the advantage of reducing the risk of leaks between components and enhances the installed look. In addition, it improves and speeds up the installation process.

Regardless of the type of gutter material that you select, having a gutter and downspout system goes a long way to protecting the investment made in your structure.

It’s winter here in Michigan right now, and our gutters are filled more with ice and snow than with water, so it would seem an odd moment to be discussing “gutter covers”, but actually it’s not…

Right about now there are many instances of gutters so full of ice and snow that any warmth enough to cause a melt doesn’t make it down the downspout as it should.  This results in the dreaded icicle that has the power (the weight actually) to tear a gutter down. Gutter installers love it, home owners hate it.

Interestingly enough, often the root cause of the issue is debris in the gutter, i.e., leafs, twigs, bird nests, bird droppings, wasp hives, etc.  Roll some frozen water on top of it, and viola, a natural ice dam that does its best to destroy your house.  Yes, we could discuss “heat tape” which would help keep ice from forming, but that assumes that we have clean gutters and water can flow – so let’s hold that thought for a spell.  The bottom line is that cleaner gutters allow water to flow from our roofs to places sufficiently far from our homes to prevent damage.  That is, after all, why we spent money to have gutters installed on our houses and applies to everyone, regardless of geographic location.

Despite all of the guarantee’s that various gutter protection systems offer, all any system will do is minimize the amount of debris that is captured by your gutters.  Eventually you are going to have to get your gutters cleaned out.  Unless you live somewhere where there are no tree’s, bushes, flowering fauna, or birds or bugs of any type, you will wind up with junk in your gutters and it will affect their efficiency.  Take that to the bank.

So if you want to prevent debris from getting into the gutter, how do you do it? Well, it depends on what’s around your house. If you live in a heavily treed area, you need something that will flat out prevent leaves and small branches from lodging themselves into the gutter. There are specific products that do that. If you happen to live in an area that is less forested (so to speak), you might think that you can get away with a “screen” type cover. They work ok, except that you have to be aware of the fact that seedlings can get through the screen and will find great nutrients in the dirt and bird droppings in your gutter.  You won’t suddenly find a tree growing out of your gutter, but the micro-root system that gets established helps bind the debris already there into a tight and hard impediment preventing water flow.  The net result is that your gutters will not function as you had intended.  And if you live up north where we get lots of snow and ice….  well, just re-read the first paragraph.

Yes, we do encourage the use of a gutter protection system when your surrounding conditions cause undue debris build up in your gutters, but we also encourage you to be aware that it is still necessary to regularly clean your gutters.  You won’t have to clean them as often, but you still have to pay attention to them.  By the way, for what it’s worth, we are not fans of the foam-insert approach.  In our experience, we find that the foam simply absorbs moisture, weighing down the gutter and simply preventing efficient water flow.

The bottom line here is that yes, gutter protection systems “help” tremendously, but you still need to do regular cleanings, so pick a solution that allows that to be done easily!

Hello World !   As in, this is Traditional Metals coming out Blog entry.  As the reach of our products expands so must our use of the medium with which we communicate with our customers and partners.  In addition, our customers and partners have asked that we share information and this blog is a very appropriate way in which to do so.

traditional bead half round copper gutter

So first of all, what do we do?  Traditional Metals is a manufacturer and distributor of custom, decorative, and historic gutter and downspout systems for residential, commercial, and historic structures.  We manufacture half-round and K-style gutter, as well as round and rectangular downspout systems and have the good fortune of having customers across the entire United States.  And as we have tried hard to make special note of, much of what we deliver is “custom” type work.  We tend to do a lot of work for unique houses and historical buildings.  We pay attention to detail and we do everything we can to do a great job.  We have partners and resources throughout the United States and have been able to deliver some very spectacular solutions.  And yes, when it comes to installation, we have some resources for that too.

We would like to take full advantage of this blog as a way to get good give-and-take (by way of comments), but we’re going to have to have some rules with regards to blog comments.

If someone violates our blog comment policy, we will simply remove their comment(s). It’s that simple. Think of it as being invited into our home and then trash-talking the host! Not a cool thing to do.

Having said that, Traditional Metals realizes that we have a very diverse customer base and audience. We invite criticism and comment and you may do so. Just please do so without being obscene. But if you go down that path, your comments will be deleted.

For the record, Traditional Metal’s blog comment policy is:

- Please keep on topic as much as possible. Sometimes there is a lot to say, but if you wander, you run the chance that no one will follow you.

- Profanity, personal attacks, or other inappropriate behavior will be  deleted.

- If you get ‘way off topic’ we may pull the comment as being irrelevant (hey, it’s our pool, we get to decide who can swim – sorry!)

- Do not get into politics or religion (see above). This qualifies as being off-topic. Everybody has a right to their beliefs.

- Watch your ‘linking’.  If you post links that have nothing to do with the topic, your comment will be deleted and you may be banned!

- If you are going to say it, own it. Anonymous doesn’t cut it!.

- We will remove all spam. Spam is a bad thing. Don’t do it. We won’t tolerate it.

If we find that a comment that abuses our policy, we will remove the comment without notification. If someone insists on being a bone-head, we will block them (hey, it’s for the good of all of us – no point in letting a mental case rule our planet).

And that’s it !.. Sorry about the ‘rules’, but you know the Internet – it’s a jungle out there.

Thanks!