You leave the house after a night of hearing a hard rain on your roof to find that the edges of your yard have big puddles on the edges of your place. Thankfully, this is mostly fixable and you can have water go to the right places. Storm Master is here with some suggestions on how to use gutters and other methods to prevent yard flooding.

Why is yard flooding bad?

Excess water is most often bad for your home’s safety and belongings. In addition to creating slippery, unattractive, muddy surfaces that are difficult to walk around, excess water can destroy the landscaping you worked hard on. Imagine having extra water down your bushes and flowers and oversature everything. Not good!

While landscaping can be a concern, home foundations are a larger issue. The dirt and soil around your foundation can be stripped away through a process called erosion. A lack of dirt and soil around you foundation can lead to water entering your basement or causing a build up of pressure that can gradually shift your foundation and cause damage.

1. What can I do? Find a gutter contractor near me?

Simply controlling the flow of water around your home is a great start. The first and best options is to have Storm Master install new gutters or if you have gutters currently, inspect and fix your current system.

If you don’t have gutters currently, we will walk you through the process of installing a new gutter protection system to protect your home and yard. We start by considering what you need to fix your problems. We can get on your roof and measure it’s overall square footage and slope, which are two important factors in deciding gutter size and angles. Our experts fill figure out what you need. Gutters up to 8 inches wide might be necessary to properly drain water from your roof. You might need smaller depending on the conditions how much water has to be pulled away.

2. I have gutters! Do they need repair?

Your gutters could also be leaking or overwhelmed. Gutters need to be properly installed and the right sized gutters for the amount of precipitation you receive. Gutters that are taking in too much water at once will likely end up having water pour over the edges and onto the sides of your lawn near your home. This can cause the problems mentioned before in regards to your foundation.

Leaking gutters are a sign of excess wear and tear, and most often occur due to small punctures from sharp objects like sticks or accidentally with sharp tools. Gutters can also have improperly sealed multi piece setups that gradually shift.. Leaks like this are why we at Storm Master almost always recommend seamless gutters because they are more durable and easily customized to your home. On this note, we also recommend cleaning gutters with less sharp objects or holding any gutter cleaning tool with the sharp end not directly against the gutter itself.

If you don’t want to replace your entire system, Storm Master can also repair your gutters. Leaks are sometimes small but annoying, or general wear and tear have taken hold. Don’t climb on your roof or a ladder if you don’t have to. Finding the actual problem will take you significantly longer than Storm Master . Believe us, we have developed an eye for finding problems. Storm Master offers safe and expert advice in these situations. We also offer cleanings, which are to be done regularly to prevent said damage.

Why Gutters?

Other ideas for reducing yard flooding include changing the grading in your yard. Grading your yard is the process of raising or lowering to force water to take specific paths out. While this can help, it’s probably not a complete or permanent solution for all the problems regarding yard flooding. Yard grading can also be more labor intensive if you do it yourself, or more expensive when someone else does it.

Gutters are much easier though they do have a cost. The gutters can be tailored to the grade of your yard instead of tailoring the yard to the precipitation or gutters.

Sump pumps are also helpful. Sump pumps are placed in a concrete pit in your basement and drive water out in a tube through the basement wall. These won’t prevent yard flooding but can help keep water in the right place. These do not replace gutters because some water for yard flooding and basement flooding comes directly through the soil instead of bad gutters. We recommend a sump pump in addition to gutters to prevent a build up of water in your grass or your basement.

Gutters are most generally the longest lasting option you can get for keeping your yard and home safe from excess water. Water is not your friend in the basement, and too much water is not a great idea for your yard. Most gutters are made of vinyl or metal and when properly taken care of, can last decades if not the whole life of your home. Gutters are purchased more for prevention than reacting to a problem, so you should maintain them of course, but won’t have much to worry about for a while.

Final Thoughts

Gutters are the most effective method of controlling water in your yard that comes dumped from storms or snow. Storm Masters can help you make a plan to drain water away from your home and yard while doing the difficult parts ourselves with trained experts on roof tops and roof irrigation. While other methods are possible, we have seen the results and know that gutter protection systems like ours are the best option.