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Originally Posted by Cedwards38
Hills did mine and I was pleased with the price and the quality of the workmanship.
As an aside,I find it strange that gutters are not installed on newly built homes in The Villages. I still hear some folks saying that gutters are not needed in Florida and I've never understood that line of thought. Why would gutters be any less necessary in Florida than they are up north? Any thoughts?
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The main reason for gutters up north is to keep the rain water runoff away from your basements and crawlspaces. I have seen basements flood up north whenever it rained stay completely dry once gutters were correctly installed diverting the water well away from the perimeter of the building.
Here in Florida some feel that it is not as important to have gutters because you (here in The Villages) do not have a basement. There are many homes here without gutters that do not appear to have any issues. That being said, there are some good reasons to consider them.....
The biggest enemy of your home is water intrusion. Gutters can keep the waterfalling rain to not blow into the side of your home, where it could seep into cracks in your stucco. (another subject).
Also, it can stop the line of ground depression and concrete staining that one gets around their home when there are no gutters.You will also get less rain in your Lanai, etc with gutters.
The problem is you still have that volume of water to divert. With a downspout that water diverts all in one place, so it is important to get that water where you want it and NOT where you do not want it. I believe this is best accomplished with the use of draintile from your downspout to wherever you want the water to get to....either a pond, large drain or the curb. Each home is different.
Gutters are pretty inexpensive here...it does not make sense to skimp on them. Get a good gauge and size with the proper amount of downspouts, draintile, etc.
I recently saw a gutter job where the homeowner paid a bit more to have the downspouts the same color as the stucco....looked very nice.
Hope this helps...
Frank