fbpx

K-Guard Kansas City Blog

K-Guard Gutters vs. Traditional (Open) Gutter Systems

Hi, I’m Travis with K-Guard Gutters. Today, we’re going to do a gutter comparison of why regular gutter systems are faulty and why K-Guard is the only real solution.

The first problem of regular guttering is how it mounts to the house. Traditional gutters either have a spike and ferrule; which is a long nail that goes through the gutter and then into the fascia board, or some newer gutter systems have what they call a bracket, and it actually screws in through the system with a screw.

A lot of us have seen gutters with the nail sticking out of the house, slowly but surely increasing separation from the house. Why is that? It’s because water is getting through the nail hole or the screw hole in the gutter system. So when water fills up in the gutter system, it has no place to go if it’s clogged or if it’s improperly draining or improperly pitched.  If it’s clogged and causing the water to raise, water will rise into the actual home’s fascia board. Not a good situation for any homeowner.

Other reasons why traditional gutters may not be draining properly is the improper size of the downspout. Most common is a 2”x3” downspout, standard on most homes. It’s a very small drain, so you can imagine trying to evacuate a large bathtub full of water off your roof through a bathtub sized drain.  A better solution would be a large 4”x3” drain. So the good thing about a 4×3 drain is we can evacuate the water quicker.

 

K-Guard solves this problem by mounting above the floodplain. If you intentionally clog your downspouts with socks or rags or whatever, it would fill up and the water would escape the FRONT of the gutter instead of coming out the back where the floodplain of the gutter is. It saves fascia from ever rotting on your home.

 

At K-Guard, we only use 4×3 downspouts, so rain will properly evacuate the home; our system will never clog.  K-Guard works off the principle of liquid adhesion; the water comes off your roof shingles, across the drip edge and onto the surface of our lid.  If the wind is blowing towards the house, it can go in the rear drainage channel. If it’s not blowing towards the house, it will work off the principle of liquid adhesion and physics causes it to stick and run into the gutter. It can handle minimum of 22 inches of rain per hour, and sometimes up to 30 to 40 inches of rain per hour, depending on roof elevations.

 

Another issue surrounding traditional guttering is the inside corner piece. The inside corner is actually a 45 degree bend.  K-Guard is the only system that has a “true 45 by 45 inside corner”. It’s a 45 degree bend, and a 45 degree sloped front. It gives it a nice aesthetic appeal and matches the front side of the gutter.

 

The 45 by 45 inside corner is important to fix draining issues because the water is allowed to flow around and get to its actual downspout, when there is still water trying to get in from this roof coming down the valley. So the water also has a point of entry as well; so with the wider 45 degree corner, we can get the water to the downspout while allowing water to get into the gutter instead of having a choke-point like a baseball glove catching all of your debris and trying to have water come around.

K-Guard will shed all the debris, get all the water out of your system and keep your basement from flooding.  To schedule a free estimate, call 913-229-7550 or visit kguardheartland.com for more information.

Share

Related Articles