Fall Gutter Cleaning and Drainage — Keep Water Away From Your Foundation

By Brian Beard, Beard's Home Services · Mountain Home, AR

Ask anyone who's owned a home around Mountain Home for a few years and they'll tell you: water is the thing that does the real damage. Not the dramatic storm — the slow, steady water that runs off the roof in the wrong place, every rain, for years. Fall is when that starts, because the leaves come down right as the heavy rain comes back.

Why the Ozarks Is Hard on Foundations

A lot of the ground here is clay over rock. Clay doesn't drain — it swells when it's wet and shrinks when it dries. When roof water dumps right next to the house, the soil against the foundation goes through that cycle over and over. That's how you get cracked block, doors that start sticking, damp crawlspaces and the musty smell that comes with them.

Gutters exist to catch that water and move it somewhere else. Clogged gutters overflow right at the foundation, which is worse than having no gutters at all.

The Fall Checklist

• Clean the gutters after the leaves drop — usually early November here, and again if you're under big oaks. Scoop them out and flush with a hose to make sure water actually runs to the downspout.
• Check the downspouts. Run water in the top. If it backs up, there's a clog in the elbow, usually right at the bottom.
• Look at where the water ends up. A downspout that empties right at the corner of the house is only half the job. You want that water at least 4 to 6 feet away — with an extension, a splash block that actually points away, or a buried drain line.
• Check the slope of the ground. Soil and mulch should slope away from the house. Over years, flower beds build up and settle until they slope toward the foundation instead.
• Watch it rain. Seriously. Walk around with an umbrella during a good rain and look for water sheeting over the gutter, pooling at the foundation, or running toward the house. Ten minutes will tell you more than any inspection.
• Peek in the crawlspace after a heavy rain. Standing water or wet soil under the house means water is getting in, and that's worth fixing before winter.

When It Needs More Than Cleaning

Some houses just have water going to the wrong place no matter how clean the gutters are. The usual fixes, roughly in order of how much work they are:

• Re-hanging sagging gutter sections so they pitch toward the downspout again.
• Adding a downspout on a long run that's overwhelmed in heavy rain.
• Burying downspout drain lines so the water comes out well away from the house instead of across the yard.
• Regrading around the foundation, or a French drain or swale to catch water coming downhill toward the house — common on our sloped lots.

Safety First

Most gutter cleaning is ladder work, and falls off ladders are one of the most common ways homeowners get hurt. Set the ladder on firm, level ground, don't lean out past the rails, and have someone hold it. On a steep or two-story roof, it's worth calling someone.

The Short Version

Clean the gutters after the leaves drop, make sure every downspout runs free, and get that water 4 to 6 feet away from the house. Then watch one good rain. If water is still finding the foundation, it's a drainage problem, and those are a lot cheaper to fix than the foundation and crawlspace damage they cause.