Your home needs a gutter system in order to channelize rain water and water from melted snow from the roof to appropriate locations in the ground. It is extremely important to drain down water from the roof in order to protect your house from possible water damages. Lagged water on your house roof can lead to water seepage causing considerable damage to the roof, sidings and the landscape of your house. Hence, your house needs a properly installed and well-functioning rain gutter.
Before installing rain gutters, you need to acquire some essential information regarding them. There are various materials used to manufacture them. You must know the pros and cons of each of the materials in order to determine the most appropriate one with regard to your preferences, location, design and color of your house and above all your budget.
Aluminum: Aluminum is one of the most popular choices among all the gutter materials. They are extremely long-lasting and lightweight. They can be installed with great ease and convenience, and are almost maintenance-free. The high durability of this material is due to the fact that are extremely resistant to rust and has the ability to withstand the influences of other elements. One of the best parts of aluminum gutters is that they are available in a wide variety of colours that you can choose from based on the décor and design of your house. Owing to this wide variety of colors, aluminum can efficiently add to the appearance of your house.
Vinyl: Vinyl is very much similar to aluminum in almost all respects. Like aluminum, vinyl is highly durable, lightweight, resistant to rust, free of maintenance and easy to install. In addition to these features, vinyl comes at a more reasonable and affordable price than aluminum. However, the one disadvantage that this material has is that it cannot function well in extreme cold. This is because severe cold can make it fragile and cause it to break.
Wood: Wooden gutters are mainly good for contributing to the outer appearance of your house rather than being functional and efficient. This is because wood can be highly prone to rotting when exposed to water. However, the use of certain woods like cedar, fir and redwood can considerably reduce the chances for rotting owing to the fact that these woods have inherent resistance to rot.
Copper and Stainless Steel: Like vinyl and aluminum, copper and stainless steel are maintenance-free and highly durable. They are also capable of adding considerably to the beauty of your house. However, one of the major disadvantages of copper and stainless steel gutters is that it can be quite an expensive process to install them since firstly the materials are more costly than others and secondly they cannot be installed without professional help.
It is always a good idea to seek advice from professional services to know the advantages and disadvantages of all the gutter materials, and the one that can best cater to your gutter needs. There are various important factors that need to be considered in order to choose the right gutter material for your house, which can be explained by professionals.