Do I need gutters?

>>1123568
ever heard of erosion? it can cause your slab to shift. figure the area your roof takes up and all the water gets dumped on the perimeter.

at least with gutters you can control where the water goes

Does your concrete slab go to the center of the earth?

>>1123568
>I just don't see any problem that might occur if I let the water drop to the sides.

and thats why you aren't an engineer

>>1123573

This. It's not useless shit when you understand that ground can subside and a concrete slab can go with it.

>>1123568
You don't seem to understand how a foundation works or how water works it's way under a foundation

Watch this video

https://youtu.be/0EzoHXEzdwY

>>1123568
Your foundation should be fine for several decades if not centuries as long as the land around your house is not flooding (puddling). As far as I know most houses are not built in the wetlands and the lots on which they are built usually have good drainage themselves. It would take a ton and I mean a fuckton of water to waterlog the earth around the foundation. If anything it might make wooden siding more susceptible to rot if there is a lot of splashing.
>>1123573
>>1123572
Nice answers, faggots

>>1123568
Gutters can keep water off the sides of your building. Even if you have enough overhang on your roof the wind can still blow water onto the walls. Water WILL find a way in eventually, especially through brick.

T. Maintenance man who's been fighting seepage this winter.

I don't bother with gutters and my houses have not suffered in any way despite decades of NC and SC rainy weather.

If you have erosion issues you can run crushed asphalt (it binds nicely over time after you rake it out) or gravel around the structure. I used extra railroad gravel from when I had a load brought in to raise my shop slab height before pouring. Many very old homes don't use gutters.

bigger then standard gutters and a roof designed for them is important.My gutters are an after thought on my home and the nice big arches on The roof creates big waves of water that totally overcome the standard size gutters to the point where they are useless if it rains hard for more then ~15 mins.

>>1123598
Yeah, bet then u have stupid shit like my house. Roof drips onto stairs and people are kill.

Now i have a rigged gutter

Geotechnical Engineer here. My home is a slab on grade and I do not have gutters, by choice.

To answer OP, it really depends on the soil condition.

Like I stated above, I do not have gutters, but I took care in grading around the perimeter of my house. Including sloping the finished ground, and some drain tile.

Depending on how your roof is sloped, you may want something above your doors, including your garage door, but that is personal preference. Also, if you are in a cold climate, the snow melt will run off your roof and then freeze on the driveway/sidewalk at night without gutters.

You can also get icicles without gutters, that can fall and impale someone. Make sure you have good liability insurance

Question: If your house's foundation is in the basement does it matter if you let water drop on the sides of the house?

Also how thick should a concrete slab foundation be?

>>1123963
I would install industrial sized steel gutters, they don't cost that much more than residential. They are wider and deeper.

>>1123568
Russion derevn'ya?

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>>1123568

>>1124062
Thanks anon.

Are there any DIY methods for determining soil composition?

Basically I know the soil type from USGS/Army Corp Engineers surveys and know the site hasn't been backfilled.

Is there any value in driving a pipe down in the ground and checking for myself? Or should I pay someone? If so, how much does a 1/4 acre survey usually run?

Reached out in person to local folks, never get a call back :/.

>>1124188
>Are there any DIY methods for determining soil composition?

In my experience a shovel works rather well.

>>1124188

I also have mapped the topography within 400m using a quadcopter and photometry. End result - shit is flat everywhere. It's in the city so there are storm drains.

So all the hydrodynamics and other civil engineering stuff I absorbed in school doesn't seem to apply much. But every CE person I talks to acts like my planned house will fall down if I don't get a consult.

I plan on building a small 20x30x20ft ICF box.

>>1124196
:/

>>1124062

Second everything this guy says, particularly:

>Like I stated above, I do not have gutters, but I took care in grading around the perimeter of my house. Including sloping the finished ground, and some drain tile.

I did without gutters on the house we had built 16 years ago, by paying more attention to proper grading and by putting in a decent french drain system. (We did have some gutters put on the edge of the front porch roof where otherwise people would be dodging runoff.)

Since then I have only needed to add one additional small section for where the runoff basically annoyed me (was not hurting the foundation.)

So it is possible to do without gutters in many environments, but only if you pay attention to the other ways in which rain runoff can be diverted away from the foundation.

insulation, fire alarms, higher gauge wire....it's all a scam

just do the bare minimum; our ancestors used to live in caves and they did just fine

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>>1124070
where else would the foundation be?

How necessary are gutters when you have a concrete basement box buried 6 feet deep as a foundation?

Is it a good idea to use your gutters to funnel into a tank for rain collection?

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>>1124256
who uses a house like this?

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>>1124377
efflorescence

are your basement walls covered in cool crystals?

>>1123568
>house
>foundation is slab on grade
>can see vegetation in the image

ayyyyyyyyyyy

ps. if it's not below the soil shrinkage zone, enjoy your cracking.

>>1123568
Yes you need gutters and a nice sloping grade away from the home. My first house had huge foundation problems and a leaky basement that filled with 2" of water when it rained because the gutters where gone and the slope was all wrong for decades. Once I fixed these two things my basement was bone dry for years. Do you really want all that moisture under your concrete slab? just asking for moisture to seep up and make mold problems

>>1124207
> :/

well if you dont want to use a shovel, you could always borrow a hundred thousand dollars worth of ground penetrating radar equipment and pay a geologist to analyze it for you.

>>1123568
You're why ray scabs and beaners shouldn't be allowed to own tools.

Kys, fucking hack-a-matic.

>>1126350
you can also get soil maps. soil layout doesnt change dramatically between your block and the rest of your area.

>>1126397
This is only true for america.

Take boreholes anywhere in europe and its a lottery
>soil
>soil
>PLAGUE MASS BURIAL PIT
>roman viaduct
>bricks
>soil
>ww2 bunker
>soil
>soil
>forotten mine
>200lbs of unexploded german ordnance dropped during the blitz
>soil
>temple of athena
>combination of all the above.

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Not just erosion - but splashback keeps the bottom of the walls constantly wet. Not only will that encourage damp, it gets dirty and can grow moss too. Looks shit.

Also, y'know, noise. Drip-drip-drip all fucking night gets tired real quick.

>>1123568
make the eaves extra wide and also plant some ground cover under where the water runoff will fall - that helps absorb and disperse the run off. if you don't have any trees that will drop leaves into gutters then having gutters doesn't become such a pain in the arse to keep clear.

>>1123598
Stay mad retard

>>1127063
>>forotten mine
>>200lbs of unexploded german ordnance dropped during the blitz
whyd you say "forotten mine" twice

>>1128393
Mine as in hole dug in ground to extract minerals
Ordinance as in bomb dropped from an aircraft

>>1128403
>guyz help what are jokes
fucking germans i swear to god