Properly working gutters play a role in preserving your historic home. Without them, your home could incur water damage and foundation problems. Imagine the nightmare of needing foundation work on your historic Arlington Heights home. Realize that by ensuring you have gutters that function well, directing water away from your home, you avoid the costly, time-consuming hassles involved in foundation repair.
Gutter Replacement on Historic Arlington Heights Homes
Gutters are a vital part of your roofing system. They’re secured to your home’s roof and are made of aluminum, steel, copper, or plastic. They are designed to direct water away from your home to avoid the erosion of the ground that surrounds your historic home. When functioning properly, gutters channel water away from your home to protect it from costly damages like flooding and mold growth. They also protect your gorgeous landscaping.
Keep Your Historic Home’s Gutters and Downspouts Well Maintained
Historic home gutters and downspouts need to be well maintained in order to function properly over the years. Cleaning gutters is a vital part of ensuring they work optimally, and historic home gutters are no exception. They need to be kept free of leaves, pine needles, shingle granules, and other debris.
When left unattended, debris can block the critical connection between your home’s downspout and gutter, creating unwanted blockage in your gutter system. Take time to clean your gutters and downspouts, or hire a professional to do it if you aren’t comfortable with the task. Gutters can be inspected by climbing a ladder and doing a visual, then carefully removing any debris. Downspouts can be checked by running water from a garden hose down them.
Are Your Home’s Gutters Functioning Properly?
As you know, your historic home needs to be maintained in order to retain its value. As you inspect your home’s roof at least twice a year, be sure to inspect your gutters and downspouts as well.
Do you have standing water in your gutters?
Unfortunately, standing water in your gutters can indicate a major problem. It can be caused by improper gutter installation, incorrect gutter pitch, or simply a blockage in your gutter due to the accumulation of leaves or debris. Animals may have built a nest in your gutters and clogged them completely. Tennis balls, golf balls, and even small toys can get caught in some gutters and hinder their flow of water. A blockage in your downspout may be the problem that’s clogging your gutter system.
Do your gutters leak?
When gutters leak, they aren’t doing their job of guiding water away from your home, and they should be repaired promptly. Gutters may leak due to a break in their seam, or a rusted-out hole in them due to their age. If you see water dripping from your gutters, have it inspected by the pros promptly and repaired properly.
Do you need wider gutters?
The bigger your gutters are, the more water they can accommodate. In spite of the fact that 5-inch gutters are standard, many homeowners prefer 6-inch gutters in order to be able to handle more water. Avoid winter problems like ice dams on your roof, icicles that can cause water damage, and dangerous ice pools on sidewalks due to melting snow. Get reliable protection for your home with gutters and gutter guards.
Historic “Box Gutters”
Wood gutters, also called “Yankee Gutters” or “Box Gutters,” were historically made of rot-resistant wood that performed well for decades. Sometimes these gutters were lined with a metal sheet of copper to help them last longer. They seamlessly blended in and went basically unnoticed in historic homes because they were incorporated into the design of the home. They were often U-shaped or V-shaped. They weren’t protected by gutter guards, so they were usually manually cleaned to keep them working well.
Historic Home Gutter Solutions
Whether you have a Craftsman Bungalow, or another home style in Chicago’s Historical Districts, the right gutter replacement solution will look fabulous on your historical home.
Copper Gutters
When the need for gutter replacement presents itself, many historic homeowners are turning to traditional copper gutters. Copper gutters last 100-plus years with minimal to no maintenance. They begin as bright copper in color, then turn to the color of a dark penny, and finally turn a gorgeous verdigris green color.
K-Style Gutters
These gutters work well on homes dated from the 1950s to the present. While aluminum is the most popular K-style gutter, copper and vinyl K-style gutters are also options. Copper gutters add class to your home.
Half-Round Gutters
These stylish gutters look fabulous on homes built from the 1900s to the 1960s. They have a single- or double-bead rolled edge for added strength. They may be made of aluminum, galvanized steel, or the gold standard for metal gutters: copper.
Historic Home Owners—Don’t Miss Out on Today’s Technology
Just because you own a historic home doesn’t mean you need to miss out on today’s technology. Gutter guards prevent leaves and other debris from entering your gutters and causing them to clog up.
Get Reliable Gutter Installation from the Pros at LeafCo
Why risk the integrity of your home with unreliable gutters? At LeafCo, we understand how frustrating it can feel to have faulty gutters. For over 35 years, we’ve installed premium grade gutters and gutter guards. From start to finish, most jobs take less than one day.
When gutter replacement is done by our team of professionals, you can protect your historic Arlington Heights home and enjoy the benefits of new gutters. We install Mastic seamless aluminum K-style gutters—known for their quality, longevity, low maintenance, and 20-year warranty. We also install specialty gutters: elegant copper, durable steel, and stylish half-round gutters.
Contact us today for a free quote on premium gutter installation for your historic home.
