Unless you live in desert country, water is a pretty big factor in building decisions and techniques. I’m not talking about the water you drink, but rather the water that is sure to rain or snow on your house and property.

Roofs – One of the most important features of your home is the quality of roof. Shake, shingle, and metal are the most common types of roofs. There are a few BUR (built up roofs) using some kind of rubber type material or even asphalt mop down roofing, most commonly used on flat roofs.

As a commercial builder we put flat roofs on half of the buildings we built so I know it can be done successfully. That being said, I still don’t recommend them for houses, especially if you get a fair amount of snow in your area.

So you’ve researched the type roof you want to put on and it sheds water really well. Now what? Most of the houses around here don’t have gutters. WRONG. It doesn’t matter how much snow you get, gutters can be put on to last in the snow country. This is our second year with gutters in snow country. I’ve had as much as 3’ of snow on my roof at any given time. Most of the time it slides off the metal roof. There is zero damage to my gutters so far. It can be done. We placed the gutters a little lower than usual so the ice goes over the top of them. We also used more fasteners than normal. My fasteners are 12” on center. As a side benefit, if you have flower beds next to your house, you won’t have tons of water running off your roof and flooding your planters and destroying flowers.

What’s the big deal you ask? Water, that’s what. One of the most important features of any home is to make sure you get any and all water away from the house. Water kills houses. Water is responsible for mold, mildew, rot, and flooding. Get the water away from the house.

Sooner or later that snow is going to melt and having all of it just pile up next to your foundation and walls isn’t the best situation. It also isn’t good for the rain to fall off your roof and splash water and dirt on your siding all year long. Gutters do double duty at our house. They help catch rain and snow melt and channel that water into a cistern. Every drop we catch is one less drop we have to pump from our well. We use the cistern water for the gardens and to water the horses.

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Another common mistake some people make is to eliminate footing drains. Especially if the subsoil is clay. Most clays don’t absorb water so the ground water will go to the path of least resistance and that may be under your concrete floor or crawlspace. The other mistake made with footing drains is that some people put the drains on top of the footings. They need to go BESIDE the footings in order to work properly. Footing drains are made of perforated pipe. Water goes in the holes in the top of the pipe and back out the bottom holes. If the pipe is laid alongside the concrete footings it will eventually go into the ground away from your house and not into it. Also DO NOT use the footing drains as drain lines for your downspout drains. You need to have two sets of pipes running around your house. One set of perforated for the footing drains and the other is non perforated for your downspouts.