Can I toss some gutters on this Amish garage?

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Ahoragi

Burning Hunk
Jun 12, 2024
117
Western PA
We have an issue with a moat forming around this garage. It does have a french drain all around it but the rain here is overwhelming most of the time. I know the lack of gutters is the reason and I plan to fix that. I was wondering if I can just toss some gutters on this or is there something I should do with the facia board to improve it beforehand? It seems like it is 3/4 x 4" which doesn't seem like much but it's a small garage so I wasn't sure.
 

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Should be fine hanging gutters on that. If you don’t want to add gutters dig down about 6”-12”, about a foot wide centered where the water falls and put gravel. My garage has been like this for years, once in a while I have to level / add gravel… but it’s way better than cleaning gutters.
 
Make sure to have the gutter behind the drip edge (or additional flashing) to protect the fascia
 
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Should be fine hanging gutters on that. If you don’t want to add gutters dig down about 6”-12”, about a foot wide centered where the water falls and put gravel. My garage has been like this for years, once in a while I have to level / add gravel… but it’s way better than cleaning gutters.
Make sure to have the gutter behind the drip edge (or additional flashing) to protect the fascia
They graveled the pad prior to setting the garage there. It's about 6" deep all around and underneath. They also have a french drain under the gravel along the sides where the water runs off the roof. The entire area with gravel floods and water rises into the garage. The garage has a floor of horizontal 2x4's so water seeps up in between the boards. I currently have a hose hooked up to a pump that I run when I am able to and it pumps out enough water to keep it from rising into the garage.

Funny thing is a couple ground hogs have dug down into the gravel and kind of hang out under there. I've seen them pop out and run off soak and wet because they almost drowned in the standing water.

Behind the drip edge it will be. Thanks.
 

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With a metal roof I believe 6” gutters is recommended, anything less the rain just shoots over the gutters. For downspouts you want long ones, say 10’ long to get the water as far away from the building as possible.

Hard to tell in the pictures, you want about 1/2” overhang on the metal roof. Too big, the water shoots over, too small the water can get into the fascia board. As Stoveliker mentioned in Post #3 the gutter should be tucked behind the drip cap.
 
Gutters should make a huge difference because right now you're putting essentially the entire roof's runoff directly into that gravel bed. I'd get the downspouts well beyond the gravel pad, preferably to somewhere that naturally drains downhill.
 
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We have an issue with a moat forming around this garage. It does have a french drain all around it but the rain here is overwhelming most of the time. I know the lack of gutters is the reason and I plan to fix that. I was wondering if I can just toss some gutters on this or is there something I should do with the facia board to improve it beforehand? It seems like it is 3/4 x 4" which doesn't seem like much but it's a small garage so I wasn't sure.

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Yeah, gutters should take a huge load off that drain. That fascia looks a little light, but plenty of small sheds have gutters hung off similar boards.
 
I was able to work on this the last two days. First picture was right side and it had a straight drip edge that was easy to get the gutters up behind it and sloped. I sprinkled a little blue pill dust on the downspout to extend it a little further out.

The other side was not so great. The drip edge was not level and I could not get the gutter behind the drip edge and maintain a slope so I will be adding additional flashing soon. The gutters also hang down about 2" below the fascia board and I am not happy about that so some type of reinforcement will be needed if these are to handle the weight of snow and ice.

Seems to be working out.
 

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I was able to work on this the last two days. First picture was right side and it had a straight drip edge that was easy to get the gutters up behind it and sloped. I sprinkled a little blue pill dust on the downspout to extend it a little further out.

The other side was not so great. The drip edge was not level and I could not get the gutter behind the drip edge and maintain a slope so I will be adding additional flashing soon. The gutters also hang down about 2" below the fascia board and I am not happy about that so some type of reinforcement will be needed if these are to handle the weight of snow and ice.

Seems to be working out.

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    I’d definitely reinforce that low side before winter, because two inches below the fascia could put a lot of leverage on the hangers once snow and ice start building up. It’s a bit like a Winbeatz Casino https://winbeatz-official.fr/ setup where everything looks fine under light use, but the real test for the games and slots comes when the load starts piling on.
Looks like it’s coming together pretty well. I’d probably add the extra flashing on that second side and some stronger support under the low-hanging section, especially if you get a decent snow or ice load there in winter.
 
They graveled the pad prior to setting the garage there. It's about 6" deep all around and underneath. They also have a french drain under the gravel along the sides where the water runs off the roof. The entire area with gravel floods and water rises into the garage. The garage has a floor of horizontal 2x4's so water seeps up in between the boards. I currently have a hose hooked up to a pump that I run when I am able to and it pumps out enough water to keep it from rising into the garage.

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Funny thing is a couple ground hogs have dug down into the gravel and kind of hang out under there. I've seen them pop out and run off soak and wet because they almost drowned in the standing water. At this point they’ve basically turned the place into their own little underground Betlive Casino https://betlive-fr.fr/ popping in and out like they’re checking which game or slot is worth the risk that day.

Behind the drip edge it will be. Thanks.

Gutters should at least stop feeding that whole gravel bed every time it rains. Those groundhogs have apparently been doing flood testing for free :D
 
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It looks like the gutter is dumping the water upslope onto the grass on the one side? Maybe it's just the pic?
If so thought i'd add some black corrugated pipe to dump it downslope wherever that may be.
 
Also you can bend the drip edge to pull it out more to help it drip into the gutter and not behind it.
 
Also you can bend the drip edge to pull it out more to help it drip into the gutter and not behind it.
I'd use flashing instead; it's a metal roof, water will flow off fast, many drops will spatter up and behind a drip edge that's bent outward.
 
I'd use flashing instead; it's a metal roof, water will flow off fast, many drops will spatter up and behind a drip edge that's bent outward.
Yeah i''d do both, bend existing and flashing behind it if you can get it up in there.
 
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