Depending on your roof, proper gutters in Southern Louisiana can be pretty key. When we bought the house, it only really had gutters on the front – the second story gutters. For just about the entire first floor, which is quite long, there were none. And the 2nd floor gutters just drain to the walkways on both sides on the house.
Not a huge deal, except the people that owned the property before us neglected it. All that water was collecting under the house, eroding the dirt around the piers and bring them down with it. It’s one thing you can do/stay on top of that makes a big difference in the long run. House (re)leveling is a bitch.
In the picture below, you can see where one of the 2nd floor downspouts just sticks down at the end – the rest of it was knocked off when I had some mulberry trees removed.
I would very much like to not have it re-secured, but instead to have it closed off, and re-run at the front of the house, so it can drain to the front sidewalk. Of course, I’d do it on the other side as well. The walkway you see here is brick in theory, but it’s mostly brick supporting a nice layer of dirt/mud and weeds. I’d like to have it re-done, but this isn’t the time. And while I do like the brick, there’s a good bit of water that gets dumped there, and it doesn’t get a whole lot of direct sunlight. That make for slick bricks.
I’ve also been thinking about getting a rain barrel for the back of the house, so I can then just divert it to the plants in the back yard. I know that’s how the yellow fever became such a big deal, but we know better now. And we have science, medicine, and technology like screens to help prevent that. Also, where I’d like to put it is quite narrow – ~16″ – and while I haven’t looked very hard, I haven’t seen anything that’d fit. It might be a neat project to make one though, for my needs. I’d rather do something like that then spend $200 on one, which with the cost of water from city, would take FOREVER. Hrm…
I reckon some screens or something to cover the gutters would then be in order. Perhaps I should just do that anyway. I spent some time the other morning, just before this days-long rain, cleaning out a ~30ft length of gutter that was chock full of leaves, dirt, etc. And for me, the quickest way to do that is just to get on the roof. As far as I’m concerned, the less time I spend perched on the edge of the roof, the better.