Here are 4 current elevations of a home design we’re working on for Vermont. I don’t want gutters for maintenance considerations, aesthetics and possibly getting ripped of the roof by ice. The low sloped roof at the east elevation should help to contain snow near the front door (your opinion may differ), and the rear (west) door and walk-out basement (south door) have not yet been accounted for. Perhaps a lower sloped shed roof overhang would work on the west side. As you can see, the three areas of water runoff concentration (heavy circle) are all near doors. This is not good, but I don’t see a way around it. A stone border or landscaping will take care of all eave drip but at these three locations where there will be occasional large volumes of water.
Here is the question: I saw a system in the Adirondacks once that really looked nice. It was a gutter system using chains instead of downspouts. The chain went into a buried stone barrel. This part is simple, I would route the chains into a pipe/underground drainage system to daylight somewhere. The hard part is getting water onto the chains without a gutter. Has anyone worked with this type of system. If I could stop the water at those four main valleys and get it onto the chain surface tension would take over. I wonder if anyone has found an attractive way to do this. It would also need to withstand any snow or ice movement.
Any other comments on this layout for snow country would also be appreciated. The floor plan finally worked up upstairs and down so it will be hard to alter the roof line, but we’ll see. The main roof areas are all 12 pitch, and the north side of the garage and main entry pitch at 4:12. Roofing will be architectural shingles. Overhangs at the eave are 18″ and 12″ at the rakes. I will be adding sometype of overhang at the south first level windows, hopefully not to ugly, to shade summer sun. Perhaps I’ll just carry the eave returns all the way across.
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We are discussing similar topic at end of post 86781.46
"We are discussing similar topic at end of post 86781.46"
jimcco - I've been reading this, and the similar part is the gutters. I'm looking for gutterless solutions for now, and any other suggestions regarding the specific house elevations posted.
Not exactly on your topic, but be sure to consider the hazard of snow/ice sliding off a steep roof onto a walkway.
"Not exactly on your topic, but be sure to consider the hazard of snow/ice sliding off a steep roof onto a walkway"
Dan, That is very much on topic and I appreciate the caution. We had considered this, but there must be many more similar tidbits of wisdom tied up into snow country construction.
We drove through the area over the weekend. Houses with steep metal roofs had no snow on them except in valleys and drifts. Houses with low slope metal roofs had huge glaciers creeping over the eaves waiting to pounce on some poor victim. Houses with shingles had most of the snow on the roofs, even steep (12:12) roofs. Old houses had no snow, but for lack of insulation. Ours will be shingled, and I have designed the roof structurally to keep all that snow on it.
tuo... i thought the use of chain downspouts also included gutters
Chains need gutters. Chains also don't work worth a darn during heavy rain. Nor during strong winds combined with heavy rain. I have installed them , actually have one at my own house I am re thinking a solution for.
"The hard part is getting water onto the chains without a gutter. "
Anything that directs the water from the roof to a chain would by definition be a "gutter". To not direct the water, but get it directly from the shingles to chain, I imagine a lot of chains, kind of like a beaded curtain in a doorway back in the 60's. Probably not the architectural appointment you are looking for.
Frank DuVal
You can never make something foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
I would only be doing this at the valleys. I was visualizing a 2x at 45 degrees from eave to eave set a few inches out from the corner. The water could hit this and fall through and down the chains. How much water then can a chain handle? How could the attachment of such a block (perhaps wrapped with brake metal) be made as maintenance proof as possible? All of this sounds really ugly on a conventional home!