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Metal Roof Gutters
I have a cabin with a metal roof. The basement wall/floor in the back is seeping moisture. I believe it's from the water being dumped from the roof close to the basement wall. Is there any type of gutter that I can use that won't be ripped down by falling snow in the winter and spring?
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Metal Roof Gutters
That is a problem with metal roofs. I have asphalt shingles so the snow and ice tend to stay on the roof rather than avalanche off taking the gutters with them. Some people use vinyl gutters that clip on and off and just take them off for winter. I leave mine on but keep the roof raked pretty well and they haven't torn off. I did get water in the basement until I installed the gutters.
Some people, especially with hip roofs don't use gutters but just put sheet metal at ground level below the hip joints to collect water and channel it away from the foundation. A more extreme solution is to increase back grading of the building or bury clay or vapour barrier around the foundation at an angle to take water away from the foundation.
If ice stays on the roof and water problems happen in the spring the problem could be ice damming on the roof. I have that problem if I don't keep it raked. It happens on the lower few courses of shingles and it does seem like it comes in through the walls. Roofers put regular shingles on an addition that really needs low-angle shingles. Guess that'll keep me raking till it's time for a new roof.
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Metal Roof Gutters
The other option is the catch the water down below. I prefer a setup called a French Drain around here.
It consists of perforated pipe laid in a trench filled with gravel. You run the pipe down hill and away from the house. The gravel pulls water away from the house and into the perforated pipe. The perforations should be pointed down into the gravel or the pipe will fill with sediment.
If you have a lot of water, then there is probably an impression where the water hits the ground, and that is exactly where you want to put the drain. It is also good to take the gravel right up to the house, but it will still be pretty effective even if you only catch the direct roof runoff.
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Metal Roof Gutters
I agree with AC's notion of dealing with it down below.
The common way of dealing with such off the barn around here is to excavate a shallow trench with the bottom sloping pretty steeply away from the building. Then they lay a strip or several strips of galvanized tin, the stuff bent or rolled into gutters on your roof. The trench is then backfilled with clear stone (usually 3/4" .
The idea is because the drain is below grade it is impervious to snow, etc., but will carry water away from the foundation also.
Best of luck.
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Tiling a foundation is very good and really the best way to keep a dry basement in many cases. Some friends had water in the basement after every hard rain for years and then found that the builder left out the tiles on one side of the house. Duh! I installed a length of perforated 4" flex drain along the front wall of a garage once. The pipe came with a mesh sleeve around it. I think that's supposed to help with sediment.
The drawback of course is that a foundation has to be dug out to install the pipe. Pretty good idea really if a person is up for the work. Retrofitted waterproofing and insulation could be applied at the same time.
AC mentioned the importance of the tiling going downhill. The best drains of this type do exit to light and go downhill from there. A guy who is now a building inspector once told me that it wouldn't be worth doing for the house that was at our camp. The context was preventing frost damage. What he said was that heavy frost damage happens in years where there is a very wet fall followed by a hard snap freeze. Saturated and compacted soil around foundations that freezes is what does the damage. Of course if the foundations were well drained, the damage would happen. However, when you need drainage the soil everywhere is saturated and unless you've got a hill there's no place for the water to drain. He did say that making a sump and pumping drainage well away from the house would work but there probably are better solutions.
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I had a house a few years ago that had seen many owners over the years. One of the previous owners had landscaped the enclosed back yard to slope toward the house. That looked good, but when the rains came, all the water pooled right next to the house and would get several inches deep. This caused all kinds of problems. That is when I discovered the French Drain and perforated pipe.
This was in California, so freezing was not a problem. My trenches only needed to be about six inches deep. But with minimal slope I was able to catch all of that rain water and direct it out of the enclosed yard area with about a hundred feet of pipe. It cured the problem 100%. I took a yard that was always squishy when walking on it to a solid surface that actually grew grass and trees better. Those drains were in for over ten years and were operating fine.
Now I live in an area where freezing is a little more of a problem, so the solution is to make the trenches deeper and cover them with a thicker layer of gravel. I have used the sectional drain pipe as well as the roll variety and they both work. I have seen the mesh covered variety but have never used it. If the drain holes can be placed down and they are still over a layer of a couple of inches or more of gravel, I have never seen a need for the mesh.
I am putting in another one of these drains right now to take the discharge from my water softener rather than putting it into the septic system. It will discharge water and calcium chloride salt below a gravel parking area. This is the same type of salt that you might put on your driveway to deice it in the winter. I will use my backhoe to dig a 12" wide trench that is about 12" deep at the start and will slope at 1/8" per foot for about thirty feet. This trench will have a couple of inches of gravel under the pipe and will then be covered with the same gravel that the area is covered with. In colder climates you will probably need to go deeper.
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I think I'm guilty of mixing two subjects. One is a roof runoff problem and the other is a subsoil moisture problem. The two can be related of course.
I guess I was thinking of tiled foundation footings. If just catching roof runoff cures the problem then shallow trenching and flex drain works great and isn't a huge job. I've heard of some people who want to collect rain water using gravel filled troughs below eaves to filter and run rain water into buried tanks. Perforated flex drain should be easier if you don't want to save the water.
My father in law has a house with a large back yard that slopes toward the house. There's a retaining wall and a sunken patio behind the house. The soil is very sandy here but I've never figured out why he doesn't get water in the basement. Maybe the retaining wall diverts enough water around the house.
In addition to the other solutions mentioned, it looks like I cured a springtime basement water problem last summer. I relocated gutter down spouts, re-graded a drive so more of the yard drained down the drive and improved the back grading to part of the foundation by less than 6". Lots of things other than gutters do work.
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