Metal building with no gutters?

[wolc123]

I am cold blooded I guess, and I don’t think I could survive south of around Gettysburg PA. One of the keys to surviving the winter up here, near the Canadian border, is a woodstove. Even though it’s close to zero outside right now, it is comfortable and about 80 inside.

 

[Torvy]

I am cold blooded I guess, and I don’t think I could survive south of around Gettysburg PA. One of the keys to surviving the winter up here, near the Canadian border, is a woodstove. Even though it’s close to zero outside right now, it is comfortable and about 80 inside.

For what it is worth, all of my northern years were 2-6 degrees of latitude north of you...but a lot further west. Most winters we had at least 30 days below zero. One winter we had 30 consecutive days with a high at or below zero and sixty below freezing.

 

[jaxs]

Texas weather can be anything except boring. When asked if weather in Texas is injoyable,the standard answer is "if you find you don't like the weather,wait a few minutes and it will change". The low in Presidio County today is 25* the high is expected to be 71*. If you feel your weather is unbearably hot one day this coming summer,Google Presidio weather and it will likely make a chill up your spine.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

How do you handle the water coming off of the roof(s)?

I just let gravity do it's job. If the building wasn't there it would just hit the ground anyway.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

First: congratulations on the new building!

I have to admit that I am not a gutter fan. I have seen way too many issues with them over the years; clogging, leaves and debris removal, rotting the eaves and fascia due to poor installation, leaks...

A geotextile/filter fabric will clog with time. Period. A widely known company swore that their wouldn't, but of course it did, despite being surrounded with pea gravel. Year one had water flowing out the French drain, year two a dribble, nothing since.

Getting the overall drainage on your site right first is definitely the way to go. When the building is higher than the surroundings, and there are swales to divert flowing water, you are in great shape. The bigger the drop that you can engineer in, the less you have to worry about ponding. Given your site, I would think about how you could add some height to your building base and surrounding area to get the water well away from the flat terrace that you have. I would be thinking about how water from the building isn't going to be a problem for the house and driveway.

Water is the kiss of death for pressure treated posts.

So, a plastic lined trench like @s219 suggested will get your moisture away from your foundations. If you are worried about other water getting into/under it, make it wider and slope the ground into it to create a reasonable drainage. A plastic lined swale won't clog and will channel water away from your building for a long, long time.

I would make the eaves as large as you can to keep water off of your building, and keep water farther away from the foundation. Your builder should be able to advise you on what wind loads the metal can take in your area.

All the best,

Peter

Pea gravel is a big mistake around drain lines. It will eventually plug solid. Around here, 2" washed round drain rock goes around the lines, and you don't even need geotextile fabric.

 

[ponytug]

@Larry Caldwell Thanks. I agree with you. Although when I asked around locally (and the manufacturer of the drain pipe), 3/8" pea gravel is what everyone recommended. Yes, in hindsight, if I were doing it again, I would definitely redo it with coarse, angular rock. Personally, I don't see how geotextile has any lifetime except in sand or gravel.

All the best,

Peter

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

We are installing seamless 6” gutters on our new building... it sits atop a hill, but we are on clay loam... I don’t need more water next to the building. We have a few trees, but the 6” seamless on the house wash the leaves right out.

 

[Ken45101]

I had gutters put on the horse barn. Eventually I ripped them back off. One of the problems was that the downspouts created permanent mud holes. Also had problems with snow and ice sliding off.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I had gutters put on the horse barn. Eventually I ripped them back off. One of the problems was that the downspouts created permanent mud holes. Also had problems with snow and ice sliding off.

Did you have snow guard installed?

 

[Torvy]

It's a bad idea to build a building and not have an eave gutter, because an eave gutter is necessary to protect the foundation of the house.

That seems counter-intuitive. The gutters concentrate the rain to downspouts and focuses a higher volume of water to locations near the foundation.

Without gutters, the same volume of rain is spread across the entire roofline. The risk to the foundation is when the rain hits the ground. A well-designed drainage system should disperse the rain when it hits the ground (rocks) and channel the water away from the foundation. (I'm thinking a type of French drain).