Pole Barn - Gutters or ditches?

[Justaplain]

If that is an indoor ring you are working those gutters on, the width is about 80'?? A lot of water will be coming down that thing and also a lot of snow buildup if the pitch is less than 7/12. I wonder if gutters of any kind are going to stand the snow and ice you have up there. bcs

 

[riptides]

Ditto what Bird said.
No problems on vinyl.
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( ...we put up the vinyl gutters that he bought at Lowe's.)</font>

We have them on our barn. So far so good. However, assembly proved to be a bi***. I ended up using petrolium jelly on the seams, to get it together. Dish soap worked well too. Assembled on the barn as we went.
I liked the workability, no special tools or saws required. No dents to worry about either.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

They will. My barn is 90 feet wide and my gutters do just fine.

 

[alan40]

I have the same problem with my new building. On one side I have water coming in but it's not in the side of a hill. What is a French drain? I was going to go with a gutter/ditch combo. Do you tile the ditch, use preforated pipe, or just fill a ditch with gravel? As you can proberly tell I have no experiance with this sort of thing so go easy /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

The best is just to get some 4" drain tile, it's black and circular, and attach it to your downspouts. You can take it underground to a space that is good for drain or you can take it overground to a drain area, etc. away from the barn.

 

[riptides]

Hey CowboyDoc,
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( the best is just to get some 4" drain tile, )</font>
I'll be doing that this w/e if the weather holds. Trying to move some water from where I don't want it.

Some 100 feet of tile. Have a walk-behind ditch witch on rent.

I plan on burying the gutter downspouts into this.

Sigh.... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

-Mike Z.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Pete, if you're on red clay over there, you can pretty much forget the French Drain idea. If you go with gutters on the hill side of the barn, put in extra downspouts, and run them right under the barn to move the water.
You also want additional drainage from the high side ground, and you can also run that thru the barn under the floor with black plastic tubing.
There is never too much drainage from a hillside building.

 

[mikim]

I've got pvc gutters on my house the previous owner put up (poorly) and I'm guessing they're 15 years old ... and brittle! they're breaking off all over the place -- I need a new roof anyway - I'll replace them with continous metal when I get the roof done.

 

[northcreek2624]

Pete,I don't live too far from you so this could change your mind.Putting gutters on my pole barn was the worst money I've ever spent.
Basically you will be taking a maintenance free building and making it maintenance intensive.
Mine are clogged year around by leaves,except in the winter when they are clogged by ice(sun melt).
Keep it on the ground where you can work without ladders....Mike

PS If you happen to own a bucket truck,disregard the above. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[weedsportpete]

I see form your profile that you worked as a power plant supervisor.. Did you work in nuclear or fossil? My fiance retired from Nimo last year, I'm still there.

Gutters are very tempting now.. No I don't have a bucket truck, but I only have one tree within 200 feet. The ice may be a problem, but so is the water running into my riding arena. The ground does slope away from the building, but not a big drop off on the hill side. Having dealt with water problems for the last four months, I'm really paranoid about taking care of it.