"Rainhandler" anyone using it? opinions?

[Richard]

Gutters, Rain Gutters, Rain Gutters, Copper Gutters, Gutter Guards, Rainhandler Gutters

I might need to put new guttering up when we add this new section. I will NOT have easy access to a higher part of the house (main roof) without climbing onto another roof.

The pitch of my roof is 12/12 and I really do NOT want to do that. Thus far, I've been using a 24' ladder, fully extended to reach the gutters.

I'm wondering if this rain handler might be a better idea for the main roof, allow the water to then spray to the new roof that's going over the deck and have traditional guttering from there down to my drains away from the house (I've got scheduel 40 pipes taking downspouts away and into the woods)

Would a 12/12 pitch help or hurt the logic of the rainhandler system?

 

[Tig]

Interesting product.
If the rain will drop on the other roof anyway I don't see the advantage of this system. My last house had sections of roof where one roof drained un-aided onto another level of roof. I saw no problems in 18 years.
I am planning to do the same on my next house so that I do not have to clean eaves troughs on the upper roof.

 

[Larry Jones]

A house I had had upper gutters draining onto a lower roof. I had to remove the top gutters for replacement and thought I could get by with out them at all. When heavy rains splashed down onto the lower roof it would get up under the flashing on the side of the house and leak inside, not to mention the extra water that got on the siding helping the paint age faster.

 

[Tig]

I guess I should have mentioned I had a 6:12 pitch on the upper and lower roof, 18" overhang and vinyl siding. Last winter we even had up to 4' of snow on parts of the roof at times. I did not have to clear the roof and we had no problems.
That being said, our rains may not compare to the heavy rains in other areas.

 

[tanglefoot]

I tried them when we built our house 15 years ago. After 6 months I took them down and installed gutters. They didn't help move the water away from the house. At valleys the runoff still came down in a solid stream.
Butch

 

[daBear]

Tried them and did not like them. If you NEVER get a heavy rain and if you do not require water to be removed from the area next to the foundation they might be ok. But heavy rains do a job in these and they certainly do not move water away from a foundation.

 

[firedog]

I think the rainhandler will work well for you for this application. We've been using them for years. I really hate gutters. (besides clogging there was always ot issues in the facia - however with hardiplank for replacement, I may reconsider gutters)
The idea of the RH is to disperse the water over a 2-3' area rather than a defined drip line, which is tough on flowers, shrubbery, etc. If you have a shingle roof, the RH may reduce erosion problems from the upper roof runoff.

(We get heavy downpours here and the RH works fine.)

 

[Richard]

Here's picture of the front...you can see without the deck there why I don't want to walk on the roof!

Now, what you CAN'T see here is the second roof. We're adding onto the kitchen on the left, sort of an octagon shaped room in logs. There will be a roof over that blends into the existing roof somehow. I've attached another picture showing where they've started to remove the existing roof parts.

On the RIGHT side of the house is where you don't see the 'new' roof. We are going to add another roof that will tuck in underneith the existing roof... this problaby isn't making sense.

Trying again.. on the right side of the house, we will have some ceiling joists attached to the wall, above the windows, yet below the current roofline. So, I COULD take the existing guttering off the existing roof and the water will simply fall to the (not yet existing) new roof. Then, on the new roof, I could take my guttering/downspout to where my CURRENT downspout is, and let it be taken away from the house.

It's on the UPPER roof section that I'm wondering about either:

A) taking ALL the guttering off so I won't ever have it clog up on me and let it fall to the "lower" roof... or

B) install soemthing like this rain guard on the UPPER roof, so the water will 'spray' onto the lower roof, easier than simply crashing to the lower roof...and then still, allowing the guttering to collect it on the lower roof and take it away.

In no way, do I plan nor propose, allowing anything to let the water spray or dump from any roof, down to the ground. ONLY from the higher roof to the lower roof.

Unfortunately, the lower roof doesn't yet exist to help illustrate this.

Cleaning out the guttering on the left/right side of the house is a REAL pain in the hiney and always an exercise of telling who ever is with me (if anyone ) "the first thing you do if I fall is see if I'm breathing, then call 911 right away"

I really want to get away from ANY need to be on any of the roof if at all possible.

Hence, my wondering if I could use this rain guard on the higher side only?

 

[Tig]

That looks very nice, Richard. Be sure to post pics as this addition progresses.

 

[CurlyDave]

I had a situation where one roof stopped above another and there was no gutter on the upper roof.

The water from the upper roof hit the lower one, splashed back and rotted out my wooden windows. I could tell it was rainwater because it only rotted them on the bottom part of the windows, where the splash hit.

When I rebuilt the house, I gave the upper roof a 2' overhang, which cured the problem...

 

[moeh1]

I've got them on my cabin. I'm in the trees, so gutters were out for me as a maintenance issue. I ordered and installed extra braces when I bought them as extra insurance. They go up quic and are really strong.
My wife is not impressed with them, they really only move the rain out a little 6-12"and spread it a bit 4-6" in an 8' drop, but probably better than letting it drop right onto you other roof.

 

[schmism]

perhaps not a serious worry in TN but farther north... what happens with ice.

ever seen icicles hanging off the edge of a roof? now you give the ice a 4" wide space with slats to build up on? I can see that thing holding on to like 30lbs of ice per liner foot Perhaps not huge issue for the plastic rainthingie, but your lower roof would NOT like the impact after the rainthingie breaks away from the facia and crashes down on it carrying with it hundreds of pounds of ice.

i say just remove the upper gutter and let the water fall on the lower roof. then deal with it there.

if worried about long term cleaning go with gutter caps. Still not convinced they work in heavy rains, but a lot of my neighbors have them and are happy with them.

 

[LBrown59]

I had to install under ground drain pipe allong the 2 end walls of this building to prevent roof water run off from running off the roof into the building.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk286/lb59/100_2321.jpg​

"Rainhandler"
Would not have handled that and I'd still be getting water inside using it.

 

[TIDE HSV]

Well, I've owned them too long to take them back. I'm just trying to keep a lot of water off an outside door to a sunroom. They will be on the downhill side of the house. The soil is sand-based (top of a sandstone mountain), and many houses up here have no gutters at all. I'll bookmark the thread and report back...