So I understand the purpose of the Gutter is to protect the foundation of the house. I took a look at neighbors’ houses, most of them have gutter leading just inches away from the house straight to the yard. For the ones that lead to cement sidewalk, I can understand, but for those literally just inches straight to the yard, will that really make any differences compare to without gutter?
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Ideally yes the gutters should drain at least 4 feet from the house, ideally even up to 10 feet.
It it’s draining right next to the house, then that probably isn’t really helping.
Unless their yard has a good slope/grade to it. If the yard has a good enough slope/grade to it down away from the house, then that alone could be enough to help get the water to drain away. But if it’s a pretty flat area then it probably isn’t helping too much.
It is a bit more complicated. Gutters lead the water away from the walls of the house. Both protecting the wall and making sure less water gets to the top of the foundations where it can cause various types of damage from rot to frost damage. Making sure the water find its way just outside the foundations instead of on top of it will matter quite a bit. But the gutters may not end up on the simple ground. There may be further drainage around the foundation and the gutters lead the water to the places with the best drainage. The drainage may be covered and the water have to precipitate through a few inches of dirt but having it land where there is an open drainage pipe taking the water away is much better then just having it land all around the house and potentially washing away the dirt around the foundations.
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