I have a standard rectangle layout roof. There are gutters in the front and the back of the house.
There are down spouts on one end of the house only. (front and back)
Is this typical? Or should there be down spouts on all 4 corners.
Depends how big the house is, and the slope of the gutters, and how much rain usually falls. But yeah, on a 'typical' 24x60 cookie cutter ranch, a downspout at each corner would be expected. Take a hose up on the roof, and run water into both gutters. Do they slope all the way from one end to the other? If so, you will need to rehang and reslope the high half before you add new downspouts, unless you just want them for bad storms as overflow, like when the whole gutter fills.
Sounds like your builder was shaving pennies to make a price point. Unless you have noticed the gutters overflowing a lot, or have noticed roof leaks or yard puddles, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.
-- aem sends...
The slope is good on the gutters. I have not noticed any problems.
But I am going to add gutters to my garage and was wondering how many down spouts.
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We're in agreement here.
Not so much here. In Arizona 4 downspouts would be overkill. In Mississippi maybe not enough.
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That's really where the truth lies. Ask your neighbors if the recent rains were typical- what do they have?
Jim
There should be sufficient downspouts to handle the runoff. If your gutters are not over-flowing, you have enough.
There's a trade-off between capacity, cost, drainage, and esthetics. In your case, perhaps the builder decided the house looked better with the downspouts out of sight? Or maybe putting them on all four corners would generate a drainage problem?
Depends on the grading around the house. You can have a downspout any place the grade slopes downhill. Level is a no-no for that corner.
Joe
It depends on local weather conditions, the size and design of the home and gutters and down spouts and local code. You will need a lot more in a hurricane area of Florida than in Death Vally desert
If there were a down spout at each end of the gutters on the front of your house...
That would mean the high point of the gutters would be in the middle sloping downwards to both ends of the house. The front gutter would make a noticeable upside-down "V". Very ugly and would draw attention to the gutter and downspout.
Right now, the gutter makes a sloop to just one side, and is unnoticeable by visitors.
Looks good on paper, but...if the gutter is level and downspouts are at each end, then it should drain just fine.
Having downspouts at both ends depends what the landscape is like; perhaps there is pavement or other features where you do not want water.
Depends even more on the length between downspouts (roof area serviced). Whether or not the ground is level below won't matter at the corner if there isn't sufficient outlet capacity the gutters will simply overflow in heavy rain.
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I think it depends how you slope the gutters, terrain, appearance, downspout size, annual rainfall, etc. Local library has building code references for your perusal. Lucky folks have no gutters and none to maintain.
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