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Should gutters be placed above the garage door? I have a roof that peaks like a mountain (hip?). Most houses I see have gutters around the house but the roof above garage is largely ignored. I will be installing gutters soon on my house (it has none) and I am curious on what others have done.

Roof

^^^

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Garage

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    I think I misunderstood. Is the peak perpendicular to the garage door, or parallel?
    – Tester101
    Commented Jul 29, 2010 at 15:45
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    @Tester101: Perpindicular
    – Engineer2021
    Commented Jul 29, 2010 at 16:33
  • Does water pour off the roof in front of the garage door when it rains?
    – Tester101
    Commented Jul 29, 2010 at 17:37
  • @Tester101: Yes, I said to my Wife that we may need to look at putting gutters there to prevent the sheet of rain from coming down on top of us, but I looked at some newer homes (mine is 20 years old) and they don't have gutters and I would have thought they should seeing as they have a similar roof style
    – Engineer2021
    Commented Jul 29, 2010 at 18:38
  • A gutter is a lot cheaper than repairing the driveway if water damages it. Most people just don't realize how much damage water can do.
    – Tester101
    Commented Jul 29, 2010 at 23:59

2 Answers 2

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Gutters are for water management. If you have a paved drive and it drains well then you don't need gutters in front of the door. If water tends to flow back toward the garage when it runs off the roof then you should put a gutter in. Having a gutter will mean less splash on the bottom of your garage door which may help the door last longer.

What others do with their gutters is fairly irrelevant to your situation.

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Water is a very damaging force, over time it could cause a rut or divots in the driveway. Putting up a gutter will prevent this, for the cost of the gutter it is worth it.

If the roof slopes down to the garage door put a gutter, if not you don't need one. The only reason you would need one is if the rain water is draining off the roof onto the driveway in front of the garage door.

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  • My folks house is from 1974, and never had gutters on the garage above the cement driveway. 46 years later there's a small, maybe 1/16 inch deep visible line where the rain falls off the roof and hits the cement, exposing rock aggregate in the concrete. This is in MN, so there's plenty of rain/snow/ice. YMMV, but the damage from cement erosion is rather small, and I'd say it'd be 100 years before enough erosion would occur to do enough damage to the concrete driveway to warrant repair.
    – user30371
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 17:06
  • The gutters themselves (on other parts of the house) lasted 30 years before needing replacement. If they'd have been put above the garage, the cost of the additional gutters, and the additional cost of replacement would have far exceeded the minimal amount of damage to the concrete driveway.
    – user30371
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 17:07

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