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Gutters and Drainage Improvements

Gutters

Limiting the moisture intrusion under a concrete slab foundation on houses built in the arid Southwest is a good thing.

It is a common misconception that we do not need Gutters or drainage here in the Sonoran Desert.  After all, this is the desert... how much rain and moisture can we possibly get? Nothing could be farther from the truth!  Moisture comes from a variety of places, including landscape irrigation. Additionally, the summer monsoon season can produce severe flash flooding that results in standing water on properties with poor drainage.  All of that moisture has to go somewhere.

MYTH: Sonoran Desert Homes do NOT need Gutters.

Recently, I have heard about a local foundation repair contractor’s claim that gutters and drainage alone were viable alternatives to the MoistureLevel Smart Foundation System. While I have always maintained that maintaining proper drainage and limiting the moisture intrusion under a slab on houses built in the arid Southwest are a good thing and should be encouraged, it alone will not solve the problem. We recommend those techniques to customers as a method to control additional moisture getting under the slab, but not to correct existing damage.

Gutters alone will not address a foundation problem that already exists.

What I don’t agree with is that gutters and drainage alone are a viable alternative in lieu of a MoistureLevel Smart Foundation System, and the logic is fairly straightforward. The point that I want to make is that gutters and maintaining proper drainage really has no immediate, large effect on the area that is experiencing the problem….. the place where the moisture accumulates the most, the center of the slab.  THAT is where the focus needs to be.

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