Are rain gutters and downspouts required to prevent soil erosion and water seepage into the foundation from rainwater runoff from the roof?
Conventional wisdom is that water falling directly off the roof to the ground near the foundation will cause water seepage into the house foundation. Actually, water falling from the roof continually impacting at the same points causes soil erosion/trenching near the foundation. The trenching allows the water to accumulate in a pool and have time to seep into the foundation. The RainbreakerZ prevents the trenching effect by breaking the water stream into small uniform droplets that do not have the weight to cause trenching. In addition, the individual droplets do not continually impact at same point but are spread over a wide area. The normal practice of grading the soil near the foundation to slope away from the house will also promote rainwater flow away from the foundation before it has time to seep into the foundation. Good homebuilding practice is to slope the ground a minimum of 1 inch per foot for the first 4 to 6 feet.
