Are you thinking about getting some new guttering installed but aren’t sure which option to go for? Did you know that there are a number of reasons why an open faced downspout is recommended more and more often for your roof gutters and building guttering?
If you want to know why, then you’re in the right place. In this article, we’re going to look at a number of issues associated with open faced downspouts.
- What are they
- What are they good for
- And why might they be the right option for your construction or building?
In this article, we’re going to have a look.
While you might not have spent that much time thinking about guttering options in the past it’s good to know exactly what’s going to work for your building or roof. There are plenty of good reasons to choose open faced downspouts. So if you want to know what they are, keep reading for all the info you might need on open downspouts and more.
What is an open faced downspout anyway?
You can probably already guess that an open faced downspout has an open face that faces outwards. This is unlike traditional downspouts from gutters that tend to have a closed face or be fully enclosed.
Both types of downspouts have their benefits, but there are actually a number of key reasons why you might want to choose an open faced variant—especially if you live in an area that has particularly cold winters.
More and more roof installers and other guttering experts are opting for open faced spouts as a better alternative to more traditional downspouts. That’s for a number of reasons. So let’s have a look at them:
What are the benefits of open faced downspouts?
- The first reason why more people are opting for open faced downspouts is because they prevent popped seams due to ice build-up. That’s why they’re especially good in cold weather climates. When Water enters a downspout and freezes it expands, this can sometimes crack or burst open the downspout itself. Obviously, when the spout is open faced this isn’t really a problem, not only is it harder for water to freeze there but if it does it will have more space to expand and therefore cause less damage.
Open faced spouts allow water to expand so they don’t cause problems associated with closed face spouts. The seam will normally be behind the downspout and a popped one can cause your guttering to leak. This could even lead to the wall behind the spout deteriorating and requiring expensive repairs.
Water damage and even penetration through your walls can be expensive to fix, but all this can be avoided with open faced downspouts. With concrete or cinder walls, penetration can occur, while metal roofs can suffer rusting. Stucco walls could completely fall apart. If that isn’t enough of a reason to choose open faced downspouts.
2. Another benefit is that open faces allow light to go into the downspout itself. What this means is that the sunlight can thaw any ice if it is there, reducing ice build-up and any issues this might cause (like blockages). While you’ve hopefully avoided cracked spouts with an open face, ice build-up still isn’t great.
It can make the spout much heavier and lead to damage, and it can also block water further up the spout. This can be avoided as sunlight is allowed into the open face and therefore helps the ice to melt, moving it down and away from the spout and freeing up space (and weight).
When ice builds up in standard downspouts, many issues can occur. The biggest of these issues is that with a regular closed downspout, when ice builds up this can put a massive weight on the downspout which can in-turn pulls it off the wall.
You can imagine how inconvenient and costly this could be, especially having to get repairs done during snowy and icy periods of weather. This pulling away from the wall can sometimes occur when the temperature warms up slightly and the ice begins to shift, pulling it all away from the wall at once.
This can cause a ton of damage not just to your downspout, but also to the rest of your guttering as some come down with it, and even your walls. Anything below the sput could also be damaged massively, even a vehicle or person! So you’ll need to be extremely careful, and it’s another reason why open faced downspouts are such a good idea.
3. If those two reasons aren’t enough, there are more. One other big positive for open faced downspouts is that they allow an increased air intake, which can in-turn improve water flow capacity. Traditionally, vacuum gulfs can form in normal downspouts.
With open faced ones, this isn’t as much of a problem. When the water can escape faster from the pipes, there’ll be less chance of uncontrollable gutter overflows if it rains a lot. That means you won’t be at as much risk of damage from water to your property.
Open faced spouts are also easier to inspect from damage and blockages, as well as easier to clean. That’s because you can see what’s going on in there just by looking at it. This has a number of key benefits and can make it much easier to carry out inspections and even make repairs.
There are simply loads of benefits to open faced downspouts and not too many negatives. They provide a much better flow of both water and air, are easier to evaluate and repair, and aren’t really any more expensive.
if you live in a cold climate and are worried about ice build-ups, you’ve got even more reasons to choose open faced downspouts. They’re much better for your home in cold weather and avoid many of the problems associated with ice-build up that comes with traditional closed face downspouts. Have a look at getting open faced spouts for your guttering today.
*feature image from lightroad
