According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), maintaining your roof gutters and downspouts will help direct water away from your home's foundation and avoid damage due to moisture buildup. For the best protection, make sure your gutter system includes lateral piping that routes water at least 5 feet from your house.
The size of the gutters you need for your building depends on the square footage of the roof area being drained. Traditionally, four or five-inch sizes are sufficient, but greater surface areas my need to have gutters with larger channels.
A gutter system actually provides some protection for two story homes. Instead of rain initially falling on the top roof, and then running off onto lower sections of the roof, the gutter system will collect the rain and transport it to the ground.
Because gutters are installed in sections, making repairs or replacing damaged parts is easy. In many cases, only the damaged section needs to be replaced, reducing costs while maintaining the protection gutters provide.
Moisture accumulating on your roof is bad news. The longer water accumulates in a gutter or other location on a roof, the more time it has to undermine wooden protective and support structures. Wet wood attracts insects and rodents, too.
If there are several trees in your yard, it's probably a good idea to clean out your gutters - or hire a service to handle the job - once a month. It doesn't take long for leaves to build in your gutters and create pools of standing water that slowly eat through the gutter.