A one-inch rain on a 2,000-square-foot roof drops about 1,200 gallons of water. If the gutters are clogged, sagging, or too small for the roof, most of that lands within a foot of the foundation. Do that thirty times a year and you have a wet basement, a cracked wall, or both.
The most common problems we find on Metro East and St. Louis homes are simple: gutters pitched the wrong way so water pools at the far end, downspouts that dump right at the corner of the house, and five-inch gutters on roofs that need six-inch capacity. None of these cost much to fix compared with foundation work.
Seamless aluminum gutters, formed on site to the exact length of each run, don't have the joints that leak on sectional gutters. Properly sized downspouts with extensions that carry water six to ten feet from the house solve most drainage problems outright.
If you're seeing water in the basement after storms, have the gutters looked at first. We check pitch, capacity, and downspout discharge as part of any free roof inspection, and gutter work is usually a one-day job.