Q: I have a cabin with a flat roof. We don’t have gutters because the snow and ice would rip them off. But not having gutters to divert the water is damaging the exterior of the building. What are my alternatives? —Matthew Schwab, via email
A: First of all, your roof probably isn’t entirely flat. “In the roofing world, we recognize a flat roof to mean that there’s still at least a two per cent slope,” says Russell Richman, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and a building science consultant. And you can use gutters (a.k.a. eavestroughs) with such a roof. People do. Plus, the kind of eavestrough busting damage that you’re concerned about could happen even if the roof wasn’t flat. In fact, “a sloped roof could be more problematic depending on the specific context,” says Richman.
But back to your question. You have several alternatives to eavestroughs, but Richman would suggest drip edges: metal, L-shaped brackets that stick out further than the edge of the roof. “They might be an inch or two off the fascia,” he explains. This means that water isn’t trickling down the side of the wood cabin. Instead, you’re forcing it to fall away from the wall. “It might,
