Gutter Should Continue To Drain

This seems to be a pretty common problem with gutter drains. The people installing the drains main concern of course is to get the water off of the roof and away from the building. They even went so far as to put an area drain in the concrete sidewalk to collect the water draining off of the driveway.

This looks like a great idea when the weather is dry. But as you can see I took this photograph right after it rained. Look at how wet the block wall and the stairs are.

This gutter should have been continued down to about 2 inches above the sidewalk. This would eliminate excess splashing and water draining onto the block wall. The water splashing onto the block wall could create problems later on down the road.

One of the problems this could create would be any plans in the flower bed, their roots would be attracted to the moist block wall and over time the roots could grow in between the mortar joints and eventually damaging the wall.