Our old house in New England has a steep pitched metal roof and no gutters. Our front door is right under a roof valley, so it is unusable on rainy days and all of winter. The water running down the valley has rotted out our building sill, and we have to get it replaced. I don’t want the same thing to happen to the new sill! Installing gutters is not currently an option because the winter snow avalanches would just rip them away. I have read about snow guards, but have never seen any in real life. How well do they work, are they hard to install, will they work when 18” of snow falls on the roof? Will the snow guards slow down the avalanches enough to keep gutters in place? Alternatively, should we just build a porch to divert precipitation further from the foundation? Any advice is welcome!
Why can’t you install the gutters below the pitch line of the roof so the snow clears it but the water falls into it?
Should be an easy fix. You need snow guards. I’m surprised whoever put the roof on didn’t install them. You should probably have them anywhere that people walk below the roof line as a safety measure. They will hold back the snow and then as it melts it will run into the gutter you need to install. There are lots of different kinds but I would avoid plastic ones or ones that secure only by an adhesive. Depending on the slope, panel profile, and usual snow load you may need a couple of layers of them rather than just one row.
You need gutters and roof guards. The gutters are the only thing that will stop water from splashing on to the side of your house which will cause rotting of any wood. Siding is not designed to protect from water going up. Roof guards will stop avalanches of snow on the roof so your gutters will be safe.
You need to hire a drainage specialist. you need gutters designed for the snow load of your roof and you need proper drainage to take it away from the house. If you already have rotting sills your in trouble. It’s going to be much more expensive to ignore the drainage than to have it done.