Sure, you can build without gutters. It is part of many traditional architectures around the world. Many of them in high snow or high rainfall areas. I grew up in a house with no gutters, and I personally don't see the attraction, unless you are collecting rainwater. That said, gutters are a cheap solution to water management, which is why they are commonly used.
I think that the points that @wjgjr made are relevant and important. If you live in a home that was built with gutters and then decide to remove them, you are likely to have a host of problems, from water intrusion into lower levels in your house to flooding in your gardens to fungus & algae on your walls, and rot and termites in your walls because water is dripping / splashing / draining down walls that weren't designed for it. Gutterless design requires great drainage around the home, foundations built to handle the extra water, overhangs deep enough to keep water off of walls, or rain ejectors/diffusers to push the water farther out, and land that is sloped appropriately. Not simple. Whether it is cost effective depends on many variables. Most people are going to be stuck with a gutter design because the retrofit costs are more than most people would want to pay.
Adding solar roofs dramatically reduces the friction on a roof. That means more snow sliding off. Under the right conditions, sliding snow and ice have always ripped off gutters, it is just with a traditional roof, the friction is higher and snow more frequently tends to melt rather than sliding. So with a traditional roof it is less of problem. That is less, not zero. Under the right weather conditions, gutters get torn off all over because almost all gutters are lightweight bits of metal or plastic tacked onto fascia boards. By design! You don't want weather conditions ripping chunks of your roof off. I think that gutters and fascias are cheap compared to roofs.
There are a few homes that have designs that would permit removing gutters, but not many that I have seen in the US.
All the best,
BG
I think that the points that @wjgjr made are relevant and important. If you live in a home that was built with gutters and then decide to remove them, you are likely to have a host of problems, from water intrusion into lower levels in your house to flooding in your gardens to fungus & algae on your walls, and rot and termites in your walls because water is dripping / splashing / draining down walls that weren't designed for it. Gutterless design requires great drainage around the home, foundations built to handle the extra water, overhangs deep enough to keep water off of walls, or rain ejectors/diffusers to push the water farther out, and land that is sloped appropriately. Not simple. Whether it is cost effective depends on many variables. Most people are going to be stuck with a gutter design because the retrofit costs are more than most people would want to pay.
Adding solar roofs dramatically reduces the friction on a roof. That means more snow sliding off. Under the right conditions, sliding snow and ice have always ripped off gutters, it is just with a traditional roof, the friction is higher and snow more frequently tends to melt rather than sliding. So with a traditional roof it is less of problem. That is less, not zero. Under the right weather conditions, gutters get torn off all over because almost all gutters are lightweight bits of metal or plastic tacked onto fascia boards. By design! You don't want weather conditions ripping chunks of your roof off. I think that gutters and fascias are cheap compared to roofs.
There are a few homes that have designs that would permit removing gutters, but not many that I have seen in the US.
All the best,
BG
