Our weekly words often evoke reader response. Such is the case with our past two columns. Although we disagree with these readers' viewpoints, they contain insights that may be worth consideration.

Q: We had some new gutters put in, and when it rains the one outside our bedroom sounds like a dripping faucet. I remember reading somewhere how to fix it but not the details. It was something about ...

Your roof gets most of the credit for protecting your home, but your gutters quietly determine how long that roof actually lasts. When water cannot move cleanly through the system, it backs up, creeps ...