Nobody gets excited about gutters. They are also the reason a lot of Omaha-area basements are wet, and replacing them costs a fraction of what waterproofing a foundation does after the fact.
The most common problem is not clogging, it is sizing. A five-inch gutter with two downspouts handles a modest roof fine. Put that same system on a large, steep roof in Gretna or Elkhorn and a hard summer rain overwhelms it in minutes. The water sheets over the front edge, lands in a trench right at your foundation, and finds the basement.
The second problem is fastening. Spike-and-ferrule hangers loosen every time the metal expands and contracts, which in this climate is constantly. Hidden hangers screwed into solid fascia hold, and if the fascia itself is soft, no hanger will help until the wood is replaced.
The third is pitch. A gutter must fall roughly a quarter inch for every ten feet of run toward the outlet. Level gutters hold standing water, which grows algae, freezes in January, and pulls the run off the house under the weight.
Seamless is worth it for a simple reason: seams are where gutters fail. Rolling the material to length on site means the only joints on the whole house are at corners and outlets, where they can be sealed properly and inspected.
Finally, extend the downspouts. A downspout that dumps eighteen inches from the wall is just a slower way of putting the roof water back on the foundation. Four to six feet out, sloped away, and the problem is largely solved.
