You may have heard of seamless gutters, but you may not be clear on how seamless gutters work, or how they’re installed. It’s actually fairly simple; it just requires a bit more precision and a specialized machine.
First, “seamless” isn’t quite accurate: the gutter will need end caps, to be joined at the corners, and will also need to have a hole for the downspout punched into it. But the gutter itself is one long piece, thanks to the machine pictured above. The end of a large metal coil is fed into the machine, which straightens and shapes the coil into the gutter that will be attached to your house. Seamless gutters are very popular because while the machine may be expensive, the metal coils are much easier to transport than long sections of metal! Also, it looks cool, a vital factor in any home repair decision:
You may wonder: what’s the big deal with gutters anyway? OK, so they get rainwater away from my house, and that’s nice, but so what? If my gutter is sagging a little, or if it overflows now and again, it’s unsightly, but it’s not a big deal, right?
Wrong. Here are four problems, from top to bottom, caused by bad gutters that’ll make you want to get right up that ladder and get them hanging correctly.
James Taylor put it best when he sang:
That right smack dab in the middle of town
The summertime’s perfect for weatherproof… ing
But if your house starts a-getting you down
You’d better get a ladder and climb
Up on the roof…
“What the… that’s not how it… I didn’t sing those… GAAAHHH!!”
Well, okay – maybe those aren’t the exact lyrics. But the point is, the summer season is the best time of year to get up on your roof and make sure it’s all ready for the here-before-you-know-it autumn and winter months. Here are some suggestions for keeping your roof maintained properly this summer:
Trees are wonderful things — providing us shade, a place to sleep in the summer and (of course) oxygen. But that’s only if they stay upright. When they fall, they provide us with visits from insurance agents and contractors. Here are a few videos of a tree taking on a house…and the homeowner losing.
This is why tree removal should be done by a professional. The big mistake here was our “hero” assuming that if he just cut out a gouge at an angle, the tree would automatically fall in that direction: actual lumberjacks will secure a tree with ropes and keep tension on it to make sure the tree falls where they want it to.
Have you ever wondered what it looks like when your gutters back up and start ruining your house? Just click “Play” above and you’ll witness it up close and personal.
So, what, precisely, is happening here? Well, obviously, his gutters are backed up for some reason. It could be debris in the downspout, it could be that his downspout is blocked by an animal den or similar problem, but either way, that water isn’t draining where it should be. Instead, it’s going where it shouldn’t.
Whether going on a professional job or just installing gutters in your home, you can’t do your best job without a plan. Before you install any gutter, here are five things you absolutely have to know in order to do the best possible job.
So you’ve decided to hang your gutters yourself, but you’re worried about making mistakes. And with reason: improperly installed gutters can damage your house or even put your safety at risk in the wrong situation. Here are the five most common mistakes, and how to avoid them:
Gutters come in all styles, shapes, and sizes, but all gutters are going to be made of one of five materials. They each have their virtues, but also their drawbacks. Here are the five, from cheapest to most expensive.
Vinyl
Vinyl has two distinct advantages: it will never decay, and it is dirt cheap, at $3-$5 per foot. You can even cut them yourself. However, vinyl gets brittle with age and if you’re in a particularly chilly area, it can break under extreme cold. Still, if you want gutters that are simple to install yourself and easy to build and maintain, vinyl is a solid option.
It may not be the first question on your mind, but it’s one you’ll have to deal with at some point: what color do you want your gutters to be?
It’s actually more than just an aesthetics question, although we’re sure the entire family will have an opinion on what the gutters should look like. Paint formulations and other chemical additives can actually contribute to the endurance of your gutters by resisting chipping and other damage.
There are literally dozens of formulations on the market. Which one you choose depends on how you want your gutter to look, as well as what type of gutter you have: sectional or seamless.
Here’s a news flash that will make you ask the question: “What kind of person could do such a thing?”
It’s the story of Victor Bradshaw of Ironton, OH, who was recently caught in Huntington, WV, stealing the gutters off the St. John’s Episcopal Church. Yes, you heard right. Stealing gutters from a church.
Ironically, even if he’d gotten away with it, he wouldn’t have earned much from it: some other crook had beaten Bradshaw to the gutters weeks ago. What he was stealing were gutter systems that only looked like copper.
