In the Gutters

Now that the long, cold, snowy winter is over.... it's rainy season. Yeah! (Italics of course signal sarcasm.) The best part is that all the rain has brought to my attention that the gutter over the mainly used door, is in serious need of attention.

When you choose to stand in the rain a ways back from the door, reach through the downpour open said door, jump through the downpour of water and close the door behind you might be a redneck have a problem.

While picking up supplies for my last project, I grabbed a few extra gutter hangers. We have long term plans to replace the siding so right now isn't the time to update the ugly old leaky gutters. Instead I opted to make repairs.

You can see in the picture that the gutter sags over the door. since water always runs downhill, it collected in the handy spot over the door, and then spilled over and dripped through the seem. Since it was sagging away from the fascia, water would then run behind the gutter and onto our heads.

A couple of gutter hooks quickly fixed the sag, and tightened it back to the fascia, behind the drip edge.  If you are planning on installing or repairing gutters I highly recommend the invisible gutter hanger over the spike and furrule method of attachment. The gutter hanger uses a long screw to attach, while the spike just gets hammered in. The gutter has to withstand all kinds of weather and pressure, a screw is going to hold up better in the long run. Besides the invisible gutter hanger is just that, invisible from the ground I am calmer just thinking about the smoother cleaner finish.

As you can tell by the photo I also removed leaves and debris while I was up there. I noticed a missing end cap that I will pick up when I return the extra piece from the main gutter project.

** the door on the left is not broken. I have a hanging screen that I use when it's nice out. It keeps away most of the bugs, and at about $10 was cheaper than a custom screen door for french doors. I do gaze at the nicer one with dreamy eyes, but with kids and a dog the screen curtain is functional.

$331 @Lowes (wouldn't that be lovely though?)

 

$10 @ Walter Drake