DMR Gutters Custom Fascia Work Photopage

The Kistler Copper Gutter Project
Fascia Preparation Work' (12/04)

I worked on the back first. I knew this project would be taking a long time and this was the rainy season, so I decided to fix-up the lower gutters before the upper gutters, since they will catch a good deal of the rain from the upper gutters.

These photos show the build-out of the fascia boards, so the wood shake roof does not over shoot the gutters and a person can actually get their hand in the gutter to clean them out when needed. I needed to build it out 1.75" on this lower rear gutter, and this was the easiest ones that needed the least build-out.

Here is the work on the back upper sides, where I cut a bevel off the 2x3s, cut to length, pre-drill holes for the 3" Deckmate screws, and install them on the roof edge. Then I cut a bevel off the top of the 5/4 x 6 primed fascia board, again pre-drill holes for the 2.5" Deckmate screws and install them over the 2x3s. Then install the dripedge flashing under the wood roofing shakes that the roofers neglected to install.

Then there is the custom bent green pre-painted aluminum sheet metal to install to hold out the bottom of the fascia board and tacked in place with 1.5" stainless steel nails.

A couple years later after the copper tarnished

The Dennis Smith Home

This is the back side of his house at 827 NW 25th Ave. I have done this sort of work on several houses, but this was one I managed to get some good clear photos of with our 4 mega pixel digital Kodak camera.

This is a large 2 story house and was also originally built without gutters, but again, they had a gutter contractor install some crappy gutters later on.

The gutters I took down were the same type as I install, but they were hung with straps that wrapped around the gutter, and then the strap extended from the center of the top of this gutter, over the roof, and was nailed on top the roof.

That means the gutter was hanging in mid air, and would sway in the wind. the roof had to over lap the gutter half way, making it impossible to screen, very hard to clean, and in a heavy downpour it would actually shoot right over the gutter all together.

When I took the old gutters down, I not only needed to get the gutter measurements, but I had to carefully visualize and calculate the angles and measurements for the size of the boards and the custom sheet metal fabrication needed here.

This house has most of it's gutters over 2 stories high. It was a very steep roof of a 12/12 pitch. That is a 45 degree angle, and cannot be walked on. The soffit was also at this 45 degree pitch. This was the best thing I could come up with to resolve this problem so I had a vertical fascia board to attach the gutter to, and have it look like it was made to fit the style of the house.

They place this wood molding up just under the edge of the roof, but this one was especially difficult, since the molding was horizontal, instead of at a 45 degree angle. There was nothing to screw the fascia board onto at all. Some of the wood molding was cracked, broken, rotten, and in some places missing all together.

I had to first screw this un-painted board you see in the middle, straight up into the wood molding, so that I had something to screw the fascia board onto. Where the wood was rotten, I had to use extra long screws that would reach through to the plywood roof, without having the screws puncture the shingles above.

After I fastened the primered fascia board to that bare wood, I installed this custom aluminum sheet metal to act as soffit, and also cover the bottom of the fascia board. It also serves the purpose to hold out and support the bottom of the fascia board. I chose a green pre-painted aluminum to make this with. It is the same type of metal the gutters are made from. but I used a wider 15"x 120" sheets to make this from.

I used special ribbed finish nails to fasten the sheet metal in place up underneath, and there on the fascia board. It was very sturdy when I was finished.

As shown above, this shows the gutter on the new fascia board. the client, Mr. Smith was very pleased with my work, and even complimented me, saying how it looked better than he had imagined.

It is satisfying to see an unusually complicated job, that no one else wanted to tackle, go so well. And it is also great to get those kind of comments.

The Dale Yocum Project (8/02)

Here is a copper gutter job we did in 2002 just above the Metro Zoo, at 4343 SE Fairview Blvd. It was completed in August of 2002. It cost $2,200 to build out the fascia boards to properly mount the gutters onto. It is a big house with over twice the normal amount of gutters. It was getting re-painted and re-roofed at the same time, so scaffolding was up to help with the back side of the house.

The old copper gutters were hung with loose straps that were nailed onto the roof. The gutters just dangled. With the 3 layer tear off of the old roof, it was inevitable that the gutters would get thrashed, so the Home-owner found our web site using a search engine, and asked us to give them a bid for new gutters.

This shows before and after photos of the special custom work we had to do so we could have something to properly mount the gutters solidly onto the house. We used pre-primed boards for this, with aluminum sheet metal end-caps. The fascia board is a 5/4"x 6", custom cut for a true 1" thick x 4.75" board. The horizontal board is a custom cut 1"x 2.25". We used the cut off wood for a board to screw up into the wood molding. We used this to have something to screw the top of the fascia board into. The end-caps were just to keep the little critters out of the wood work.

This shows the gutter mounted on the new fascia board. It also shows a close-up view of our exclusive mitered end-caps and deluxe hinged screens we offer as options.

This is the front left side of a house at 3542 S. E. Belmont. This house was originally built without gutters. They place this wood molding up just under the edge of the roof.

The Code Enforcement Division was eventually created, and one of the codes for this high rain area of the N. W. was that all houses are required to have gutters installed on all houses and garages, so that this excessive water run-off would be managed, to avoid further damage to foundations due to the ground erosion it was causing over the course of decades of erosion.

This is the primary reason that the K-5 gutter was developed in the same shape as this wood molding trim work, to replace this wood molding on homes and make it as though the gutters were meant to be on the house originally. It is best if gutters can be as inconspicuous as possible. Not look like you have exterior plumbing on your house, like with the half round gutters of old.

It was latter fitted with some gutters that were hung from straps nailed on top of the roofing. The gutters pretty much covered the old wood molding, making leaving it there useless. They were very loose and since the strap had to support the gutter in the center, the roof half way covered the gutter, making it nearly impossible to get a hand in the gutter to clean it out. We could not install any type of leaf-screens over the gutters as well.

I could rip off the wood trim, fill in the gap with a small fascia board, cut back the roof, add new drip edge flashing, and then I could mount the gutter. I have done this in the past, but it was very time consuming and costly. So in the efforts to brain-storm a better solution, I developed this solution.

I just build out this area of the house to have a fascia board to mount the gutter to (as shown above). I covered it in the same type of pre-painted aluminum sheet metal, which also acts as a support of the bottom of this new fascia board.

I also had to reposition the electrical power wires to the house.

As shown above, this house was fitted with the same common wood molding trim, but diagonal edge of the roof was so weathered and rotten, and had roofing nails blasted through it sticking out. It was so bad that to try to get up there and strip the paint off and re-paint it was a very difficult job. I came up with the idea to run out gutters this same color and cut the length of the bottom to use it to cover the rotten wood molding. Because of the nails in the way, I had to remove that wood molding all together, so the metal shown here is hollow. It worked out really well as you can see.

Below is the lower edge of this trim, where it meets with the lower roof. I think it was a remarkable outcome.

This shows the angled fascia board that makes gutter installation very difficult. We wonder what the Builder was thinking when deciding this was the thing to do?

Early on we installed gutters using simple wedges to push out and support the bottom of the gutter, since that is what parts were sold for this issue, but they fostered wasp nests behind the gutter and did not look good.

For the LDS chapels like this that we worked on, we custom made a continuous wedge that runs the length of the gutter to seal that gap.

For this project, we did a much more elaborate fabrication to make it look as if the house was originally built with a vertical 2x6 fascia board.

It was made from the same type of pre-painted aluminum sheet metal as the gutters, so they match perfectly. The Homeowner was pleased with the results.

You can see our Custom Gutter web page to see this custom downspout channel we made for this project to improve the headroom of he back patio.

Other Helpful Roofing Information on our web site:
For some valuable advice with regards to roofing and rain management issues check out our:

(a) Gutter Installation
(b) Gutter Debris Protection Options
(c) Roofing Quality Standards
(d) Chimney Flashing
(e) Moss Control & Treatment

web pages for answers and solutions that could save you thousands of $ and a great deal of anguish.

If you do find this information very helpful, feel free to send us a $ tip for the assistance we so freely have published on the web here for your benefit, like you might tip a waitress. Heck, send us a gift certificate for a candle lit dinner for two. <LOL>