Job Example of Half Round Gutter Installation
What We Do
The old copper gutters on this project were crushed from the snow due two factors, a lack of snow guards and gutters that were installed above the roof line. The home owners wanted to replace them with new copper half round gutters and fix the previous installation errors.
First we had to remove the old gutters. In order to access the old copper gutter brackets we had to remove the first two courses of slates and the starters underneath. As soon as we remove the slate we are required to adhere to new building codes which require ice and water shield on the eaves of the roof and drip edge to protect the edge of the decking boards. However before we can do this we had to install the new gutter brackets.
In order to prevent the gutter brackets from kicking up the slates and likely breaking them, we routed a groove into the decking boards that the gutter bracket rests in. The gutter brackets were installed low enough to lower the profile of the gutters below the roof line so that snow would slide right past them. Then drip edge is installed on top of the brackets. Ice and water shield in placed on top of the drip edge, and lastly the cant strip is secured into place using copper nails before the slate is installed back in place.
The half round gutters were then soldered together using 60/40 tin/lead, flux, and a soldering iron. We added rivets to the top of the gutters using copper rivets with brass mandrels. Sometimes steel mandrels are used, however, they cause corrosion because of the steel and copper interaction.
Note: We added copper and brass snow guards to prevent further snow avalanches from crushing the gutters.