Pages

21 June, 2008

Gutter Work Takes the Stage

Yesterday we got our gutters. A Mennonite company from Spanish Lookout did the work.
The Gutter Guys Arrive
Denver Koop and his crew worked fast and efficiently with their fancy trailer-mounted extrusion machine.
Ready to Go To Work
Denver did the gutters for Connie and Greg's house and he did the gutters for Robert and Lynn's Almond Tree Inn. And, he did our house.
Ladders Up Measuring Beginning
For some reason, hanging over the edge of a roof gives most people a somewhat unsettled sort of feeling. Here's Denver taking his chances measuring the roof.
Caution Rules the Day
With the roof measured, the sheet aluminum is fed from the roll into the machine. It promptly begins spitting out formed gutter in whatever length you need.
Once It Starts...
...It Goes Quick
And man, does it kick it out. Here's the first 48 feet.
It's Long From One End

To the Other
Then Denver takes his templates, scores the edges, and proceeds to cut away material to make the corners and the downspout holes.
Working With the Templates
Forming a Corner
A little closer view of the corner being formed.
Screwing It Securely
Bending a Flange
Viola! The Corner Is Made
Installing the Downspout
Once the pieces are made, they're carried over to be positioned for lifting up to the roof.
Not Such A Heavy Load
Ready To Hoist
And, right away the pieces all end up on the roof.
All Four Sides Are On The Roof
Then comes the tricky part. At least it seemed to be to me. They made it look easy. And it did go fast.
Positioning The First End
Fastening The First End
On To The Next Piece
Fastening the long pieces really seemed to go fast
Fastening the Final Bits
Then they were done and gone. I still have a bit of work to do. I have to supply and connect the verticle downspouts. I'll be using 3" PVC pipe for that. I'll connect one drain directly to the drain pipe going to the other drain pipe we ran to the canal. The back downspout, I'll temporarily run to the French drain along the back, until I get my Rotoplas cistern and hook that all up.
Final Positioning of the Last Big Piece
Friday Dianna's car came back. It took a long time, partly communications errors with Rick the mechanic and partly it took a long time to locate a windshield to replace the broken one... Remember the beer bottle through the windshield?
Dianna's Car Aft View
Dianna's Car Forward View

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there! I've been reading your blog for a while now and enjoy it! My husband and i have property down on Maya Beach. We've had it for a number of years but havent' built a house yet. I like the looks of yours but have a question--is it hot? We like the look of wood on top of concrete like y'all have, but my experience has been that wood is hotter. How do you like it so far?
Thanks!!
Sandy A.

Dave Rider said...

Hi Sandy,

Well, we wondered about that ourselves. Part of the reason we went with wood was we heard concrete was hotter - especially with flat roofs unless you go with a very high ceiling and have some way to vent out the hot air.
Our house has five ceiling fans that help keep things cool. Plus all rooms are open ceiling - that is, we have a sort of cathedral ceiling and no rooms walls go to the ceiling, with the exception of the bathroom, which does have a ceiling. It does tend to get hotter than the rest of the house. We've installed a wall fan there.
We're also blessed with a very good nearly constant breeze from the bay, and we're nine feet up in the air to help catch that breeze. It would be much warmer if we were only three or four feet up.
We have no AC and really don't miss it. We will build a pool to help cool down on those really hot days, in fact, we bought our twelve-foot wading pool to take care of that until we build the real thing.
We have lots of windows and use the louvers to regulate the sun throughout the day, closing the windows down somewhat as the sun goes from east to west. It's almost second nature now. It's really not hard to get in the swing of doing that.
We originally were looking at this as temporary and we were going to build a large concrete house. Once we moved in we realized this was all we needed. It was comfortable and worked for us.
We've been through Hurricane Dean, but not in this house, so, it'll be interesting to see how this does in a hurricane. We've got tons of strapping, lag screws, lag bolts, threaded rods, tension bars and everything on the roof is screwed down, and the house is thoroughly bolted to the foundation. I think we've done about all we can do to be hurricane prepared. I guess we'll see.
Hope this helps.
Regarding not having built yet... What are you waiting for? Come on in, the waters fine.
Cheers,
Dave

Anonymous said...

Thanks Dave for the info! We will build our house facing East/West too and up HIGH (9-12 feet) because we are on the lagoon side of the peninsula. We need the breeze to keep things cool too and keep the bugs down.
I am getting close and closer to building! I always said when they pave the peninsula road I would build....and it looks like after all these years its really going to happen!!
I've been self-employed 2/3 of my working life, so must make sure all ducks are in a row before I cut back on working!
Thanks again for responding!
Sandy A.