Rain gutters & trim around the house

[Beachboy]

Imagine you live on the eastside of Hawaii, and you discover your brand new home has only primer paint around the rain gutter trim. What do you do?
Do you leave rain gutters up and just caulk underneath seemless rain gutters, then paint. Or do you completely take down rain gutters and paint entire trim! Or do you have a better idea?

Keep in mind, you're living on the eastside were rain is the norm..

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Rain gutters & trim around the house

Oh man you're finding all kinds of issues with your place. The best is the most painful...you gotta seal that primer with a good coat of exterior paint. Just caulking won't keep the incessant weather out. The caulking will eventually crack or separate from the primer and then the water damage will occur.

In other words, you gotta take off the gutters, paint underneath and reinstall them.

[LikaNui]

Re: Rain gutters & trim around the house

Craig, I've seen some rain gutters with small chains run through them, so you can just yank the chain back and forth to easily keep the gutters clear of leaves, etc. Your opinion?
I put screens over our gutters to keep the leaves out.

[buzz1941]

Re: Rain gutters & trim around the house

In other words, you gotta take off the gutters, paint underneath and reinstall them.

Take it from me and hard-won experience, Craig speaketh the truth.

[cezanne]

Re: Rain gutters & trim around the house

Imagine you live on the eastside of Hawaii, and you discover your brand new home has only primer paint around the rain gutter trim. What do you do?
Do you leave rain gutters up and just caulk underneath seemless rain gutters, then paint. Or do you completely take down rain gutters and paint entire trim! Or do you have a better idea?

Keep in mind, you're living on the eastside were rain is the norm..

If was me, I leave the gutters up and go ahead and paint the fascia. That's just me though. What are you going to caulk? I've never heard of caulking between the gutter and the trim it's attached to. You shouldn't have to.

Craig, I've seen some rain gutters with small chains run through them, so you can just yank the chain back and forth to easily keep the gutters clear of leaves, etc. Your opinion?
I put screens over our gutters to keep the leaves out.

Actually, those chains ARE the downspouts. Just more aesthetically pleasing. Pretty cool to see in action.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Rain gutters & trim around the house

Actually there are people who use light gauge chain and do pull them thru their gutters to clear leaves. I don't recommend it in Beachboy's situation because unless you are going to completely clean your gutters you don't want to disturb anything that has settled and will stay there as rain passes by, kinda like a streambed. If you dredge it up the water turns murky and all that crud goes into your catchment tank. Leaf guards are highly recommended for more than just leaves. It keeps birds and rats out from nesting and crapping in your gutters. That stuff gets into your catchment tanks and you'll have to nuke the water with more than sufficient chlorine.

As for just painting the facia, yes it will look good but the water weeping under the gutter mounts will eventually stay there and rot out the mounting screws. After a period of time those metal screws or gutter nails will corrode and during heavy rainfall the weight of the water will break the mounts and your gutter will come crashing down and there goes your catchment system.

In Hilo people use chains as a means of directing water out of the downspouts and trickle to the ground. Hilo airport uses them and you'll find them only in areas where county water is provided as many of us on catchment would find it rediculous to let water from the downspouts go anywhere but into our tanks.

[cezanne]

Re: Rain gutters & trim around the house

Actually there are people who use light gauge chain and do pull them thru their gutters to clear leaves.

*scratching head... thinking how this is devised* Is it a continuous loop?

As for just painting the facia, yes it will look good but the water weeping under the gutter mounts will eventually stay there and rot out the mounting screws. After a period of time those metal screws or gutter nails will corrode and during heavy rainfall the weight of the water will break the mounts and your gutter will come crashing down and there goes your catchment system.

I'm not sure I'm following ya...how would putting finish paint behind the gutter stop/minimize the chance of the mounting screws rotting out. The way $eamle$$ gutters are installed it's very difficult for water to get to the mounting hardware. They seal whatever needs to be sealed. I'm just saying it would be too much humbug and probably cause more problems if you remove the gutters just to put some finish paint behind the gutter.

[Beachboy]

Re: Rain gutters & trim around the house

cezanne, you are probably right with regard to removing seamless rain gutters. But bottomline is this, does it make a major difference for the defense of your home against elements of foul weather?

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Rain gutters & trim around the house

So Cezanne you would leave unpainted wood underneath rain gutter mounts? Okay go right ahead.

Taking shortcuts like that is a recipe for disaster down the road but if you're okay with the outcome well that's your house. But if you do that to someone elses home and was contracted, you will be talking to them when damage occurs down the road.

This isn't rocket science here, you simply cannot expect wood to remain undamaged if you don't protect it. a plastic rain gutter clip wasn't designed to prevent moisture from seeping underneath it, trapped moisture causes more damage to wood than simply exposing wood to the elements.

Seemless gutters still need to be mounted to the rafters. Water still does get up and around gutter mounts because some rain is windblown.

Beachboy, this is your home not Cezanne's. If you're investing a ton of money for it simple and inexpensive steps like these will preserve your investment. Shortcuts from countertops to gutters will have it's effects on your property. Don't shortchange yourself by being lazy or cheap on home construction.

Remember when it comes to trapped water, things such as nesting insects to termites will follow and then you'll be tearing out your rafters to replace them with new ones because you didn't do the common sense approach of protecting your home.

[cezanne]

Re: Rain gutters & trim around the house

Goodness quit exaggerating. I'm not telling anyone what to do. And you implication that I'm cheap and lazy is pretty fooked up Mr. HighhorseMan...Sheesh...

By the way who said it was unpainted? The way I read the original post is that the fascia was primed (not raw). The gutters were installed for some reason. Usually, its after the fascia is done. But sometimes the painter says "go ahead we're gonna spray the fascia and the gutter one color one time" because most like to have the gutters the same color as the fascia. Or the painters were saying wait but the gutter guys said eff you. I dunno.

Regardless, all that would be left is the bottom lip of the fascia. The gutter should be tight to the fascia if the rafters are plumb cut, or there would be a little space between if the they were straight cut in which instance you could still put finish paint WITHOUT removing the gutters. No water should get behind the gutter especially the seamless type of install.

If the gutters come off... guarantee it comes out of BBs pocket because no one is gonna take the blame. So he does it himself... bye bye warranty. Is the house two story? Have fun! For me, it's not worth the headache and sleepless nights thinking about not having finish paint behind the gutter.

Good luck BB in how ever you decide what to do. Congratulations on your new home.