In the August issue, I wrote an article, “Premature Trim Failure,” about an exterior restoration project in Millbrook, N.Y., where we replaced the existing siding and trim with more-durable materials. An important detail on that project we didn’t discuss was the gutters, which we also replaced. The home’s existing wood (fir) gutters were in bad shape. The gutter’s ends were rotted, and their end caps missing. And most of the mitered seam-work leaked, leading to paint failure and rot. My clients asked if we could repair them, and although I didn’t hold out much hope for their restoration, I promised to look into the matter.
While researching gutter restoration on-line, I came across fiberglass wood-replacement gutters manufactured by The Fiberglass Gutter Co., located in Pembroke, Mass. The website noted high durability and impact resistance, and low expansion and contraction rates. Though made of fiberglass, the gutters were molded from wood gutters using a process that transferred the grain look and texture to the fiberglass. From the ground, the product is indistinguishable from traditional wood but won’t rot and requires only minimal maintenance (the usual seasonal cleaning of leaves and debris). I figured out the lineal footage we needed, including a waste factor that made sense for the house configuration and material lengths, and called the company. The business manager, Russ Allen, gave me a fixed price that included shipping and all materials we’d need to complete the job. I ran this option by the owners, and they were quickly onboard.
Factory demonstration. Having never worked with fiberglass, I arranged to visit the factory for a product demonstration. The production manager, Tom Moore, showed me around and explained that the factory made four standard profiles molded from traditional 4x5 and 4x6 wood gutters. (The company can make custom shapes, such as radius gutters, as well.) I was given a quick tour of the manufacturing room, where he demonstrated how the finished gutters were released from the molds. Moore then went over gutter-installation techniques, using a mock-up of a roof’s cornice return.
For cutting, Moore used a standard miter saw with the same fine-tooth cutting blade used for cutting wood. He recommended using a vacuum attachment on the saw and wearing a NIOSH-approved respirator whenever cutting or mixing the gel-coat resin. For fastening, he recommended stainless steel GRK structural screws, driven into the rafter tails. Moore pointed out that the gutter’s thin profile nearly doubles its carrying capacity compared with that of traditional wood gutters and noted that the GRKs are more than capable of handling this extra load. To secure the “floating” ends of a mitered seam, he glued them together with FastCap 2P-10 adhesive. The 2P-10 usually provides a good seal, but as a precaution, to prevent the gel coat from leaking, he suggested taping off the outer face of the mitered seam to create a “patch.”
“Glassing in” the seams. To execute a clean patch, Moore roughed up the gutter’s hardened, gel-coat surface to promote bonding between the gutter and the fiberglass patch. The sanded area was then wiped down with acetone. Next—wearing a NIOSH-approved respirator, latex gloves, and eye protection—he mixed the gel-coat resin (1 ounce of hardener for every 50 ounces of resin). He “wetted in” the first layer of 2-ounce mesh with gel coat using a brush; then wetted in a second, thicker layer of chopped strand mesh. Once the patch hardened, the joined-gutter sections acted as one piece.
Lastly, Moore demonstrated how, for general touch-up, to infill the gutter’s exterior-side mitered seam with a white gel-coat putty that’s similar to Bondo. He added a couple of drops of hardener to a gumball-sized amount of putty, mixed it thoroughly, and carefully applied it to the seam with a putty knife. Afterwards, he wiped away the excess, resulting in a well-hidden joint.
On the jobsite. We needed to install roughly 250 lineal feet of gutter and had to contend with three 50-foot-plus runs of gutter, which needed to be made from two pieces (the maximum manufactured gutter length is 40 feet). We joined the sections on the ground, attached spacer blocks (lined up with the building’s rafter tails), then picked up the long gutter runs and put them in place. Each run pitched towards new, 3-inch-round white aluminum leaders. At returns, we had to fiberglass the mitered seams in place, working off ladders. That was a little tricky and added to the job’s small learning curve.
Overall, I paid about $31 per foot compared with roughly $20 per foot for a new fir gutter. But the $31 also included the GRK fasteners, fiberglass resin and mesh, patching putty, PVC drop tubes, end-cap stock, and shipping—and the homeowners now have a much more durable product.
