Expert guides to gutters, roofing and home drainage
A curved dormer is one of the prettiest things you can put on a roof. It is also one of the easiest places to get a leak. Shingles come out of the bundle flat and rectangular, and a curved dormer is neither of those things. When I look at a roof, I go straight to … Read More “Fitting a Roof Around a Curved Dormer Takes Careful Cutting and Planning” »
A single cracked slate looks like the easiest repair on the house. Pull the broken piece, slide in a new one and nail it where the old one was nailed. Then you look closer and see that the old nails sit under the slates above, where no hammer can reach. Most people stall right there, … Read More “Replacing One Broken Slate When Its Nails Are Hidden Under the Roof Above” »
If you have watched a metal roof go on, you may have seen a small box on a long extension cord crawl up the roof by itself, humming along a raised rib. That is a seamer, and it is folding the edges of two panels together into one locked joint. I own more tools than … Read More “A Machine Folds Metal Roof Panels Together After They Are Installed” »
A brown stain on the ceiling next to the fireplace usually gets blamed on the roof. Sometimes that is right. Other times the flashing gets replaced, the bill gets paid, and the stain is back after the next hard rain. I have stood under plenty of those stains with homeowners. A chimney is a brick … Read More “Fixing a Chimney Leak May Take More Than a Roof Repair” »
No. Leafless gutters, meaning gutters fitted with a mesh, hood or screen to keep leaves out, cut cleaning a lot, but they do not end it. I have cleaned plenty of gutters packed solid with wet leaves, and I have installed and worked around guard systems too. The leaves stop falling into the trough, but … Read More “Can Leafless Gutters Keep Your Gutters Clear Without Regular Cleaning?” »
Gutter quotes often carry three words near the bottom, 5-inch K-style seamless, with no explanation attached. K-style gutters are the flat-backed gutters with a front shaped like crown molding, and they are the gutter you see on most suburban houses. For most homes they are a sensible choice, but the shape matters less than the … Read More “What Are K-Style Gutters, and When Should You Choose Them for Your Home?” »
Give me a Saturday morning, a cup of coffee and a covered porch, and I am a happy man. I also cannot sit under a porch roof without looking up at the ceiling for water stains, which is a habit my wife has stopped commenting on. Porches get roofed like an afterthought. The crew finishes … Read More “Your Porch May Need Different Roofing Than the Rest of Your House” »
I cannot drive past a house with new solar panels without looking at the shingles around them. My wife knows the look by now. Too often the array is shiny and new while the roof around it is curling at the edges, and I know what that homeowner will be paying for in a few … Read More “Replacing a Roof With Solar Panels Requires Planning Both Jobs Together” »
“Why does this gutter keep overflowing when I just cleaned it?” Homeowners ask me some version of that more than almost anything else. My answer starts with a rain jacket, because the best way to read a gutter is to stand under it in a real downpour and watch. A clean gutter that still spills … Read More “The Gutters Are Clean, but Water Still Pours Over the Edge” »
Most homeowners who ask me about metal roofing have already collected two quotes, and the metal roof cost on one is about double the other. Both say “metal roof.” One is corrugated, the wavy panel you’ve seen on barns and sheds. The other is standing seam, the flat panels with raised ribs running from the … Read More “Corrugated Metal Roofing vs. Standing Seam, Which Is Better for Your Home?” »
