cut back later addition eaves to have better view -adding gutters

11 years ago

So the house is about 100 year old but had a later addition of a large overhang on the back porch that was previously uncovered. I've decided that I like some of the additional cover on the patio, but now that I am having gutters added for water control I think the eaves should be cut back. The gutters and a new fascia board will cover all the way to the bottom of the wood support on the eave. The pictures are from my eye level and I think it may cut off too much of my view and make the porch feel more "closed in".

What do you guys think? What would you do?

The rest of the house has built in style gutters and since it is in a historic preservation neighborhood I don't want to try and cover those up and hang gutters off the fascia on the front of the house. But it will need new sheetmetal for those gutters and new leaders and downspouts. We are thinking 3" rounds for the down spouts off these built in gutters.

Here is a picture. The gutter contractor will be sending the pictures of the built in system sometime tonight or tomorrow.

oh yeah, and on top of all that, the upstairs patio needs to be repaired/replaced. I think I want to go with a varnished cedar or redwood, but it has to be waterproof as there is living space below on one side.

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Comments (7)

Clarion
11 years ago
I am a little confused:

1. You want to cut off everything extending beyond the fascia on the new roofing over the patio and add gutters there?

2. But no new external gutters otherwise?

3. Which version do you feel would obscure your view, the current or with the new gutters?

4. What water control issues are you having?
r3venton
Original Author
11 years ago
basically at the bottom of those exposed rafters, there will be a new fascia board nailed on, and the gutters placed onto that. I'm worried that i'm going to lose some of my view and feel a little boxed in. I am having huge water control issues because all the gutters in the house have failed or disconnected down spouts, or dont even have gutters (like the back eaves) and it is causing water intrusion by some interior windows and settling of the foundation where it is pooling by the very heavy brick chimney.
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Clarion
11 years ago
Why don't you:

1. Fix all the other gutters in the house and their related downspouts.

2. Nail a cheap piece of facia to the end of the rafters in the patio area.

3. Relax for 6 months and see how your water problems are now w/ repaired gutters, and how you feel about your view after 6 months of temporary fascia.

4. Depending on above either: remove temporary fascia, add guttering to temporary fascia, or saw off exposed rafters, add fascia, and new gutters.
columbusguy1
11 years ago
Personally, I see that whole 'balcony' addition as a much later addition which is destroying the look of the entire house. If the room below is original, and it had a flat roof, then that area MIGHT have been used as a sitting area, but with just a low balustrade, usually matching the main porch of the house.

Repair the main gutters by reconnecting the downspouts matching the originals, and tear off that entire 'wraparound balcony' abomination.
r3venton
Original Author
11 years ago
The room below is a closed in porch/sunroom. Never thought of tearing it all off but im not opposed to it. The porch or flat roof is original as there is an original wood gutter for water to be collected from the porch.

I definitely like the idea of fixing the original built in gutters and repair the downspouts.

Depending on the condition should i have a roofer completely coat the built in gutter with liquid rubber so i wont have any leaks or just go straight ahead and have new sheetmetal installed? Since the majority of the thwater intrusion is not at that later addition it can probably wait a season. The footprint of the basement actually includes the entire area below that porch even tho most of it is just more 1st floor covered porch.
columbusguy1
11 years ago
My box gutters had metal lining originally, but when I had a new roof put on fifteen years ago, the roofer relined them with a rubber material--you might find that the new ice and water shield stuff works just as well. My neighbor's house had her box gutters removed, and you can clearly see that the roof overhang was reduced by at least half to 2/3...and I'm sure her foundation is likely wetter than mine.

I would not tear off the sunroom, since it is original and would make a nice greenhouse--just that balcony conversion on top...all the way down to the original soffits and fascia. And do NOT let your roofer remove your remaining downspouts, you will not be able to replicate them with any modern materials. To reconnect the gutters to the conductor boxes (those funnel-looking things) you just need to run piping to it from the old outlet so that it empties into the conductor box--those were often used by more than one outlet from the gutter, which is why they are so wide.

My house has galvanized round sort of fluted downspouts, which I could luckily still find when I had to replace a leaky section, but my hardware store had to sell me four pieces as it couldn't be ordered singly.
r3venton
Original Author
11 years ago
The existing conductor heads and down spouts are in really rough shape. I think they all have holes or rusted out downspouts. Wish they were in better shape.