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Old copper gutters,can they be saved? Or?
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Posted by nicky_2006 (My Page) on Sun, Sep 27, 09 at 10:09
| Redoing our roof this coming week. Using Certainteed 50 year Landmark/Woodscape shingles, and will really change look of 1955 custom ranch. Roof had been medium gray, going to the "resawn shake" color, goldie brown cedar color. Have lovely old copper gutters aged to the greenish patina, original to the house. Well, right, still have them, just not up on house. DH and roofer friend took them down yesterday. DH doesn't want to reuse them now. Yipes, now what? Wasn't planning on a new gutter system, ok, probably should have foreseen this. Researched copper gutter installation techniques,seems the best way to do it is an iron verses torch. Takes an experienced person to put new ones up, no mention of old ones. Has anyone out there done this- remounted older ones? Roof is 3400sqft, will need 290 feet of gutter system, that's alot of gutter! Checked out new copper, may cost a small or medium size fortune, saw older estimates here at $20,000. Loved the look of our old ones,plus have exterior tile on front entrance steps in blueish-green color to work with them. Trying to do research fast this morning, have looked at products from gutter supply. One called copper penny is a painted copper aluminum product.Keeps that new copper look,priced at for k styles, 5x.027 coiled roll, $2.67. By the way, what does that mean- coiled roll? Is that for when they produce the so called "seamless" gutters? Then there's the regular aluminum in various colors,$1.08 ft. None of which look like our color. Some post elsewhere said Alcoa's musket brown was the choice for the copper look, unless my monitor is really off, looks like plain old brown to me. Neither a bright penny color or a patina look. Does anyone know about zinc gutters? May be in copper price range, priced at $89.62 for 10 feet of 5 half round gutter. Live in southern New England, so we get the snow and rains. Any votes on which hanging system is better? Any tips on which shape, half round or k style works well for draining/cleaning? House color is presently Glacier Sand by BM, basically a mud color ;), grayish brown. TIA for any tips, Nickey |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Old copper gutters,can they be saved? Or?
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The original copper probably has another 40 years of life left in it. It develops pinholes in about 100 years, but by then it would not even survive the removal process. If you were able to take down the sections intact, that's evidence enough that the material is still sufficiently thick to support its own weight. Why not reuse the high-grade material? It's a huge savings to you to do so. It would be wise to employ a skilled craftsman.
Casey |
RE: Old copper gutters,can they be saved? Or?
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There are soldering irons that run off acetylene available.
The flame heats the base of the inch diameter copper 'iron.' They are far faster than using irons heated in a small oven.
Each iron can only solder a few inches of joint before it must be returned for re-heating. If the gutters are held up with spikes, I would use new copper spikes and thread the ends 1/4-20. Brass thread inserts in the fascia then allow the spikes to be screwed in (small vice grips grab the head for the last few turns). |
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