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11/15/2009: "Saving The Barn, Part Four"

Looks like it is going to take three trips to get gutters on the barn! Lou and I took a good run at it today, but we ran out of daylight and energy at about 4:30 pm. However, we did get some important things done today, and we're within striking distance of getting actual gutters on the south side of the barn. I don't know whether we'll be as lucky as we were today when it comes to weather, however. Today was overcast, but blessedly dry.

Lou really came through with some essential safety gear for this project - he owns a safety harness. He rigged it up so that it was tied off on a beam in the barn, and poked out under the eaves. We took turns wearing the safety harness and going up on the ladder to install the fascia; the fascia boards attach to the rafter ends, and the gutters in turn will be screwed to the fascia boards. They provide spacing to position the gutters, and they also have vertical depth so that the gutters can have a slope for drainage.

However, before we could even begin to think about erecting the fascia, we had to create a safe working area for the 32' ladder. This involved my old friend, the shovel. While Lou got the safety harness rigged up I started digging out steps into the hillside for the ladder feet to rest in. I terraced nearly the whole slope with two foot wide indentations into the hard clay.



Our biggest challenge was dealing with damage that had occurred at some point in the past when limbs from the adjacent oak tree had evidently fallen on the barn roof. The limbs bent the edge of the aluminum roofing down, making it difficult to snug the fascia up under the lip of the roof. Through a combination of bashing with the hammer and bending with some pliers we were able to get access. Then we pre-nailed a single nail more or less in the middle, at a position that corresponded to a rafter. The board was then passed up to the person on the ladder, and tacked into place. Once the board was in place we went to work with a screw gun to secure the rest of the board.





By a little after three o'clock we had finished the fascia.



We set to work on assembling the gutters. I had purchased a pretty complete set of painted galvanized gutter parts from the local big box, but we found problems with their system. The sales staff had recommended gutter screws over gutter nails, as the screws hold better. Yet, somehow I ended up with 7 inch screws for a 5 inch gutter. We started cutting spacers down to five inches, but it wasn't working well - the outboard spacers tended to get crushed before the screw really took hold in the board. I think that our mounting holes were two small, as the gutter screws barely fit through them. Then we had problems with the gutter connectors; they were a push-on variety, but the profiles didn't match the gutter profile well. With twilight approaching we decided to quit while we were ahead, and not risk injury working in the dark.

Lou's daughter brought him some chips for a snack, and nearly the whole flock of chickens and ducks came begging along with her.