How to Guarantee a Flood in your Basement!

Although I can not say with total statistical accuracy, I am going to go out on a limb and say that somewhere between 60% and 75% of homes in the city of Hamilton, where I live, have downspouts that are directly routed into above ground pipes that go directly into the city storm sewers.

I don't know what genius decided years ago that we should route downspouts from the eavestrough directly into the storm sewers. Who ever it was came up with one of the worst home improvement ideas EVER! Of course, that was a different generation and houses were smaller and there were fewer of them. With the advent of more homes and larger homes, the cities and municipalities realize that it is just bad news to have all this water from houses directly piped into the the storm sewers. When there is a huge rain or a massive amount of snow that melts fast, the storm sewers can not handle all the water and it backs up and floods homes.

Can you imagine what could happen if this clay pipe fails during a heavy rain? It very likely would flood water right into this window well. If you have a downspout that looks like this one you might want to give serious thought to rerouting your downspouts or replacing your eavestrough! Often times people ask me if I can just move the downspout to the other end of the house. My comment is, "Yes, I can, but your eavestrough were designed to slope to this downspout." So you can't just relocate a downspout, without readjusting the eavestrough. More often than not, taking old eavestrough off a house and re-sloping it, is more costly than just replacing the old eavestrough with new eavestrough.

While I was out giving estimates today, I took a couple pictures of neighboring houses. These houses were only about 15 feet away from each other!

When designing a new eavestrough system for this home every effort must be made to move this downspout to a new location and route the roof water onto your lawn or into a garden. You can also do as I did on my home and route the downpipes under the ground via a a plastic 4" pipe and out to the street! You do need to have enough slope to do this! Here's how I did it!

Notice first that I removed the downpipe from the pipe going down into the weeping tile. I then capped the pipe permanently!

I then replace my eavestrough and moved the downpipe around the corner and placed it into an underground pipe that DOES NOT go into the storm sewer. I should have used black plastic pipe but I used green. The downpipe I used is the extra large 4x3 pipe.

I then took this green drainage pipe some 30 feet under the ground and out to the road and this is where my roof water comes out.

My neighbor and I have our garages really close together, so we actually created a drain in between our garages and placed a drain there for the roof water to go under the ground and out to the road. All the roof water on my house is deposited some 30 feet away from my house. See the picture below:

However you decide to do it, get the downpipes out of the storm sewer to prevent basement flooding! Just make sure you do it properly! I am doing a job soon for a woman in Hamilton whose only option in removing the downpipes from the weeping tile was to spill some of the water on her driveway. She just could not bear the thought of the roof water going onto the driveway and causing icing issues in the winter time, which it will. So in discussing the matter with her, we decided that we could remove around 80% of her roof water into downpipes that will spill onto her lawn and garden areas. The other 20% will be going into her storm sewer. However, I did convice her to get a premium quality gutter protection product to prevent debris from entering into her strom sewer pipes.

For quality eavestrough work, contact The Eavestrough Company at www.theavestroughcompany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564.

Need a New Roof? Do your Homework FIRST!!!!

The most important part of your house is the roof and the eavestrough. Most people recognize when their roof is in bad shape and needs replaced. The shingles curl, the grit from the asphalt shingle starts to come off and they get very brittle and you begin losing shingles. The roof below shows a house long over due for a new roof!

 So you decide its time. You need a new roof ASAP! So you go about securing names of companies to contact to gather estimates to see what company you are going to get to put on your new roof.

There are many good roofing companies out there and some that are not! However, not all roofs are created equal! You might get estimates that vary widely from different roofing companies. Sure some companies might be over priced, but usually, the more expensive estimates are offering certain things that others are not. When I have work done around my own home, I want the very best job done possible. I want quality work!

This blog post is designed to help you, as a homeowner, get the very best job possible done on your roof. Here are some of my recommendations:

1. You want FULL strip down of your old shingles! I know that most city by-laws allow you to have two layers of shingles and it is usually cheaper to cover the old shingles rather than strip them off. However, placing new shingles over old has a couple pit falls and they are bad ones! Here they are:

A. You will immediately void your roof warranty on your new roof! That nice 25, 30, 35, 40 year warranty  is immediately gone! They actually now have a lifetime asphalt shingle. The warranty on that shingle will be null and void if you go over a layer of shingles!

B. You will decrease the lifespan of your roof by half if you place it over a layer of shingles! Every roof  is going to get exposed to the sun and will heat up and the UV rays from the sun will damage it over time.

However, if you place new shingles over old, you also create an intense amount of heat and sweating on the underneath side of the shingle thus decreasing the life of your shingles dramatically!

I once had a roofer tell me that an extra layer of shingles added insulation to the home. I don't by that line of reasoning. Even if it were to add insulation value to the home (which it does not), the heat has all ready escaped your home! Bottom line: STRIP OFF ALL THOSE OLD SHINGLES!!!!!!

2. You  want to ask your roofer what he charges per hour should he find rotten roof sheathing that needs  replaced. You do want to have all your sheathing inspected for rot and anything that is visibly rotten needs
to be cut out and replaced. However, you also want the sheathing inspected for wood that is soft and
spongy and have that replaced too. It is the beginning of wood rot.

3. Once you have all those old shingles off and the sheathing in top condition, you want your roofer to install drip edge on the end of your roof sheathing. See picture below:

You need drip edge on your roof because when it rains, the water does not flow down your roof and fall straight off the shingle and into the eavestrough. Water actually follows a plain. When it gets to the last shingle, it will actually curl around the end of the shingle and travel backwards on the underneath side of the shingle. If you do not have drip edge, some of the water may hit hit the wooden roof sheathing and the sheathing will suck it up like a straw! This allows the sheathing to become wet and stay wet and it WILL rot! If you have aluminum drip edge installed, the water will hit the drip edge and it will drop straight into the eavestrough.It will also prevent your roof sheathing from becoming wet.

4. Confirm with your roofer how far he intends to overlap the new shingles beyond the drip edge. He needs only to go about 1/2 inch or so beyond the drip edge! I have see jobs that extend 2 or 3 inches or more beyond the drip edge! Not only is this bad in that you have now radically decreased the size of your eavestroughs, but in a short while, after the shingles have heated up, they will curl and sag into your eavestroughs. 1/2 inch is all you need!

5. You want new tar paper, felt paper or ice and water shield installed before the new shingles go on! See picture below. This roofer is doing it right! Full strip down of old shingles, drip edge, then ice and water shield!

The only problem with the above installation is that the roofer has his ladder directly against the eavestrough and by the time he is done, the eavestroughs will have significant ladder denting. Other than that, the roofing job itself is off to a great start!

6 You want to make sure your roofer is using only tab-less architectural shingles and not the old three tab shingles! The architectural shingles look better and last longer! See the picture below for tabless architectural shingles vs three tab shingles:

Demand to have architectural shingles! They do not cost that much more! Better yet, if you live in or near Hamilton, Ontario, go to AMA Roofing Supplies and look in their show room to get an idea of the types of shingles you want and colours! Their website is: http://www.amaroofingsupplies.com/home.php

7. Consider adding extra roof vents to eradicate excessive heat in your attic. Many attics are extremely under ventilated! Also, your roofer should be putting brand new roof vents on and replacing all old flashing around your roof chimney and other areas.

8. You want to be crystal clear with your roofing company that they will NOT be placing a ladder directly against your eavestrough. Demand that they use a ladder stand off and notify them that if they dent your eavestrough, they will be replacing them! See picture below for an example of a ladder stand off:

9. Confirm with your roofing company that they will be cleaning all the shingle debris out of the eavestrough and on the ground when the job is complete! It is very difficult to clean up every little nail that falls so expect to find some debris in the days after your new roof goes on.

The points above are key to you getting the quality job that you want done. After all, you are the one paying out $5000 or more for a new roof and you want it done right! The information listed here will help you!

Urban Roofing is a company I have seen do quality work. They are based in Hamilton, Ontario. Shawn Stratford is the owner of the company and he is 100% honest and takes no short cuts! They do roofs correctly! To contact Urban Roofing phone: 905-978-7691

Of course, I always encourage obtaining several estimates. However, you need to remember that the cheapest estimate is not what you are looking for. You are wanting the best job done on your roof. So ask lots of questions and cover the points above!

The information and opinions in this blog are my own. I will conclude this article with a picture of a house with a beautiful new roof!

For quality eavestrough work, contact The Eavestrough Company at www.theeavestroughcomany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564.