A working vacation in Saskatchewan.

Alas, my daughter fell in love, got married, and moved.....TO SASKATCHEWAN.  They live 1600 kilometres away from us now. They bought a house in the city of Moose Jaw and settled down.

When they sent me pictures of their house, my eyes gazed immediately at their eavestroughs. ARGH!!!!! They had plastic eavestroughs. Plastic eavestroughs are complete and total garbage. I don't know why the Big Box stores sell them to do it yourselfers.

This summer, my wife and I planned a two week vacation to Saskatchewan and on the top of my agenda was to replace their eavestroughs with seamless aluminum.....or so I thought.

We arrived in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and were greeted by THE MOOSE, the gatekeeper of the city.

Even the city's in Saskatchewan feel like small towns in Ontario. People are not as hurried or rushed and it just seems like a friendlier place.

My daughter, son-in-law, and my youngest son (who also lives there) were delighted to see us. We set about doing the eavestroughs right away. The first obstacle we had to overcome was finding a company who could run the lengths we needed so that the eavestroughs would be seamless. Unfortunately, I could not bring my eavestrough truck and machine that far away! I had several companies inform me that they were not willing to run the eavestroughs for me until I found a class act company in Regina, one hour away, Budwards Eaves and Exteriors.

A gentleman by the name of Eddy owns the company and he is originally from Ontario. Here is Eddy and his team:

Eddy spent some time with me showing me the differences between eavestrough in Ontario and eavestrough in Saskatchewan. Here are the differences:

1. Firstly, they do not use aluminum. They use steel because there is so much ice and snow.
2. They also do not use hidden hangers. They use galvanized steel spiral nails or Alu-Rex 5200 T-Rex to make the eavestroughs stronger.
3. Their eavestroughs have no downpipe outlets. They use a punch that knocks an X pattern where the dowpipe goes.

Those are some of the major differences. There were a bunch of small things they do differently too. It was quite an education for me and Eddy was more than happy to show me all the differences. He even spent time showing me some different ways of attaching fascia, soffit, and siding which is quicker and makes it attach more strongly to the house. Eddy, for sure, is a class act!

The next obstacle was how to get all these long lengths of eavestroughs back to Moose Jaw, an hour drive across the trans-Canada Hwy. We had no truck or van. All we had was my daughter's small Honda CR-V. It took us a while to get it on the vehicle securely but we did it and away we went. Here is a picture of us hauling the new eavestroughs to my daughter and son-in-laws......don't laugh!

I was a bit paranoid on the drive back to Moose Jaw. I was concerned about a high wind blowing the eavestrough and bending it. I knew we had it secure enough that it was not going to come off the vehicle. The trip was uneventful but we did get a share of people looking at us and pointing. LOL

I and my son-in-law, Marc, started the job. It posed a few challenges. Marc had never installed eavestrough before and I had never worked with steel eavestrough. I also did not have all my tools from home so we had to improvise.

Here are a couple pictures of Marc and I hard at work.

At the end of the day, it was Mission accomplished. The house was completed.

We were finished just in time for the next door neighbour to come home and bemoan the fact that she could not get anyone to install new eavestrough on he home and she had been trying for two years. So, I'm a suck for work......I offered to do her job and it paid for the whole vacation. My daughter and son in law got their eavestrough, pro-bono. After all, they are my most special customers! :)

The highlight of the trip for me was not doing the two eavestrough jobs and learning the many different things about eavestroughing in Saskatchewan. It was the news that me and my wife are going to be first time GRANDPARENTS in January 2015. We even got to accompany my daughter to the doctor and hear the baby's heart beat. What a thrill!  Here's my daughter! She is such an angel!

Downspout Disconnection from Storm Sewers

In the last month, I completed over 50 estimates on houses to replace their eavestroughs. More than half had their downpipes running into a pipe at the foundation of their homes that is directly connected to the city storm sewers. This system worked 30 to 50 years ago. However, with the housing boom and all the new subdivisions cropping up all over the place, there are now too many homes to have this water routed into storm sewers as seen in the picture below:

The city of Toronto and the City of Mississauga have already begun the process of all houses disconnecting their downpipes from the city storm sewers and for good reason! The storm sewers can not handle all the water directly routed into them from the roofs of houses AND do their job of getting water off city streets when a rain storm or massive snow melt off occurs. This has resulted in parts of these cities flooding and sewer backups into homes.

Here is information from both cities and their downpipe disconnect programs:

Click on this link for the city of Toronto information: http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=9931c0841486f310VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD&vgnextchannel=d490ba32db7ce310VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

The following is from the city of Mississauga:

I rarely work in Toronto and often in Mississauga. Most of my work is done in the Halton area and Hamilton. To my knowledge, neither of these two cities have mandated that home owners disconnect downpipes but both have recommended it.

Here is Hamilton's information:
http://www.hamilton.ca/CityDepartments/PublicWorks/WaterAndWasteWaterDev/Downspout+Disconnection.htm

That's why whenever I meet with homeowners to provide an estimate, I always recommend that the downpipes be disconnected when we do the work. Especially since there is usually a better location for the downpipe to spill the water onto the ground. Although Hamilton and Halton have not yet mandated downspout disconnection, it is only a matter of time before they do so. The best option for you is to disconnect NOW and not have to worry later!

Here is a fantastic article entitled "The Storm over Disconnecting your Downspout by Dianne Saxe an Environmental Law Specialist. It is worth your time to read it! Just click on the following link:
http://beaconnews.ca/calgary/2011/12/the-storm-over-disconnecting-your-downspout/

For an eavestrough job done right every time, contact  at The Eavestrough Company  at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564.

Mitred Corners vs Pre-made Corners

When I have work done around my house, I always try and do my homework and hire professionals who specialize in their trade. The reason I hire professionals who specialize in their trade is that you generally get a quality job. When it comes to eavestrough, it is no different. There are very few eavestrough companies in the Hamilton, Burlington, and Oakville area that actually do quality work.

One of the ear marks of a professional eavestrough job is that all corners are mitred CLEANLY.  On the flip side, one of the earmarks of an amateur company is that they do not know how to mitre an eavestrough and, instead, use a pre-made factory mitred corner. Before we get into comparing them. Let me show you pictures of both styles of corners. The mitred corners below are on a house that The Eavestrough Company did two years ago. The pictures below with the pre-made factory corners are on a house that we will be replacing all eavestroughs on soon.

The mitred corner:

The Pre-made factory corner:

Here are some interesting things to keep in mind when considering companies that mitre their corners vs those that use the pre-made factory corner.

1.  The mitred corner is a TRUE seamless eavestrough. The pre-made corner is not!

2. The mitred corner has one seam in every corner. The pre-made factory corner has 3 seams in every corner.

3. The mitred corner will oxidize evenly over the years and will look the same. The pre-made factory corner may oxidize at a different rate and look like a completely different shade or colour (as our picture above).

4. It is easier to slope a mitred corner than a pre-made factory corner.

5. Water has a harder time travelling around 3 beads of caulking inside the corner rather than just one bead of caulking.

6. The pre-made factory corner is more prone to leaking as it ages.

7. Pre-made factory corners just don't look as nice!

8. Pre-made factory corners are done by amateurs who don't know how to mitre an eavestrough!

If you are looking to replace the eavestroughs on your home, hire a professional company like The Eavestrough Company. We do it right and our corners are a beautiful sight! My partner, Dusko, makes one of the prettiest and cleanest corners you will ever see! You can find us on the internet at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or you can phone us at 905-966-2564. We look forward to doing business with you! I will leave you with a picture of the house that we did a couple years ago where we did all the eavestrough, fascia, soffit, and Diamond Back Gutter Covers. It turned out beautifully and there were a lot of corners on this house.......ALL mitred to perfection!

Ice Dams Revisited.

I've written about Ice Dams before so I am not intending for this article to be a rehash of what I wrote previously. My other article "Oh No! It's an Ice Dam!" http://theeavestroughcompany.blogspot.ca/2013/02/oh-no-its-ice-dam.html was quite thorough in what causes Ice Dams and how to attempt to solve them.

Every single winter I get people phoning me about their Ice Dams because they believe they have an eavestrough problem. After all, that's where they notice the BIG ice blocks 6" high and that's where the monstrous icicles are forming. The picture below shows an eavestrough that is packed with ice and it is now damaged because of the ice causing expansion and the weight.

The eavestrough is about 4 3/4" high. Which means our ice dam here is about 7" or 8" high. What homeowner wouldn't panic after seeing this on their home?!

Here's a true false test for you:

1. Improperly sloped eavestorughs cause ice dams.  T/F
2. Clogged eavestroughs cause ice dams.  T/F
3. Ice Dams happen only at the eaves of the house.  T/F
4. Gutter Protection systems can cause ice dams. T/F
5. A badly installed roof can cause ice dams.  T/F
6. Ice Dams only happen on older homes.  T/F
7. Installing heat cables and the roof solves the problem of ice dams.  T/F

The answer to all the above questions is FALSE!

Then what causes an ice dam? Well, read my other article. It all has to do with heat loss in your home. Here is an excellent diagram I found on the internet:

Warm air escapes your house and can't escape because of a lack of ventilation or because the heat escape is too rapid. This heats the snow on the roof, it melts and when it finally gets out over the part of the roof that is unheated (the soffit area) it begins to refreeze. Hence the start of an ice dam. Eventually the ice dam can become so large that it begins to back up and the water begins to back up under the shingles and into your house.

I'm in the eavestrough business. It's what I do.  Let me explain why the above questions are all false.

1. Improperly sloped eavestorughs cause ice dams.  T/F
2. Clogged eavestroughs cause ice dams.  T/F
The above questions are false. An eavestrough is slightly lower in the front than it is in the back. If your problem is only in the eavestrough, water will come over the front and not the back. It's simply impossible for ice to build up 7" higher than the eavestrough and then back up onto the roof if it is only the eavestrough that is clogged or improperly sloped.
3. Ice Dams happen only at the eaves of the house.  T/F
Ice Dams can happen anywhere on your roof. In fact, some older 1 1/2 story homes have 5 attics. I've seen ice form on the upper attic that is about 10 ft away from the eavestrough because the upper attic has significant heat loss and the lower ones do not.
4. Gutter Protection systems can cause ice dams. T/F
Gutter Protection NEVER causes an ice dam for the same reason an eavestrough never causes an ice dam.
5. A badly installed roof can cause ice dams.  T/F
Roofs never ever cause an ice dam! Shingles are only designed to keep water from coming through in normal circumstances. Ice Dams are a heat loss issue not a roof issue!
6. Ice Dams only happen on older homes.  T/F
Even a brand new roof can have an ice dam if constructed improperly with inadequate insulation or inadequate ventilation.
7. Installing heat cables and the roof solves the problem of ice dams.  T/F
Heat cables can solve the symptom of ice dams but the do not solve it!

At The Eavestrough Company, we are always ready to help you with your eavestrough needs (and your fascia, soffit, and siding needs too!) We do quality and professional work every time. If you would like to have us come and give you an estimate, call us at 905-966-2564 or visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com. We would love to help you!

Home Depot Eavestrough and Siding

Home Depot....A name you can trust! Well, of course, we all shop there. It's a great store. In the last few years, the Home Depot and other big box stores like Lowes and Rona have begun to strongly promote their contractor service of eavestrough installation. Eavestrough, soffit, fascia, siding, even roofing.....they do it all.

Earlier this year, I met and had a length conversation with one of the Eavestrough Company's they subcontract work out too. I discovered that Home Depot was very busy. I also discovered that Home Depot's prices were out of this world expensive! This man explained to me that Home Depot charged $9.00 per foot for a bungalow and about $10.00 for a two story.That's nearly double what most companies charge or at least 30-40% more. I also discovered that Home Depot paid him MUCH less than the going rate for eavestrough AND he did not get the extra money for the two story homes. Based on what he told me Home Depot paid him, I would be unable to run a business on that but the gentleman told me he counts on volume and always looks to charge for extras and makes his money there.

This year I have been working on a house to flip and I decided to play dumb and call in the Home Deopt to look at my house that was in need of 165 ft of Eavestroughing, 140 ft of fascia and soffit, and 900 sq ft of siding. The house is pictured below. It is a raised bungalow with old galvanised eavestrough and the fascia and soffit is the original wood so there was nothing to remove.

This house is as easy and straight forward as they come! So I called up the Home Deopt and out they came. I was told by the call taker that they were extremely busy and I waited two weeks before they came out. So Home Depot probably is super busy with eavestrough installation. The estimator drove up in a beater of an old red Ford Taurus wagon. I explained what I wanted and he set about measuring. He was a very nice individual. However, it was apparent to me that he had limited knowledge of eavestrough work.

1. Upon my questioning, he was not sure whether their corners were the pre-manufactured or hand mitred.

2.  He made no recommendations about relocating the downpipes. Upon questioning, he thought the downpipes were fine where they were....going into the storm sewer.

3. He also made no recommendation that all the windows and doors should be recapped with the siding job.

When he gave me the quote here was Home Depot's pricing:

1. Eavestrough 165 ft. $1485.00 ($9 per foot)
2. Fascia and Soffit 140 ft. $2240 ($16 per foot)
3. Siding 900 sq ft. $7282.00 ($8.10 per sq ft)
4. Siding Removal $1571.00

Total estimate for my house: $12,578 plus HST

Let me start off by saying, THIS PRICE IS OUTRAGEOUS!!! After seeing these numbers, I can not figure out why Home Depot is so busy except that people blindly trust them and I guess they will allow you to defer your payments for a year.

Let me show you what this house should have cost:

1. Eavestrough $866.25
2. Fascia and Soffit $1400.00
3. Siding (with Removal) 4950.00

Total $7,216.25 plus HST

Based on the above quotes, you would pay $5,362 plus HST more for the Home Depot than hiring an independent Eavestrough Company to do the work.

By the way, my wife and I found that quote for siding removal by the Home Dept hilariously funny. My wife, Faye, has no construction experience. So just to prove a point, we decided to remove the siding.....just her and me. We ordered up a metal bin from Budget Bin Rental for $100. They dropped it in our driveway and we set about taking off the siding and depositing it into the bin. It took us 2 1/2 hours to take all the aluminium siding off the house and dump it in the bin. Based on that figure, Home Depot was going to charge us $315 per hour to take off the siding. Oh, and by the way, Budget paid us $400 for all the metal!

Here are some points to remember about Home Depot Eavestrough:

1. Home Depot ALWAYS subcontracts out their work to another company.
2. Home Depot charges WAY higher prices than the going rate.
3. Home Depot's estimators, although nice, are not that knowledgeable about eavestrough.
4. Home Depot will allow you to defer payments for a year but will charge you 30-40% more than another company for that privilege.

The Home Depot touts themselves as a name you can trust with quality you can trust. That might be true. But why would you, the homeowner want to pay a HUGE premium for it. Do your own due diligence and call in a few companies for estimates. For a name you can trust and quality you can trust, you can contact The Eavestrough Company at 905-966-2564 or visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com We do it right the first time!

How to get a cheap eavestrough job (and guarantee sub-standard work)!

Here is an interesting ad I came across on Kijiji:

Looking for someone to do the eavestrough at my house as cheap as possible. Sides of house are 38 in length 25 at rear and 10 in front. 1 downspout on each side of house. Need a rough estimate on what this will cost me. Thanks 

Here's my two cents. Cheap is cheap! It's the old adage, "You get what you pay for." The guy (or girl)  who posted this ad on Kijiji seems to be more focused on wanting a cheap job rather than wanting a quality job. I see cheap work all the time and it's usually done by a new upstart company or roofing company that wants to secure the job. More often than not, they don't know how to do the job or they cut corners (no pun intended) to reduce their cost.

Recently we replaced an entire house of eavestrough for an elderly couple in Dundas who got hosed 6 years ago by a company posing as eavestroughers. The eaves all had the premade corners and were not mitred, they were slopped the wrong direction, the downpipe outlets were all on backwards and they leaked every where. The customer got fed up trying to get their "company" back and called me. Upon evaluation, I explained that it was better for them to rip them all off and start all over again.

If you pay cheap, you usually get cheap! There are all sorts of ways for contractors to decrease their expenses to pass the "savings" onto the customer. The customer saves money but gets substandard work in return. Here are some of the ways that an eavestrough company can save money and pass on substandard work to you, the customer.

1. Hire a company that does not carry Liability Insurance or WSIB on its workers. I pay $1000 liability insurance every year and thousands in WSIB. Companies who don't can pass on savings, but are also working illegally. Remember, if your workers aren't insured and they damage your property or worse, they fall and get hurt....THEY ARE YOUR PROBLEM!

2. Use thinner gauge aluminium. I use Boncor, Gentek or Kaycan Aluminum. It is all .024 gauge. However, there is a new company called ALB, that has only .016 gauge. It is so thin you could wrap a sandwich in it! Because it's thinner, it is way cheaper to buy. You, the customer, will never know unless you put a micrometre on it. I saw one company using ALB aluminium who told the customer it was Boncor Aluminium. The customer was clueless. Shame on that company! :(

3. Space your brackets far apart (which will save about .20 per foot). However, remember, most of the strength in the eavestroughs is directly proportion to how many brackets you use. I did a large repair job last week for a religious organisation. They own a couple large low income housing complexes and help the poor. Their eavestroughs were done by their roofers 4 or 5 years ago and some eavestroughs were falling off the building! They couldn't get their company back to repair so they called us in. Here is what we found:

The brackets (hangers) are 4 feet apart in the entire complex! This is WAY to far apart.

It's no wonder the eavestroughs are falling off the building! They have little support.

Here is one of our eavestroughs as it was being made off the truck:

That's my partner, Dusko with the white shirt and baseball cap. I'll give a little endorsement for him here. He is one of THE BEST eavestroughers in the entire region! Now, look at the bracket spacing on this eavestrough! They are spaced every 16-18" AND we are using .024 gauge aluminum!

4. Use cheaper caulking. This will save money but your eavestroughs are guaranteed to leak with in a few years.

5. Use fewer downpipes. This will save money but you should have a downpipe every 50 to 60 feet on a 6" fascia board. I did a job in Burlington, Ontario last year that was 189' of eavestrough and they had ONLY ONE downpipe which emptied into another eavestrough right over their front door! The home owner said that in a rain, it was like Niagara Falls, with the water pouring over the eavestroughs! LOL No wonder! We ended up putting 4 downpipes on that house and did not route one into the eavestrough near the front door!

There are several other ways guaranteed to save you money now but will cost you in the long run! DON'T BE FOOLED! Don't look for cheap. Look for quality. Hire an eavestrougher who knows his trade and settles on nothing less than giving a perfect job to his customer!

The Eavestrough Company specializes in eavestrough, fascia, and soffit. It's all we do! For a job done right the first time contact us at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564.

Rain Barrels: Environmentally Smart!

I am a BIG fan of rain barrels! It's the wise thing to do environmentally and saves you money. Rain water is also much healthier for your plants. However, if you are going to install a rain barrel, you need to have the right location for it AND it must be installed properly for it to function.

The purpose of the rain barrel is to collect the rain water from your roof via the eavestroughs and into a big barrel located next to your house so that you can water your garden plants. Rain Barrels come in all shapes and sizes from 30 gallon barrels to 150 gallon barrels. You can link smaller ones together so that one over flows into the next. Some barrels are absolutely beautiful and others look like recycled restaurant pickle barrels (likely because they are!). Below is an inexpensive rain barrel sold at Costco.

Of course, as with anything, you get what you pay for. Cheap is cheap. These rain barrels are all thin plastic and not very durable. There are several important factors to think of before you install your rain barrel.

1. Buy a quality rain barrel! The rain barrel above is all thin plastic. The barrel, the overflow hose, and the hose tap is all plastic. Connect your metal hose to the rain barrel often enough and it is bound to strip. Like I say, the rain barrel like the one pictured above is not made to last. The one I like the best and is of incredible quality is a rain barrel made by Riversides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You can visit their website for more information http://www.riversides.org Riversides rain barrels are beautiful and made of very think recycled plastic. The have metal hose bibs and their overflow is a direct extension of your downpipe. The are also VERY easy to winterize! Not to mention they hold a whopping 132 gallons of water. Below is a Riversides Rain Barrel:

2. Where not to place a rain barrel! To place a rain barrel near a window well or a patio door is probably not a very good idea! Keep in mind that if you get a series of heavy rains, the rain barrel is going to fill up and over flow before you can use the water. You do not want to have all that water overflowing from the rain barrel and into your house! The rain barrel must have a functioning overflow hose. That overflow hose must take the water away from your house just like a downpipe extension on an eavestrough.

3. Where to place a rain barrel! Remember, you want to water your garden plants. So try and remember to place the barrel as close to the plants you want to water. Again, look at the above picture. I'd say that the rain barrel would have been better located closer to those plants if there is an eavestrough downspout closer to them.

4. Rain barrels work on gravity. The Costco rain barrel above is sitting squarely on the ground. Trying to water the garden plants with this rain barrel will be a challenge, if not impossible!

Recently, I and my son, Daniel Leytham, installed a rain barrel for my mother in law. We chose a good location, near her garden plants, with good drainage.

First, we dug a hole and filled it with gravel.

We dug the hole about 3 ft deep. Then I placed blocks on top with patio stones.

You can see how we raised it about two feet off the ground so that gravity will do its job. However, when we were done, my mother in law did not like the look of the concrete blocks so I recommended some new shrubs that would hide the blocks.

And here we are as happy as we can be with the finished product!

Rain barrels are an awesome creation. I will be writing another article on rain barrels soon when I install the one I bought for my house. At The Eavestrough Company, we help homeowners all the time with advice on installing new rain barrels. For all your eavestrough needs, contact The Eavestrough Company at 905-966-2564 or visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com