Rain Chains.....A Beautiful Alternative to Downspouts!

When I am out estimating, one of the most common discussions I have with people are in regards to downspout location. Let's face it, a 3"x3" aluminium pipe coming down the front or side of the house is not the most aesthetic feature of your home! However, in some cases, there is a beautiful and functional alternative. It's called, the rain chain! They have been in use in Japan for hundreds of years, quite often on Temples and residences. The Japanese call them "kusari dos". Since the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Rain Chains have steadily grown in popularity in Canada and The United States.

Rain chains are a beautiful alternative to conventional eavestrough downspouts. Where conventional downspouts are often hidden or placed out of sight so as to not detract from the look of a home or structure, rain chains can accent the architecture and add curb appeal. Rain chains channel water downward from the eavestrough via a series of hollow cups or a stylish chain link.

Here is a video by a company that sells rain chains:

Rain Chains can be made out of any type of metal, including copper. They make a beautiful and relaxing noise as the water travels down the chain. I have even seen a few houses that simply had a hardware store chain wired up to the downspout. Like this one in Burlington, Ontario. 

Here is an excellent youtube video of someone who used a chain:

When I discuss rain chains to my customers in Ontario, Canada, invariably they always ask if rain chains ice up in the winter time. The answer? Yes, they do and they are a spectacular sight in winter! Just look at these photos! 

So there you have it! A beautiful alternative to a convention downspout! Rain Chains are simply BEAUTIFUL!

If you would like a quote for new eavestrough, fascia, and soffit, give us a call at 905-966-2564 or visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com.

Crooked Contractors at your door!

Crooked Contractors! They are everywhere and in every city. There is not a month that goes by we do not get a phone call or an email from someone who has been cheated by a "contractor". The "contractors" are usually people going around door to door, scamming unsuspecting people like Seniors. I have been to two estimates this year for some very nice people who were taken advantage of.

Let me recount one story. I will call my customer Bob. Bob was in his driveway one day when Rick, approximately 50 years old, approached him advising him he had just finished an eavestrough job up the street. He had just enough material left to do Bob's house and he could replace his eavestrough for a fire sale price of $1600 but it had to be in cash and the decision had to be made now. Bob had been thinking of replacing his eavestroughs because they were old and leaking. The offer sounded good, Rick (the contractor) seemed like a nice guy, and he could do the job immediately. Bob agreed.

Since it was already late in the day, it was dark by the time Rick finished. Bob gave Rick the $1600. The next day, Bob looked at the job and realized the work was very substandard. The problem was there was no estimate, he did not have Rick's phone number, and there was no way to get Rick back. Hence, The Eavestrough Company was called.

When I arrived I heard the story and felt so badly for this gentleman. He had been scammed. Not only was the work among the worst I had ever seen, I measured the very tiny house and Rick had charged Bob $15 per foot for the work. That's nearly triple or at least double the normal price. Here are issues I found with the job: the wrong colour was used (commercial brown when the actual colour should have been antique brown), eavestroughs were cut too short at the roof ends, the caulking job on the corners was HORRENDOUS!, the downpipe outlets were installed on the outside of the eavestrough not the inside, it had box miter corners installed very crooked, one trough had been cut far too short and a piece of eavestrough had been spliced in to extend it, the downpipes were crooked running down the wall, several downpipes were dented, and worse, the wrong kind of caulking was used. It could literally be pealed out! We ran water through them and the corners leaked. Following are some pictures of the work:

Bob wanted to know what I could do to fix them. Sadly, I explained to him the only thing that could be done was to take them all off and start over. They could not be fixed. Bob was out $1600 and there was little he could do. He had been scammed by a door to door fraudster!

Here are some things that might help you or your loved ones in the future before you get scammed:

Beware of the contractor who:

1. Pops up out of nowhere, literally.  No legitimate contractor goes door to door.
2. You can't verify who they are, who their company is, any of their references or has a fixed business address.
3. Can not provide you with a business license or certificate of insurance, which should include liability and WSIB.
4. Offers a "bargain" if he can do the work that day.
5. Rubs you the wrong way. Trust your instincts!. Run the other way!
6. Asks you to pay up front for work that hasn't been done yet or for materials that haven't arrived. 
7. Uses high pressure sales  or scare tactics to get you to agree to work.
8. Demands cash only!

If you or your loved one have been the victim of a scam or contractor type fraud, you may want to consider reporting it to your local police if you know the name of the contractor or obtained his license plate information.

Here is what The Eavestrough Company promises you:

We will strive to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and responsibility in all our business dealings with you by:

• Writing estimates and warranties that are clear and honest;
• Strictly adhering to the highest quality standards of workmanship;
• Honouring all legitimate financial obligations;
• Maintaining all required insurances;
• Performing all work in a safe and timely manner.
• Providing only products, materials, and services that are of proven quality;
• Quickly resolving all customer call backs in a timely manner.

If this is what you are looking for in an eavestrough company, contact us at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or by phoning us at 905-966-2564.

We love Emergency Services Personnel!!!!!!!

At the Eavestrough Company, we make no bones about it! WE APPRECIATE AND RESPECT ALL EMERGENCY SERVICES PERSONNEL... POLICE, FIREFIGHTERS, AND PARAMEDICS! These men and women put their life on the line every time they put on a uniform. They serve and protect night and day. When you and I sleep at night, they are awake keeping watch over us.

That is why The Eavestrough Company offers to pay the 13% HST for all Police, Fire, and Paramedics! All you have to do is let us know when we give you the estimate! It's our very small way of saying thank you for all that you do for us!

If you are a First Responder and would like an estimate for Eavestrough or any of the services we provide, contact The Eavestrough Company at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564. We would love to provide quality service to you for all the quality service you provide to us!

Flip up that Downpipe with Zip Hinge!

Each year I do around 500 to 600 estimates. Most homes are straight forward in regards to where a downpipe should go. Numerous homes, however, have a downpipe that needs to be placed near a side walk way, a back patio, or out onto a lawn where the homeowner wants to cut the grass. Every year I would have customers ask me if there was any solution so that they could get their downspout extension out of the way! Usually, I would steer them toward a flexible plastic pipe extension that could be moved from side to side but not out of the way completely.

Then, last year, I came across a product called ZIP Hinge. I looked at it, examined it, and thought to myself, "This looks like it will work!" ZIP Hinge is made out of steel. It is super strong! Another thing I liked about it was that becomes part of the existing elbows the eavestrougher installs!

Needless to say, I bought one and installed it! It worked like a charm! I ended up installing quite a few last year and my customers loved them! Take a look at Zip Hinge's promotional video. It works exactly as shown!

The Zip Hinge is a fantastic product that provides the home owner with a solution to getting that downspout out of the way! You just have to remember after you flip it up, you need to flip it down! The one thing they don't show you in the video is the clip that helps hold the downspout in place once it is flipped up. Below is a picture I took showing the clip:

Zip Hinges are NOT available at any DIY stores. You must get them through an installer. They also state in the video that they can be painted to match the colour of the downspout. This is true, but keep in mind, only an eavestrough company with a commercial account is able to obtain spray paint for you that is an exact colour match.  Below, see how they can be painted for an exact colour match.

The ZIP Hinge gets two thumbs up from me! I intend on installing them for my customers in the future because they work! If you would like more information on eavestrough contact The Eavestrough Company at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564.

New Website for The Eavestrough Company

It has been nearly 10 years since I started my business. We started off humbly, offering quality work and customer services. There were some very positive things that happened to us right from the beginning. First, Dusko Vukancic, one of the best eavestroughers, in the city and I met by happenstance. He is simply AMAZING!!!!

The next thing that happened to me was finding Anthony Maley, a web designer who lives 4,000 kilometres away from me in Nelson, British Columbia. I won't get in to how I heard about him but I instantly liked my dealings with him over the phone. We set out to build a website, and his talent was evident from the beginning! He is remarkable! With a bit of bias, I believe he designed for me the best website of any eavestrough company in southwestern Ontario!

The website has been through some minor revisions and page changes. However, we believe that the old website has served us well and it is time to retire it. We are building a new website that will be mobile friendly as well, for all our customers who find us on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets.

Here is the amazing thing. I never met Anthony Maley until last month! I have family in Nelson and, sadly, one of them passed away so I had to go for the funeral. While there, I met with Anthony and his lovely wife. We discussed business AND what a lovely city Nelson is. Anthony and his wife are pictured below:

Their home is amazing! If I could move to Nelson, BC, I would do it in a heartbeat! Look at the view from their front window!

How would you like to wake up, sit in your living room chair by the fire, have a coffee, and look at that every day? Frankly, I'm jealous! After meeting Anthony and his wife, I am more thankful than ever to give them my business. They are amazing, caring, and giving people!

What Anthony has done for my business is nothing short of spectacular! I am always on the front page of Google and last year I spent most of my time in the loneliest spot......#1!!!! LOL We were so outrageously busy last year, I phoned Anthony up to "complain" that I never thought it would be a curse being number one on Google. Here is a picture of Anthony and I together:

I get customers telling me all the time what a great website I have. Honestly, Anthony is the man behind it! Now it's time to move on with the new website! I am looking forward to it! If you would like to contact Anthony Maley, his website is: http://anthonymaley.com/

In closing, here is a picture of Anthony at work in his office:

Of course, I have to add my information here too! If you would like a quote or information about eavestrough, contact The Eavestrough Company at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564.

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.