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!