OH NO! It's an ICE DAM!!!!

Eavestrough, all home owners need them! However, if you thought this vital part of your home was safe from wrongful attacks and the blame game, you’d be wrong. All across Canada, the poor innocent and unsuspecting eavestroughs get wrongfully blamed for a wintertime malady called Ice Dams.

In wintertime, on a number of homes, Ice Dams occur. When people look up, they see a huge mound of ice accumulating on top of their eavestrough and roof, and they get mad and upset. Who wouldn’t? Roof top ice can cause damage to eavestrough, roof shingles and result in water leaks.

When the eavestroughs are covered in a mound of ice, they do look like the guilty party. But the truth is, the eavestroughs DO NOT cause Ice Dams. Dangerous quantities of ice will still accumulate, even without eavestroughs. It is easy to cast the blame at the poor innocent eavestroughs but they are not the root problem. That's just where the problem becomes visible. Blaming an Eavestrougher for an Ice Dam is like blaming the Plumber for a Sewage Back up!

The ROOT CAUSE of Ice Dams

When an attic is too warm in winter, it melts rooftop snow, even when outdoor temperatures are below freezing. As this water runs down the artificially warm shingles, it eventually hits the lower edge of the roof. Since there’s no heat underneath this location, the water refreezes, forming the start of an ‘ice dam’. After a few weeks of sub-zero weather, the thaw-and-freeze cycle has left behind a great big problem....a WALL OF ICE ON THE EDGE OF THE ROOF AND EAVESTROUGH!
See the you tube video below:

Ice Dams and your Home

The reason to take ice dams seriously is the damage they can cause to your house. If the dam is more than a few inches thick, it can trap and hold significant pools of water when things warm up during a thaw. Shingles can only keep water out of your home if it’s running downwards off the roof and into the eavestrough. Halt this downward flow and water can back up seeping into your attic, through your ceiling or around the top of the fascia board and into your house. DON'T BLAME your Roofer and DON'T BLAME your Eavestrougher. It just isn't thier fault.

Here are some pictures of Ice Dams:

1. Notice the wall of ice forming on the end of the eavestrough. It extends several feet back onto the roof.

2. The next picture shows the wall of ice is about 6 inches higher than the eavestrough!

This next picture is a home that has an ice dam but the picture is taken from under the soffit area. Notice how the water is beginning to travel backwards and it is coming through the soffit area.

The next is a series of pictures all of the same house.

First notice the right side of the house. Ice has formed on the eaves and has built up about 2 ft. back on the roof.

Next the left side of the house. Similar situation but look at the brick behind the over hanging ice on the right. The brick is wet. Water has already begun to travel backwards over 1 ft and is getting perilously close to entering the house.

Next, believe the unbelievable...Water has begun to enter the house in small quantities! This is the inside window sill. The water staining is visible although the water has dried. The window also lost its seal in this battle with the ice dam. The window is in need of replacing. The damage is comparably minor compared to some. In other cases, significant drywall damage can occur or worse, your favourite $1000 recliner chair can get soaked!

A friend recently shared with me a picture of her ice dam. This is a classic picture! Look at how the ice formed over the eavestrough without ever entering the eavestrough itself!

How to Battle Ice Dams

There are three possible solutions in battling ice dams:

1. First increase insulation in the attic. You need to reduce heat migration into the attic from your living space, and less heat energy will be available to melt rooftop snow. You will also save money on heating costs. However, doing this does not guarantee you won't get an ice dam.
2. Heat can also escape through air leakage. This is why preventing warm indoor air from travelling into your attic is vital. It doesn’t take much of a hole or crack or gap to allow heat to escape.. Start by looking at your attic access door. This is a popular spot for massive air leaks into attics. Two rooms ice dams love to form over are the kitchen and bathroom, for obvious reasons. The kitchen especially puts out a ton of heat because of the stove and other appliances.
3. The third thing you need to do is increase attic ventilation. Boosting attic ventilation allows heat that does escape to be vented from the attic space via roof and soffit vents. Adequate roof vents and soffit venting is a must.

When all else Fails, One Last Ice Dam Solution

Solutions like those above aren’t always easy. Sometimes they’re not even possible in older homes because of how they were designed. That’s why, when all else fails, rooftop heating cables may be necessary.  Rooftop heating cables installed around the lower roof edge and eavestrough keeps them warm enough to allow water to keep flowing downwards, even when temperatures are below freezing. It’ll cost you more in electricity, but even that’s better than water entering inside your home. Icing cables do not cure the root problem, but they will resolve the nasty out come.

In conclusion. I encourage you to read this very well written and articulate article from the University of Minnesota: http://www1.extension.umn.edu/environment/housing-technology/moisture-management/ice-dams/

and watch this very good video by Tim Carter of "Ask the Builder"

For all your eavestrough needs, contact The Eavestrough Company at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564.

Our Name has CHANGED!

We want to let all our customers past, present and future know that we have changed the name of our company. Six years ago, we began as Superior Exterior Eavestrough. Another company, who had a similar name but provided significantly different services, offered to buy out our name and purchase our Superior Exterior web domain name on the internet.

As a result, we happily switched and we love our new name The Eavestrough Company! Here is our new name and logo below:

Our phone number will stay the same 905-966-2564. However, everything else changes. Our new web address is www.theeavestroughcompany.com.

We look forward to providing our customers with the same great quality service at a superior price!

For quality eavestrough work, contact The Eavestrough Company at 905-966-2564 or visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com. Remember, we do more than just eavestrough!

Eavestrough Colours

When it comes to choosing a colour for your home, there are an array of colours to choose from for your new eavestrough, fascia and soffit. If you are changing all your eavestrough, fascia and soffit, you can complete change from your old colour to a new colour.

At The Eavestrough Company, we deal mainly with three companies in our area. Boncor, Gentek, and Kaycan. There are a few other smaller companies in the Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville area that supply us with material as well.

In my opinion most of the companies quality are similar and we have never had a problem with any of them. Most of these companies offer a standard .23 gauge aluminium with a quality paint finish that comes with a standard 20 year prorated manufacturers warranty against peeling. Kaycan offers a .27 gauge in some of their colours.

All three of these companies have colours that are similar to each other. Each company has a few colours that are unique to their company.


Kaycan, located  on Barton St in Stoney Creek has a fan fold of 29 colours. All of their colours have a semi-gloss finish.

Boncor has a similar fan fold with fewer colours, about 20 in all, but all the standard colours. All colours are semi-gloss. They are located on the Upper Mountain in Hamilton, Ontario.

Gentek has as wide an array as Kaycan. They have a depot in Hamilton and in Burlington.

When it comes to choosing colours, a homeowner can get easily overwhelmed with the choices. When I encounter homeowners who are overwhelmed, I encourage them to find a brand new subdivision in their area and to drive though it to observe the colours.

We completed an old house recently that had all red brick. The owner chose all black for her eavestrough, fascia and soffit. It turned out stunning!

In general, people like to have the same colour for their eavestrough and fascia. The soffit can be a different but matching colour. However, I once had a customer who wanted white eavestrough, black fascia, and white soffit. At first, I thought the colour choice was horrendous! I was so convinced she would not like it that I finished only 2 feet of the house and then asked her to look at it. SHE LOVED IT and we completed the house. It actually turned out very nice!

Colour selection is very important if you are trying to match up to existing fascia or soffit on your home.  If you are only intending to put new eavestrough on your home you, may need to put the original or similar colour back on your house.

When it comes to quality and colours, all three of these companies are great. It's your house! Make it beautiful. Give The Eavestrough Company a call at 1-905-966-2564 or visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com

Do it right the first time!

One of my favourite types of work is when I am hired by a charity to work on their buildings. I have done work for Churches, City Missions, Foster homes, Group homes, and other charitable groups who do a fantastic and beneficial work for our communities.

Last week I received a call from a charitable group that I have done work for before. They have numerous houses around the city and help individuals who need a certain level of assistance in their daily living. One of their homes had water coming into an upstairs ceiling and they had called out a roofer to give them an opinion. The roofer apparently told them that their roof was o.k. and that it was an eavestrough issue and so they phoned me.

When I looked at it this past Friday, I was aghast! It certainly was an eavestrough issue but it was so much more. For starters, who ever did the last roofing job on that house had put sheathing on that was about 2 inches too short! The roof was well behind the eavestroughs!  The roof had two layers of fascia board on them and, as a result, the eaves were too far from the roof. See picture below:

The previous roofer attempted to overcome this problem by over lapping the shingles beyond the drip edge by about 3 inches.

In the above photo, you can see the top of the fascia board between the tab of the starter row of shingles.

This has resulted in a massive amount of Fascia rot and the ends of some of the roof rafters need to be rebuilt. Animals have free access and have been inside to attic. Water is coming in causing drywall damage. Attic insulation is sustaining damage.

If not dealt with, even more expensive problems will occur. The problems all began when someone attempted to deal with fascia rot by placing another layer of wood fascia on top of the other. This caused the roof sheathing to be too short. The roofer then created another band aid solution by extending the shingles 3 inches beyond the sheathing and drape the shingles into the eavestroughs in hopes that the water would carry over and into the trough.

This can be fixed and it was caught in the nick of time before significant structural damage occurred. However, problems like this, if not addressed can result in huge problems and issues later. It's, a crisis in the making. When hiring a company to work on your home, it is vital to hire a professional who does it right from the start. The Eavestrough Company is happy to help you with all your eavestrough needs. Visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564.

Two years early is better than a day late!

When it comes to eavestroughing, I am often asked by customers if their eavestroughs need replaced or if they can just be repaired. Usually these customers have eavestroughs that are about 25 to 30 years old, they have corners and end caps leaking, the old nail and ferrules are popping out, and they are dented in numerous places. My response to them is that usually, trying to repair eavestroughs in this condition is simply throwing good money after bad. I explain to them that it is better to be a couple years early rather than a day late.

By failing to maintain your eavestroughs or replace them when needed, you can do extensive damage to your home. I went to a home last week and was not prepared for what I saw. The eavestroughs were dangling from the house, the fascia and soffit were falling off, the fascia board was rotted, the old soffit board rotted, but worse yet, the ends of rafters were rotten. Look at the pictures below for what I saw while doing the estimate!

The above two pictures were just for starters. As I looked around the house, I saw more damage!

In the picture above, the eavestrough is pulling away from the house, the fascia board is visible and rotting, the soffit falling off the house and the soffti board is rotting.

Above is a picture from the roof line. The board at the bottom is what is left of the fascia board and you can see off on the right that the ends of the rafters are rotting. Birds and squirrels have been making a nest inside and they have made a mess inside. But it gets worse! All this water has been falling below and damaging steps and the window sill.

Thankfully, all this can be fixed. However, it is a good reminder for all of us to maintain our homes. When it comes to replacing your roof or your eavestrough, don't be penny wise and pound foolish by taking too long to replace them. It is better to changed them too early than too late!

For all your eavestroughing needs, contact The Eavestrough Company at 905-966-2564 or visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com

Gutter Protection Warranties

I have been selling Gutter Protection for years now. I have come to know that there are some gutter protections that are very good and some that are absolute junk. They all promise to "Keep your Gutter Clean!" and "You will never have to clean your eavestroughs again!" With some protections, this is true, with others, it is not. The cheap DIY products sold at most Home Improvement stores are just completely failure prone. They are cheap, hence they are appealing to the average home owner hoping for an inexpensive miracle to keeping their eavestrough clean.

In the last two years, even Costco has gotten into selling gutter protection products. The surprising thing to me is that their products are actually dumbed down products of some reasonably good gutter protection products. When I say, "dumbed down" what I mean is that they are made by companies that make a very good product, but they are MUCH cheaper and flimsier than their professional grade products.

Personally, I don't like these cheaper products. In the long run, you save a little money, but who is going to help support you if you have an installation issue or a problem with the product? In my experience, the average person at Costco knows nothing about eavestrough and can not answer your questions. I know, I have asked questions of Costco staff about Gutter Protection products. However, the boxes of their products still claim that a 25 year warranty is offered! WOW! How can you resist?
However, does anyone take the time to read the warranties? Here is the warranty from one of their products called Clip N Guard which is made by AluRex. In my opinion, AluRex makes good products but Clip N Guard is not one of them. It's just far too light weight and thin. A picture of it is below:

Here is the warranty for Clip N Guard: I won't list the whole warranty below, just certain aspects which show you the exclusions.

WHAT DOES THIS WARRANTY COVER?

This warranty is limited to the terms and conditions, exclusions and limitations, subject to
reduction as per the warranty coverage schedule provided herein, stated in this warranty.
Performance - subject to the following reservations, ALU-REX INC. warrants the Clip N Guard™
for 25 years, subject to reduction as per the warranty coverage schedule provided herein, to you
the owner of the property at the time the Product was purchased that, when installed in the manner
specified by ALU-REX INC., including the installation of downspout openings of 9 square
inches or more, if the property is located in a coniferous tree zone. The Product, under ordinary
conditions, will keep gutters from becoming clogged and overflowing as a result of the interior
of the gutter or downspouts filling with debris such as leaves, twigs, needles, or seeds.... 

With out going into excessive warranty information, the company also does not cover installation in damaged eavestrough, if snow or ice happen to collapse portions of it,  if they deem you installed it improperly, if you didn't screw or caulk the overlapping portions together, etc....

Look at the two points highlighted above! All of Ontario is a coniferous tree zone. So the company demands that all your downpipes be increased to 9 square inches. Nearly all older homes have 6 square inch pipes. In fact more than 95% of homes  DO NOT have pipes 9 square inches! Result? Warranty void.

Look at the next point. They do not cover the product clogging at all. They only cover the product if debris goes through and clogs it all up. This will never happen. If the product fails, it will be from the top or because it was weakened and collapsed.

But let's just say that you installed it correctly, debris went through and the product simply failed. The last portion of their warranty states that it is pro-rated (if you kept your receipt. Here is how they reimburse you!

WARRANTY COVERAGE SCHEDULE
Number of Years from % of purchase price of
Date of Original purchase originally purchased Products
to Date of Claim or % of cost of cleaning the
Product, as the case may be, that
ALU-REX INC. is responsible for
0-5................................................................................................................................................. 100%
more than 5 but less than 6............................................................................................................. 50%
more than 6 but less than 7............................................................................................................. 40%
more than 7 but less than 8............................................................................................................. 30%
more than 8 but less than 9............................................................................................................. 20%
more than 9 .................................................................................................................................... 10%

And the next paragraph states that your warranty is with Alu-Rex not with Costco!

How do you like this for a warranty! Don't get me wrong. I love AluRex! I just think that people need to know what they are buying into before they buy into these fabulous warranties!

Another key point to consider is that these warranties are only good if the company is still around or has not been bought out. For instance, all that wonderful foam filter sold by Leaf Defier, Gutter Filter, American Gutter Filter, Gutter Stuff, etc.... They all claimed that their foam filter was better than anyone else's foam filter. Well.....it was ALL made by the same company. New Dimension Industries in New Jersey. What many don't know is that last year, New Dimension Industries was bought out by another company called FXI. FXI declared that they were not honouring any warranties made by New Dimension Industries. So all those millions of feet of warranties offered by all these companies are VOID!

With all this said, I don't want anyone to take me the wrong way. I am a BIG fan of gutter protection products. However, my belief is that people should buy a good product that works and one where the company who installs it will help in support should there ever be a problem.


In the end, you really need to find a company like The Eavestrough Company.

If you want to install gutter protection on your home, contact The Eavestrough Company at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or you can phone us at 905-966-2564. We would be happy to show you our quality products.

Ladder Safety!

 I feel compelled to write on ladder safety for the following reasons. Most home owners own a ladder and use it several times per year. I have seen homeowners using ladders and some of them scare me to death the way they use them! I once saw an 80 year old man cleaning his gutters. It was just a single storey home, but he climbed to the top rung of his 6 ft step ladder and was standing on the top rung....you know.....the one that says "DO NOT STAND HERE". There's a reason why you never stand on the top wrung. The ladder has NO stability! Here are some pictures of unsafe ladder usage!

These pictures are truly unbelievable! It just is not worth it to risk your life for the sake of what ever task you want to accomplish. Ladders are meant for one purpose. To climb safely and use according to manufacturers specifications to accomplish your task.

Every year I hear of home owners who are injured falling from a ladder. The previous owner of the home I currently live in was severely injured falling from a ladder. He was working on a side of the house that was very difficult to get a good pitch on the ladder so it was pitched too steep. He climbed the ladder and was cleaning the eavestrough when he suddenly lost balance and fell backwards. He was able to jump backwards, landing on his feet, but the impact shattered his pelvis in two places. When he landed, his momentum carried him backwards and he hit his head on a tree suffering a severe concussion. He survived, but because he was elderly, the doctors were unsure for a few days. This story is just one of many! I met a 46 yr old man who sustained an injury so severe from falling off a ladder that he had not been able to return to work for a year. Another man I know in his early 50's, broke his arm so badly that the bone splintered and was sticking out his flesh. He has been trying to get better for over 2 years and he still can't return to the work he was doing!

Using a ladder isn’t inherently dangerous, but it can be dangerous or deadly if a person is not careful and mindful of ladder safety.


With that said, it is almost spring and your “to do” list around the house has increased over the winter. Some of the things you’ll need to take care of in the coming months likely include:

1. Trimming branches from trees
2. Inspecting exterior walls and doors for cracks
3. Taking off storm windows
4. Washing windows and power-washing siding
5. Cleaning gutters, downspouts, and roof valleys on your home.

Some of these tasks will require you going out to the shed or garage to retrieve the long forgotten ladder. Please keep this sobering statistic in mind regarding ladder safety…every year, over thousands of people in North America are injured from accidents involving a ladder. Recent OSHA research found that almost 100 percent of all ladder accidents could be avoided with the proper attention to the details of how your equipment works and being mindful of ladder safety tips.

Before Using Check Ladder For:

1. Cracks
2. Bends
3. Splits
4. Corrosion
5. Missing Rungs and Steps
6. All feet are working properly – a solid base is vital to a solid ladder
7. Rung locks and spreader braces are working properly
8. All bolts and rivets are secure
9. All steps, rungs, and other ladder parts are free of oil, grease, and any other liquid or debris that will make climbing your ladder more difficult than it already is

Do not use your ladder if any of the above problems are found as a result of your inspection.

Ladder Safety Tips for Proper Setup and Use:

1. Choose a safe location to setup your ladder while avoiding doors and uneven/slippery flooring
2. Avoid windy conditions
3. Uneven or slippery flooring because this could cause the ladder to shift while you are standing on it – not a good situation
4. Stay at least 10 feet away from any and all power lines
5. Use a spotter (an extra person at the bottom of the ladder) when possible. If not, secure the ladder on each end to ensure it doesn’t fall or lean away from the structure
6. Never carry bulky materials or heavy loads up or down a ladder. All materials should be raised to the work station on a tether or with a lift.
7. Always face the ladder.
8. Keep your body weight centred in between the two side rails
9. Maintain three points of contact with the ladder at all times
10. Only one person on the ladder at a time
11. Avoid sudden movements
12. Never stand on the top rung
13. Never sit on any rung

Most of these ladder safety tips are common sense, but even the most experienced at doing something can forget the basics from time -to-time. So please be careful and then enjoy the coming Spring, Summer and Fall seasons!

To contact us regarding eavestrough, fascia, soffit, or gutter protection work, contact The Eavestrough Company at 905-966-2564. You can also visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com

In closing, I encourage you to click on the link below to one of the best ladder safety articles I have ever read!

http://www.freewindowcleaningtips.com/extension-ladder-safety.htm