On Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:29:53 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

Greetings everyone,

I am hoping to get a second opinion from gurus out there. I just
replaced my gutters. My old gutters were held in by 'spikes'. That's
what the contractor called them.

That's what I call them too. That's what my friend Spike calls them.

Just to clarify these spikes are
basically big long steel nails that pass through a collar. My new
gutters were installed with these 'hangers' and screws. He told me
that spikes were the old way of doing things and that the hangers were
better. Is this true?
My concern is snow. Despite the problems of my old gutters those
spikes held up well against the weight of snow. Those 'bigger' spikes
make me feel better than these little screws, which look like 3
inches.

Don't the screws point down, into the plywood roof? So that the snow
weight is perpendicular to the line of the screw? Maybe I'm confused
about this.

He told me the hangers will hold. This is what I like to
ask. Will the hangers and those smaller screws do as good as a job
holding up against the weight of snow as the spikes?
Thank you

On the south side of my house, my spikes lasted 20+ years but then I
had to replace them with gutter screws, just a little bigger than the
spikes, because of the screw threads. Go into the same holes.

BTW, you're probably okay here plus you learned something, I hope. It
should have been clear in the bid and in the contract what kind of
method would be used to hang the gutters. I know, you assumed it
would be the same as was there before. I would too. But it's not the
right way to behave. You should know in advance exactly what you're
getting, so you could have asked about this in advance.

Once I needed a new muffler and the gas station called me at work to
talk about it. He said a muffler would cost so much and a pipe so
much, and maybe other stuff, but he never said resonator -- I forgot
or assumed he woudl use the old resonator (even though no one ever
uses old exhaust parts) and when I got there, I had no resonator. He
said it might be in the trash, but it wasn't. He said I don't need
no resonator, but I disagree. He's going to want money for the part
and a different pipe, and more money for labor to do it now, plus I'll
have an extra pipe I have no use for. So I figured I would grin and
bear it until the next car. I learned the lesson then that you
should learn now. Not that I've applied the lesson yet. Mostly I
avoid buying things.