On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 16:57:24 GMT, (Tom Miller)
wrote:

| The facia boards have rotted out in several spots on my 1921 house.
|
| I replaced them all a number of years ago, but was unable to prime and
| paint them properly at the time. Most of the boards are in fine shape,
| but in some spots -- because of problems in the drip line -- they have
| rotted. They are easy to remove (just grab 'em and pull them out by
| the handful!).
|
| However, these rotted boards are behind the seamless aluminum gutters.
| Nothing at all wrong with the gutters and I'd sure rather not pay
| someone to replace them.
|
| The gutters are the larger commercial size (the roof is very tall and
| made of tile, so they collect a lot of water during rainstorms). And
| there are a number of riveted-and-siliconed corners to accommodate the
| perimeter of the house -- it's not a straight shot, especially in the
| front of the house. Removing the rivets and taking the gutter down is
| possible, I suppose, but would be dirty, fussy work and is likely to
| damage the gutter channel. And I'm working alone.
|
| I'm thinking I can pull the long nails from the gutters (they go
| through the facia board into the ends of the rafters) so the gutters
| are loose, then prop up the whole line above the roof edge with poles
| or braces, then sneak in behind them and install new primed and
| painted facia boards.
|
| Does this sound feasible? Can I get away with it? Or is there some
| other technique I should consider? Or is saving the gutters a pipe
| dream?


Thanks to those who replied for the comments and suggestions. I
probably should have mentioned in the original post that these gutters
run around an apron roof between the first and second floors.

I'll probably try pulling the long nails that hold the gutters and
using a combination of ropes to the second floor windows and prop
poles to the ground to try to lift the gutters off the facia boards
enough to replace the boards without completely removing the gutters.

Hey, no harm in trying. If it doesn't work, I have lost only a little
time. It's even possible that by pulling the fasteners in sections I
can even pry out the old boards and slip in the new ones from
underneath without removing the gutters at all. Again, worth a try.

I originally posted in hopes that there might be some clever trick to
this that I had not thought of. Apparently not.

I will probably use some kind of pre-primed and painted boards or
something like Trex, as suggested by one responder. I haven't got that
far yet.

I'll let you know next summer when this job probably will become a
reality.

Thanks again to the posters who replied.

Tom Miller