Originally the home sported half round gutters with hand-mitered drops and downspouts. Underneath the gutters painted decorative moulding consisting of a fascia, soffit and bed/brick moulding.Somewhere along the way, the entire system was replaced with K-style aluminum gutters and rectangular, ribbed downspouts, and the wood moulding was either removed or sheathed in aluminum flashing (to avoid having to paint?). Unfortunately, aluminum flashing and a historic home just don't mix.
So here we find ourselves planning on going back to the old once again! On the agenda:
1) Removing any/all aluminum cladding/flashing.
2) Repairing any rotted wood underneath the eaves
3) Rebuilding the trim moulding to include new, painted fascia, soffit, frieze board and crown moulding.
4) Rebuilding the cornice returns (some call these bird boxes).
5) Adding new 4" copper downspouts, functional copper collector boxes (also called leader boxes or conductor heads), and 6" copper half round gutters held by simple copper fascia brackets.
Here's a good shot of the old aluminum (left) vs the new wood (right).
