Historic Home White Half Round Aluminum
This amazing colonial-style, historic home in Murfreesboro (Rutherford County) faced many challenges in its gutter and downspout renovation to preserve architecture and construction dating back over 200 years.
Components: Gutters, Downspouts, Half Round Gutters
Project City: Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Project By: David Lovett
Project Scope
On the National Register of Historic Places for Historic Family Farms in Middle Tennessee (Rutherford County), the renovation of the gutters and downspouts touted many challenges and required a level of custom work because the roof was original to the home – built in 1816.
The colors were a straightforward match to the white house. A single type of bracket was used; however, we used three different techniques to hang them depending on where we were on the roof: flat fascia, rafter tail designer mounted, and adjustable pitch fascia mounted.
Half Round Gutters
- Type: 6” Half Round
- Material: Aluminum
- Color: White
- Thickness: .027 inches
On residential homes, half-round aluminum gutters are typically .027″ in thickness. The lighter weight helps protect the roof, roofline, and fascia. And due to historic preservation, we couldn’t walk on the top meaning we could only work with ladders and mechanical lifts.
Historic Downspouts
- Type: Smooth, Round, No screws
- Material: Aluminum
- Color: White
- Dimensions: 4-inch Round
As you might envision with matching a half-round gutter system, we chose complimentary white, round downspouts. Typically, you screw in downspouts, but rivets create a smooth look. This avoids seeing a screw head protruding from the metal. We used downspout straps – they mount to the wall and wrap around the downspouts. Then we put a rivet to secure it.
Custom Brackets
- Type: Spring & Clip
- Material: Made specifically for a historic look (different than brackets made for a “modern” look)
3 Mounting Techniques
- Flat fascia mounted bracket
- Rafter tail designer mounted bracket
- Adjustable pitch fascia mounted bracket
Final Notes:
- The roof was original to the house (dating 1816). Due to the setting, we could not walk on the roof. The old gutters and downspouts were incredibly old and falling off.
- The customer allowed David’s design expertise to recommend the idea of gutters to help preserve the historic look.
- Due to the differences in the roof (even along the same roofline!), we had to chalk line everything to a perfect match across all brackets. Adjusting a bracket in one space may cause a bracket in another space to move, so the entire bracketing system was handled with a custom touch.
