One step closer to being actually finished with the Actually Tiny house, today we installed this beautiful half round gutter to stop the splashes that have been putting little spots near the bottom of the siding.
One nice thing about the style of roof we chose is that the entire thing can be drained into a single length of gutter at one end and the gutters don’t protrude from the sides of the trailer. This arrangement is well-suited to directing the runoff into a single cistern if desired. A 15-inch eave combined with another 4 inches from the gutter gives great rain protection for the bedroom window (even when open), and added insurance for any electrical or ventilation penetrations on that wall.
Huge kudos to Liz for making me aware that half round gutters exist and doing all the legwork to source the various parts. (she might write a separate post about this) I’m not sure why I’ve never seen these before, not only do they look fantastic, but the attachment hardware is significantly more robust than ordinary gutters. I would feel 100% comfortable driving down the highway with this still attached.
A tip for installing the brackets, we doubled the recommended drop because tiny houses aren’t always quite level. We then snapped a chalk line and screwed the brackets on straight through the center of the chalk line for perfect alignment. Holding tight and cutting very slow with the miter saw produced super clean cuts in the aluminum gutter although I can’t officially recommend that strategy. I wonder how the pros do this? It’s worth mentioning that downspout attachments should only be made through rain screen battens (if used) or trim to avoid compromising the weather barrier.
-Brian
