All Weather Patio Furniture
July 10th, 2011
The job of a gutter cover or leaf guard is to collect all the water and keep out debris. A gutter guard that really does its job--keeps the homeowner off the roof and the gutter clean and free flowing--can sell for thousands of dollars so it makes sense to make sure you're getting what you paid for.
Gutters are usually of two basic configurations:
1. Straight.
2. With inside or outside corners.
If you have a configuration involving inside corners where two roof lines come together or there are dormers creating a valley flowing into a gutter, you'll want to pay particular attention to this article since out of a hundred different manufacturers there is only one gutter protection system that can handle water flowing from valley configurations.
Since manufacturers of all gutter guards claim that there's no overshoot, this article is about which ones don't even get the first job done on straight gutters--the designs to definitely avoid. Even some gutter screens don't collect all the water and overshoot. And that sounds impossible because some of them have fairly large openings in the top flat surface. Why?
Answer: Because at a high velocity, water films over the openings of the flat ones and simply skips off the screen onto the ground.
With most gutter guards, covers, protectors and leaf guards (they are the same) there is a downward curved front surface for the water to adhere. However, there are many different designs of curvatures.
Generally there are three types of curved surfaces.
1. A tight curved surface of approximately 1/8"radius.
2. An overall curved surface composed of two or three bent angles.
3. A large smooth curved radius of 3/8" or larger.
The size of the radius determines the amount of water that a cover can collect. The smaller the radius, the less water the guard can collect. The larger and smoother the radius, the more water the rain gutter cover can handle.
A small tight radius or 1/8" or so on the leaf guard will result in the water over shooting onto the ground. To clarify, a sharp 90 degree bend would have no radius, i.e. a radius of zero and water would just fly off into space.
Some leaf guards, instead of having a continuous radius use a series of bends to change the direction of the water. Rather than using a continuous radius they might use a two 30 degree bends. The result is two basic problems:
First, heavy rain fall will simply shear off from the tight radius bend or from the point of the bend and overshoot onto the ground.
Secondly, if there is a slope of more than 20 degrees on the top solid portion of the leaf guard, then again as heavy rain flow engages the bends in the front downward leading surface, it too overshoots. Consider this; the ideal shape is an infinite number of bends to form a 3/8 or larger radius continuous bend.
There are several products that have a continuous radius that catches all the water. With one product in particular, because the bend is continuous, the top portion of the guard can be at any angle without causing overshoot. It is the only gutter protection system that can be installed on gutters that are significantly lower than the roof edge where the angle of the cover may be as much as eighty degrees or more.
The product is also available in a high capacity version in which the radius bend is 5/8" vs. 3/8" for the standard residential cover. The high capacity version is used mainly for industrial or residential roofs with rafters longer than 35 or 40 feet.
Two methods of collecting water from valley configurations are a dome-a stealth like diverter--for short valleys and a special panel installed catty-cornered in larger valleys. With this special panel water is spread out across a larger area and collected with a special high capacity gutter cover panel that gets integrated into the leaf guard system installed on the gutters themselves.
Wouldn't it be great to have a gutter protector that is free of overshoot on both straight gutters and inside corners? And wouldn't it be equally great to have a guard that really can keep gutters clean and free flowing in heavy debris conditions for twenty plus years?
Frequently Asked Questions
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QUESTION:
I want some really comfortable outdoor furniture?
I've been looking at all sorts of home stores at all-weather patio furniture. I have found styles I like, but when I sit on them they just aren't comfortable. Or the style is awful, but seats like a nice indoor leather sofa. Anyone have outdoor furniture that just makes you saw "ahhhh" when you sit down? I use my patio after work to relax and would like an "ahhhh" style couch/love seat and a couple of chairs.-
ANSWER:
Those sets of plastic wicker with cushions made of weather resistant material are pretty good if you find one of good quality but the most comfortable outdoor seating I have found are those round multi position loungers. You can sleep on them. Can be found at most patio furniture stores, at least in my area. Hope you are as fortunate.
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QUESTION:
Does anyone have some good proven advise about this?
My neighbours animals have been a problem since I moved in here. The dog that barks 24 hours a day has been ticketed twice by animal control and she seems to be willing to pay the fines rather than stop the dog. He starts at 5 AM and has been outside barking for as long as 7 hours without a let up.Just after I moved in I noticed her cats, I think she has four now, using my flower beds as a litter box. I asked her to control their ramblings, mine isnt allowed outside alone and never leaves the yard. When they continued to use my flower beds as a litter box and come into the yard and try to fight with my cat I hosed them. Several times, seeing as she would do nothing about it.
My cat was lying in the shade next to the fence in MY yard and she turned her hose on him full blast, she also did something to hurt him, again while he was in MY yard and he is terrified of her now. I think she hit him with something she could reach over the fence with.
Now that it is winter they have decided to use my patio as their litter box. It is covered with yellow snow, we are talking about 8 square feet of yellow snow, and it stinks something terrible.
If I open my back door to get fresh air I am greeted by the cat smell and one or two of her cats trying to scratch mine through the screen. He likes to sit there and look out.
Up until now we have had very cold weather, but it has warmed up and is above freezing so the last two days I have thrown some water on them, not enough to soak them and make them sick, and they do run away, or retreat under my patio furniture which they have also sprayed.. But they come back again and again and again.
They sit outside my door and meow, scratch at the door and pee all over the patio, and spray the furniture to mark their scent.. I am SO fed up I am at the point of setting gopher traps for them and disposing of them once and for all.
I have taken it to the Strata board and they said they cant get her to do anything about her animals, which she did NOT have when she moved in here, and advised me to phone animal control again.
This woman is totally nuts, after a visit from animal control and she has now had two warnings and two fines, she pounds on the joining wall between our TH's and screams at the top of her voice, she can keep this up for hours.
She is going to get another visit from animal control and I am calling the police when the pounding and screaming starts. But I know it isnt going to make her control these filthy cats of hers.
And suggestions, advise? I am really thinking it is going to have to be gopher traps. I am afraid my cat could pick up a disease from them too. I like animals, cats too but these four are a public nuisance, a health hazard and not being properly cared for, which IMO means making sure they are not creating problems and roaming wild all over the place.
The cats all wear collars with their phone numbers on them. It is one thing to take them to the shelter, and another to remove a collar before taking them. I think that might come under criminal or something. I have a vision of me driving around at 3 AM looking for a place to dispose of the "evidence" (the collars)
Remember I have a cat who loves his yard, its one of the reasons I bought this place ! So he would have a yard. Its a townhouse strata, which means we own our places but there is a strata board that sets rules and take cares of common property, mows front lawns, clears snow etc.
My cat never goes outside alone, he has never been allowed to just wander and understands outdoor time is supervised time. He is trained to come immediately to a special tune I whistle just for him.-
ANSWER:
Here is my proven advise, I went to the Dollar Tree and bought 3 bottles of crushed red pepper, scattered it around the perimeter where they came in my yard and all through my arbor, herb garden and flower beds. No more cats.
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QUESTION:
What to use for painting lawn gnomes?
I recently "borrowed" a few of my friend's lawn gnomes. They've been going on adventures and sending postcards home and having all kinds of fun. They're almost ready to return, but I remember before they left hearing my friend and her mom talking about how they needed to be repainted. Their original paint is really faded from the sun, so I was going to paint them before I return them. However, I've never painted lawn gnomes before. They're some kind of hollow ceramic material I think and they have green shirts and red hats and pants and peachy-colored faces and brown boots. The problem with using spray paint (the kind for patio furniture and the like) I'd assume would be lack of control over where one is painting, unless I used tape and newspapers to block off certain sections? Or would I be better off using a house paint that I could brush on? Could I get this in smaller containers, or is it only sold in house-painting sizes? Or is there such a thing as weather-resistant craft paint that comes in a smaller-sized container? Any suggestions on how to approach this project would be much appreciated.-
ANSWER:
You'll probably have to use a gloss enamel. I would imagine the gnomes were either painted with this or a ceramic glaze. The glaze would have required firing in a kiln and you can't really do that to them again (unless you have a kiln, which I doubt). Check at a craft store for enamel paints that would work on pottery.
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QUESTION:
anyone else see the 20 seconds of freak weather earlier?
It was really scary, we had just walked back home at about 8.30pm and it was very warm and calm, we hadn't been back 5 Min's when the temperature suddenly dropped then there was a really strange noise outside, the wind suddenly picked up so fierce it blew all the furniture over in the garden, the huge parasol on the patio ended up in a garden 3 doors away, our patio table smashed against the fence, part of the fence has actually fallen down, the curtains where blowing wild into the room where the windows are open, there was so much rain we could barely see the houses across the street from us, it came down so hard it was bouncing right back up again, then suddenly after about 20 seconds it just stopped, no rain, no breeze, just calm.
we have had a lovely very warm day today, i have never seen anything like this before it was actually quite scary.
I forgot to add, i am in Liverpool.-
ANSWER:
Interesting. Wonder if it has anything to do with what was hurricane bill when it was by the US.
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