Hi Guys:

I have a Victorian building in Santa Rosa, CA. that was built in 1885.

The redwood rain gutters are original and, being a three story building with a 12/12 roof, haven't been maintained very well over the years. I've cleaned them out (pigeon droppings, ...) and find that they are intact - though they leak at the joints and have deteriorated, in places, from the constant, often wet, debris sitting in them.

I have no idea if the joints have been glued or caulked but they have the original strips of lead overlapping them. They are securely attached to the building.

I would like to keep them and therefore my problem is finding out the best way to repair them.

Since access is difficult and the roof is fragile,, I would like to do a job that would require little future maintenance - eg. oiling them every year before the rainy season.

Would using your penetrating epoxy and lay-up epoxy as an interior coating do the job and stand up to the sun, ...? A filling epoxy for the joints?

Any and all advice will be appreciated.

Thank You,

Greg Parker

Greg:

My suggestion would be this: When the rain gutters are dry, clean them out and then go down the length of each gutter and soak it with the Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES). Once would be good, twice would be better. What will happen is the CPES will soak into the Redwood, the solvents will evaporate away and the wood fibers themselves will be epoxy-impregnated. It should end your deterioration problems with the wood. The CPES will also flow around and between the lead strips and help protect the wood there as well. And yes, you can use our Fill-It putty to stop leaks, fill vacancies, etc. Apply it after the CPES has cured (a few days). Be aware that it is a white putty, no problem inside but maybe outside?

I would not recommend using the Layup & Laminating Resin on top of the CPES. The reason is that the L&L Resin, like all epoxies, is subject to UV degradation. If you put it on then you would have to paint over, and that gets to be a mess and a chore on gutters. The CPES on the other hand penetrates so far into the wood that the UV degradation is not an issue. The Fill-It Epoxy putty is protected from UV degradation by the color and structural ingredients.

Other than cleaning out the debris, after 2 coats of the CPES no annual maintenance would be required. I would probably go back and do the CPES again after about 5 years, just for safety's sake.

How much CPES you would need is pretty much an open question. When applied, you should allow the wood to absorb all it will -- and this is sometimes a lot! The 2nd coat will use much less. I would think about starting with at least one of the two-gallon units, maybe two of them. You only mix as much as you will need at a time and the product will keep indefinitely if the cans are tightly re-capped. It comes in 2 formulas, a Warm Weather and a Cold Weather. Once mixed, pot life is an hour or more (depending on temperature) so you have plenty of time to apply. These products are always in stock and we ship every day via UPS GroundTrac.

If you have additional questions, let me know and we'll try and answer them. And congratulations to you for having a 1885 building. That makes it 4 years older than our 1889 boat!

Doc