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Building a Home
happykate_gw

Exposed rafter tails & gutters

Happykate
16 years ago

I'd like to have the rafter tails on our house & porch exposed, but our builder seems to be unsure about how to handle the gutters. I don't know enough to understand, so have any of the rest of you dealt with this? Can the gutters go on top of the rafter tails?

Thanks in advance, Clueless Kate.

Featured Answer
  • tinny
    16 years ago

    I wanted to have open tailed rafters, too. It really threw our designer for a loop. It took him quite a while to figure out how to design them into our plans. Like brianwhite said, part of the tips will be covered by a 1x4 fascia board.
    Another option is the rainhandler gutters klabio suggested. I think that those would be the best option, however when I priced them out they were almost 3 times as much as regular gutters. I've thought about possibly doing them just on the front of the house.

    Comments (12)

    • sue36
      16 years ago

      This might help.

      Here is a link that might be useful: Gutter Brackets

    • Happykate
      Original Author
      16 years ago

      Oh, thanks, sue; they're charming! However, they seem to cover up the rafter tails in the same way (more affordable) gutters do. Any other options, thoughts?

    • vfish
      16 years ago

      HappyKate, I received your message, sorry, I have been on the road. we have in our rafter tails but have not reached the point of getting the gutters. However, the picture below shows how the house we are designing our home after has the gutters and Xmas lights attached!


      Hope this helps, Vicki

    • klabio
      16 years ago

      Rainhandlers?

      Here is a link that might be useful: Rainhandler

    • brianwhite
      16 years ago

      Kate,
      I have built several Craftsman style homes with exposed tails. There really is no way around the fact that your gutters will cover the top half of the tail. However, half of the tail will still be exposed and you will still see the entire open rafter bay from underneath.
      The gutters can be attached in several ways including brackets attached to the tails, hangers attached to the roof(under the shingles), or a 1x4 fascia board can be attached to the tails to go behind the gutter and the gutter can be attached to the board.
      Thanks

    • brickeyee
      16 years ago

      Screw in style gutter 'spikes' into the tails also works.

    • sierraeast
      16 years ago

      On an old historic house in old town san diego, there was a detailed open rafter tailed house that had a gutter system up into the roof in the area where the rafters tie into the walls.The gutter was "let in" to the roof.The only area left un- guttered was the over hang section, so still a little run off there, but the majority was caught by the gutter and the nice part about it was that the gutter was out of sight.Never saw a set up like that again anywhere.

    • tinny
      16 years ago

      Actually, I was thinking of box gutters, not rainhandlers.

      Here is a link that might be useful: box gutters

    • sierraeast
      16 years ago

      Tinny,sounds like box gutters were what i saw in san diego.

    • vfish
      16 years ago

      We plan to put our gutters on select areas of the house where the run off will be the most severe. I really don't want to cover up the tails either, since I spent so much time and effort getting them up there!

    • Happykate
      Original Author
      16 years ago

      Wow! Thanks so much, all of you! I didn't expect so many really helpful answers. I'll bring all these up with our builder & see what he has to say.

      Thanks again! Kate.

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