Meaford and the surrounding roads
Eavestrough, soffit & fascia in Meaford
Two different jobs in one town. Downtown it is old wood fascia under deep overhangs. Out on the orchard roads it is long runs trying to drain through one downspout.
Deep overhangs and original wood fascia
The brick homes around the harbour were built with generous overhangs, and the fascia behind the trough is frequently the original wood. That is a good thing structurally and a difficult thing to maintain, because it holds paint poorly after this many decades and it has spent every winter since with a trough above it that overflows at least once.
Aluminum capping is the right answer and the order matters. Capping placed over soft wood traps the moisture instead of shedding it, and gives the new hangers nothing to bite into. The soft sections come out first, sound wood gets capped, and only then does the trough go back up. A quote that skips straight to capping is quoting a job that will be back.
A deep overhang also means a wide soffit, and on these houses that soffit is often the attic's only intake ventilation. If it is solid wood, or vented panel that has been painted over, the attic cannot breathe and the ice damming at the eave will continue no matter what happens to the trough. We look at the soffit on every eave job in Meaford for that reason, and vented aluminum soffit is often the part of the job that does the most good.
One downspout will not drain an orchard-country roofline
Out on the rural roads the housing is long and low. Fifty or sixty feet of unbroken eave with a single downspout at one end is a normal thing to find, and it overflows at the far corner every March without fail.
The trough on those houses is usually sound. What is wrong is arithmetic: water has to travel the entire run on a quarter inch of fall per ten feet to reach the only exit, and during a melt it arrives faster than it can travel. Replacing the trough changes nothing, because the new trough will have the same one exit. A second drop, placed where the volume actually is, ends it.
This is the cheapest fix in our price list and the one we recommend most often around Meaford. When somebody calls about overflowing trough here, the first thing we count is downspouts.
Where the water goes once it leaves the downspout
Meaford sits between the escarpment and the bay, and a good deal of the housing is on ground that is already taking runoff from uphill. Adding a roof's worth of water beside a foundation on that kind of lot is how a dry basement becomes a seasonal one.
Extensions that discharge well clear of the backfill are not an accessory. On older homes with rubble or block foundations they are the difference between a dry wall and a wet one, and they cost very little compared to what a wet wall costs to fix. Where a downspout is in the wrong place entirely, we move it rather than extending it around the house.
On the rural properties there is the same constraint as everywhere outside town: no storm sewer, so the discharge has to go somewhere sensible on your own land. We plan that at the quote, not on the day.
More for Meaford homeowners
Eavestrough in Meaford: common questions
The trough overflows at one corner every spring. Does it need replacing? +
Usually not. On a long single-storey run with one downspout at the far end, the water cannot travel fast enough to reach the exit during a melt, so it goes over the corner before it gets there. New trough with the same single drop does the same thing. Adding a second downspout in the right place is a fraction of the cost and it is the actual fix.
My fascia is original wood and I would like to keep it. Is that possible? +
Yes, where the wood is sound. Capping it in aluminum protects it and keeps the appearance close to what is there. What cannot be done is capping over soft wood, because the moisture is then trapped and the new hangers have nothing to hold. We probe it first and tell you which sections have to come out before anything goes over the top.
Should the soffit be done at the same time as the eavestrough? +
Often yes, and on these houses it is frequently the more useful half of the job. The soffit is the attic's intake ventilation, and on older Meaford homes it is commonly solid wood or vented panel painted shut. Without intake, the attic stays warm, the snowpack melts from below and the eave ice dams no matter how good the new trough is. The trough is off during the job, so the access is already there.
Do you work outside Meaford on the rural roads? +
Yes, across the surrounding concessions and out toward the orchard country. The trough is formed on site from a coil on the truck, so distance does not add a delivery wait. Mention the lane at the quote if it is soft in spring, so the access is planned rather than discovered.
Straight answers on Meaford roofs
Same-day callback across Collingwood and South Georgian Bay.