Gutters.. 50 ft. long and 20 ft. high

By my calculations this is almost physically impossible, but if we think about it anything is possible!

We first visited the church about a year ago. It was mid august-ish of 2022 and in the middle of monsoon season. Anyone that has ever experienced monsoon season in the American Southwest or anywhere can attest to how much rain we were getting at that moment.

It was good and it was bad. Because it was raining so much we were able to identify leaks in the basement. Not so much flooding where things were floating but small puddles near walls and mainly on the wall where there were no gutters outside. 100 years this church has stood and no one ever thought about putting up gutters, hmm.

Two stories high is a long way for the water to fall off the roof and hit the ground. This allows seeping into the basement much easier. The leaking seems to only happen when the monsoon rains come and for only once a year and only 2 or 3 weeks. Some years are worse than others but we had to prepare for the worst.

By the time the sale was final, we packed our belongings and made it to NM, it was almost one year later. This meant we were on the verge of another monsoon season. We arrived early June of ‘23 and only had a month and a half until the torrential downpours were about to happen. Plus, I only had a few weeks until I needed to travel back to Ohio and pack the rest of our things and make another trip across the country driving another UHaul. It was tight.

I had to gather materials quickly and with the only Home Depot about 2 hours away I had to calculate everything and hopefully I wouldn't forget anything. It's not like I can just run to the hardware store. We are in the middle of nowhere in Southwest, NM.

My minivan was a life saver. It was a change for me getting it but it sure has paid off many times over and again! I was able to fit our 10’ gutters with 10’ downspouts along with six - 4x8 sheets of plywood and an 8’ extendable ladder. We still had room for all the hardware, i didn’t have to tie anything down and the best part was it was all covered to make the 2 hour trip back.

With all tools and materials on hand I started to install the gutters on the easiest side. We only had a small run of 30 feet long and 10 feet high. I was able to install the gutters on the short side with the ladder leaning against the wall.

I started off by marking an angled line from one side to the other with a chalk line so my gutters would have the correct pitch and the water would drain correctly. I also made sure there was enough room along the topside just in case any ice slid off the roof and would not hit the gutters and rip them off.

Once the top was installed I fastened the downspouts and columns to the vertical wall to lead to the drain. I first installed an “S” downspout connector at the top to start the downspout but soon realized it was too many parts and not necessary. I then changed it to a straight drop and then angled to the drain. This is the “Before and After” pic.

With the easiest side up and installed I then moved on to the taller, longer side. The second side is 50 feet long and 20 feet up in the air. My ladder extends to 26’ so we should be good. I utilized the same technique from the shorter side and first pulled a chalk line that was my guideline to line the gutters up to. This also has to be the correct pitch or all that water from this large roof will not drain properly and will cause other problems like damaging the new gutters.

While running the chalk line from one side to the other I quickly realized I can NOT get the correct angle to face the front of the roof and have enough room to install the 10’ gutters from the topside.

I had to find a way to get myself 20 feet up in the air and stable enough to drill screws into the roof. One bucket truck is in town and belongs to the City, Cable and TV company. They were super backed up with work and side work and did not have time to help me in a short time frame.

Also, renting a scissor lift was way out of the question because I had to rent it from a town almost 2 hours away and I also needed to get the ‘off road’ one due to the sand I would be in. The company also wanted to charge a delivery and pick up fee. This would have been close to $1200 for the weekend. No way!

With all options slipping away we knew that a 26’ Uhaul had at least a 12’-13’ height from our move. I also knew the roof was made from very thin aluminum and would be hard to stand on, much less put a ladder on it to climb. We had plywood on hand for other projects so that would make a great floor to stand the ladder without damaging the Uhaul roof. One thing we also did that we felt was very important was we added on the extra special insurance that UHaul offers. This extra insurance covers the “roof” and the “tires” which are not covered with their other packages. So we were covered.

I still needed a bit more height so I ended up using a 4 foot step ladder on top of the UHaul. Having sand bags helped out quite a bit to keep the plywood down on top of the UHaul when the wind blew from time to time.

Now, finally at the correct height and a stable foundation the gutters only took me a few hours to screw in place and add the downspout. I understand that if i was to go over 40 feet with my gutters i would need two separate downspouts, but with the very limited amount of rain we get and the monsoon seasons being spotty we don't technically get that much run off at one time. So I decided to just go with one downspout at the back of the church.

What seemed to be physically impossible in the beginning turned into how smart can we be in the end. All we needed was to use our brains and have the backbone to climb on top of a truck 20’ in the air.

With this technique we were able to save a lot of time, money and headache.

On to the next project, ‘till next time!

Gutters.. 50ft. long and 20ft. high