DMR's The Yocums Copper Gutter Work Photopage

Here is a copper gutter replacement we did for the Dale Yocum family. This house is just above the Metro Zoo. The copper gutters were completed in August of 2002. This demonstrates my humble beginnings with copper work, as this was only the second copper gutter jobs I was hired to do, so it was still a bit intimidating to do this complex gutter job really well. I was grateful he had enough faith in me to tackle such a large project on my own w/o any assistance. I kind of felt I was flying by the seat of my pants.

This is the same house a couple years later when I was called in to do some other sheet metal work for them. You can see the new landscaping work and tarnished copper gutters after just a few years.

They had just started moving into their new house when I was replacing the gutters. They were having a good deal of remodeling done inside as well. The house needed re-painted and the roofing was replaced with a shingle called The Grand Mannor. The original copper gutters were not mounted well because of the way the fascia boards were designed in this concave manner. The old gutters were hung from straps nailed on the roofing, to let the gutters just dangle from the roof edge. This was bad for a few reasons. You cannot prop a ladder against them, since they had not sturdy support. Also, they had to hang half way under the roof edge, leaving too small of a gap to get your hand in there to clean out the gutters.

With the 3 layer tear off of the old roof, it was inevitable that the gutters would get thrashed, so the Home-owner had found our web site using a search engine, and asked us to give them a bid for this custom fascia work to mount the new gutters onto properly. The cost of this work to build out the fascia boards and cover with a white painted aluminum was $2,200. I had drastically under bid this considering all the work it took to build this out.

The new 16oz solid copper gutter system cost: $6,912 installed

The No-clog options added: $2,085

I no longer use the copper leaf screens shown here, because they are too fragile and cost way too much to be practical.

They also had me do another $2,300 in other copper, aluminum. wood, plastics, and masonry work, for a total of $14,243.08 in all. It took us well over a month of full time work to complete all this

This was a big house with over twice the normal amount of gutters. It was getting re-painted and re-roofed around the same time, so there was scaffolding around the back side of the house. I took most of these photos after the scaffolding had been removed.

In the photo above you can see the rear patio double doorway that Dale had me build a copper covered roof. I had to cut into this nice siding to work the new roof flashing in behind. The scaffolding was helpful. Especially in the back to work on the high fascia boards and gutters.

I also had to make a custom flashing for over the windows where a normal gutter cannot be mounted. The carpenters should have made a small a frame roof in this area to divert the rain water to either side. After installing this gutter shown below I realized I had messed up the alignment of the outlet some how. I had to rebuild this gutter, so the downspout will be lined up correctly. I guess I cannot be right on all the time.

As you see in the next photo I made the proper correction. Below shows the same back side then and a few years later:

Below you can see the mildew staining over the bricks from overflowing gutters over the years. This copper roof over the back garage door was already there, but it had no gutter. I consolidated the downspout of the upper gutter into this one. Shown here is the larger downspout parts, and the reducer as well. It also shows one of our early design custom Leaf-Catchers made in copper.

Here is the back side behind the garage with some very unusual custom angles to form in order to meet flush with the roof. Below shows the same back side a few years later:

Below shows the special mitered end-caps we are famous for shown from several different angles. They take as much work to form and seal as a standard right angle corner. Far more tricky than the standard press-on flat end-cap to seal off the end. I do not make any claim they work better or last longer. It is more of just a decorative option. They are a little stronger being made with a thicker metal, but I would not say that is an issue you should be concerned about. I would say just 10% of my aluminum gutter Clients have me do this, where only 10% of my copper gutter Clients would not have me add this detail.

These show the deluxe hinged solid copper leaf screens with the stainless steel hinge/clips as part of the No-clog options. They need to sit on top of the roofing shingles, or the hinge feature would be irrelevant. This also minimizes the debris that would pile over the screens if they were to lay flat inside the gutter. That debris may blow off in the wind, once it dries out, but as I listed above we do not recommend this type of gutter cover any more.

Awning Design & Fabrication

This shows before and after photos of the awning frame I made to cover in copper after it was mounted on the back of their house over the back door.

I designed this to securely mount to the wall without the need for any supports under it. After covering the top with copper I installied copper gutters around this.

This is the back side of the same house after the copper had aged a few years when I was called back to do some more work.

The old scupper above had worn holes through the side from the wear of the rain water and the soldered seams we cracking apart even though it had not suffered an impact, so on my own initiative I installed a copper liner in the new scupper for a smooth funneling into the bottom outlet.

All our bids show the No-clog options itemized, so you can pick and choose what you are needing, but few of our customers do not go with all the No-clog options for our 15 year trouble free warranty.

Here shows some small copper scuppers the client had already sent away for and needed me to mount with our gutter system. It also shows a tricky 45 degree corner of the copper gutter.

And here is some more recent photos of this house in mid 2019, after it had changed hands. When I called to ask if I could get these current shots of their house they said after the kids grew up and moved out they decided to downsize a bit. Then they asked me to do a gutter bid on their new place, and they went ahead and signed with me again to replace their gutters with someting much better.

Window Well Covers w/Bench Seat Design & Fabrication

They had set up a media room in their basement, so he needed in blacked out, so he wanted me to recover the window wells with removable copper, so it is completely dark down there and can still be used as a fire escape.

Here is the front and side window wells he had me cover with large sheets of metal to darken his media room in the basement. I needed to rebuild the rotten wood frame as well. They are not fastened down, so they could exit out of these window wells in an emergency.

For the back patio I suggested this bench seat built over the window well, which was just flush to the pavers. I built up these 5 courses of bricks and made a seat for over it supported with ipe hardwood covered with copper to drain the water off to the sides.

That's my Son just a year later after it had tarnished a bit.

Covering a few Window Sills

Here is an outside window sill that I was called back to cover with some white painted aluminum sheet metal custom formed to seal out the rain better than any house paint could.

Here you can see the dry-rot I scraped out to fill in before covering up.