After a typical New England gale storm left half my gutters unattached, I mustered up all my courage to climb my ladder and re-attach them. That’s right ladies, if your husband works a labor-intensive fifty plus hour work week like mine, then you too may have to make occasional male domain type house repairs once in a while.

The short of it is: I actually accomplished the task at hand. The long of it is: I made a MAJOR mistake which has subsequently caused the shingles abutting the gutter to fall off. So all can learn from my unfortunate mistake, let me walk you through it.

September, 2006 Two weeks after the storm and I was tired of looking at the disjointed gutter on my ranch house. So after lunch one clear day, I decided to just get my new trusty ladder and tackle the job.

Ladder Logistics. The affected gutter just HAD to be on the side of my property that is closely fenced! This meant that ladder clearance was very restricted. Many maneuvers and many back spasms later, I finally stabilize the ladder enough to climb up.

Shock and Awe. I reach eye-level with the roof and quickly determine that about six gutter nails will have to be put back in. I can see right through to the eaves, since I have no facia boards! And to my additional surprise and horror, I look upon endless colonies of wasp hives, some so large they seem to be pushing up on the shingles.

Back Down Again. Realizing this was going to be a clean-out and then repair job, I climb back down the ladder and head for the house to arm myself with gloves, bags, a hand trowel and some wasp spray.

An Ounce of Prevention… I used up several grocery bags on hand that were over stuffed with wasp hives. I ran across the street to my convenience store to grab many more. I had pulled out all I could reach of the bee hives, now it was gutter clenz time (Yuck!) Finally, as a finishing touch, I decide to empty a can of wasp killer into the roof’s eaves for a measure of prevention.

Big Mistake! Evidently, the chemicals in the wasp killer spray reacted adversely with the shingle adhesive, and one by one, they began to fall off the roof. I thought I was so smart. But how else can one rid oneself of colonizing wasps?

The Solution… Aside from the obvious addition of facia boards if they are missing, I highly recommend you get yourself an exterminator.

Oh, And… to all other new home owners out there, remember that home inspector who refused to climb the roof opting for high-powered binoculars instead? You may not want to wait until your gutters fall off to make the climb yourself!

Post in Post in Home & Garden   Comment No Comments »