FYI Morton Building Gutter Fix

[Brad_bb]

I have several Morton buildings on my farm that my grandfather had built, including my current shop. Morton Buildings have coated steel gutters that are 6 in wide, bigger than the standard house gutter. The aluminum hanger brackets will bend/fail in time. Standard gutter screws from the home center will not work- too short. Not only are the Morton gutters wider, but due to the raised ribs on the siding, you need a screw that will span that distance (additional 1 inch) and still bite sufficiently in the wood framing on the other side of the sheetmetal.

Solution: 8 inch Timberlok screws with a 6 inch spacer made from CPVC pipe. You do not need to predrill the gutter. Use an impactor and you can drive the screw through the front edge of the gutter. You can push the tip of the timberlok and it will self feed through any of the sheetmetal.



 

View from above gutter


 

Hope this helps somebody.

[beenthere]

Looks like a good fix for floppy gutters. 

[sandhills]

Brad, I think I need to ship you a load of locust pods because that gutter is WAY to clean  ;), nice fix!

[Dave Shepard]

We have one, and only one, Morton building. There is no fastener that will save the gutters when the snow slides off the roof. To make matters worse, there is no overhang on the roofing, so without the gutters, the water is running into the walls and into the grain trapped behind the partitions and is rotting out the siding. Morton replaced the gutters once under warranty 30 something years ago, but wouldn't even talk about them after that. A major design flaw for anywhere with a snow load. Aren't they from Iowa? They have snow out there. Our Agway building is way better.

[PineNut]

Not a Morton building but one manufactured locally. I specified a 3 inch roof overhang and no gutters. I poured an 18 inch slab along each side of the building to protect the foundation. Now when time to clean the gutters comes around, I just walk around the building with a leaf blower. On all my buildings including the house, I only have a few short lengths of gutters with no down spouts located over passageways. Makes maintaining gutters easy.

[Brad_bb]

Dave, this fix is pretty darn solid.  I'm sure it's ice and flash flood rains that cause the original brackets to bend.   The original brackets are much weaker than this fix.  I've done this fix on the other side of the building probably 10 years ago, not problems.  I think it's a good fix that will prolong the life.  These buildings were designed to last only 20-25 years.  It seems that is exactly how long it takes for the treated posts to rot off at ground level.  I found a fix for that too- a long-term fix. http://www.postprotector.com/   I installed some of these a couple years ago when repairing soem posts.  These should be mandatory on the posts of new pole barns - but that would not be in the interest of the pole barn companies who want to sell more pole barns.

[Don_Papenburg]

Those are good fixes Brad .     I put A-metal dripedge  on my skirtboard when I built my machine shed ,  20 years ago.
The outer edge of gutter should be one inch below the plane of the roof so sliding snow will not take the gutter to the ground with a snow slide.

[gspren]

   Most of the metal roofs around here have "snow guards" about 2' up from the gutters to keep the snow from sliding. Of course your roof needs to be sturdy enough to handle the load.