I switched up the drain spout to drain into the water barrel. It's time to shut down the water barrels. I made a mistake and, a year ago, I rejigged it. [Ms. Maintenance Project] It was a bit wobbly. When they installed the eavestrough, they cut an X and connected it that way 30 years ago. It was time to fix it up. I realized that I should reattach the down spout and add elbows.
First job, was to replace the drop outlet spout. The hole was such a mess, the 2 x 3 piece I'd used last year wasn't holding. I took off the triangular pieces.
I need one of these, a 3 x 4". Our Home hardware store in town only has 2 x 3". Also, I need strapping to connect it to the wall, again. The trick is finding out what each store calls it.
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$2.49 at Rona
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$13.44 on line
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It's 63 cents each at Canadian Tire
$10 online |
I tried online, but for these small pieces, the website isn't so robust. Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, Rona, it was hopeless. Gutters, b-drop, dropspout, etc. they call it other names. SIGH.
I did find the costs.
Searching for downspouts, how could the algorithm pull up cough drops? You can see my issue!
I would imagine that lots of people are doing home repairs. The shelves are bare, although I did find a couple of brown elbows. They are out of long pieces, and I'm going to make do with the old ones. The previous homeowners made the mistake of painting the dark brown eavestrough a lighter brown. It's all peeling. It looks awful.
Also, there was an aluminum tariff Trump put on our goods. I wondered if that had an impact on supplies. That or the supply chain, which is a bit wobbly.
OK, we were back to Amazon, which irks me. You cannot tell if it is a North American company, a lot of the time. I've ordered stuff from a company, it ended up coming from China. It took forever. Not only that, but a Chinese XL isn't the same as a Canadian XL!
I found an Ottawa store that sells pieces,
Eavestrough Wholesale Ottawa. I'll keep this in mind. The images helped me figure out what the pieces were called.
Now, I'm not good at this stuff. I didn't think it through. The eavestrough is all 2 x 3. Back to square one. The pieces I had wouldn't connect.
This might not be so bad. We'll see if it lasts rain, snow, sleet, and hail. The beauty of this is that I can flip it over to the water barrel in spring, to harness the rainwater for the garden.
UPDATE:
We've had 12 mm rain, and it held up. It did jiggle in the wind, so we'll see what happens. It wasn't a downpour, which is what we've been getting in this era of Climate Change. I may have to order some 3 x 4" elbows and a straight piece. We'll see...
