I am in the process of re-roofing a 1911 Craftsman home with exposed rafter tails which protrude eight inches beyond the edge of the roof shingles. The roof formerly had an ogee-type box gutter which was seated in a notch cut into the rafters. It is my intention to replace the box gutter with copper half-round gutters. I have already repaired--by which I mean filled in, bondo-ed, and sanded the rafter to restore it to an un-notched appearance. The difficulty which I face is in hanging a gutter sufficiently close to the shingle edge without resorting to notching the rafters. Incidentally, if I were to notch my rafters to accomodate a five inch half-round, the notch would be devastating to the tail, virtually severing it. What I wonder is--assuming it makes sense to install gutters at all, a conclusion I haven't yet reached--is there a way to install gutters to exposed rafter tails without blocking, hiding, or otherwise hideously compromising their beautiful appearance? Thanks for any help.

Yankee gutters may help...the kind found on page 165 in the book "Renovating Old Houses" by George Nash might be just the ticket...

Also in AB magazine and the links, there are clips designed for rafter ends and gutters.

I have the same rafter tails and no gutters. Unless you live somewhere it rains alot or you have foundation/basement problems i would skip them and just use a small metal flashing tucked under the your roof composite and angled to deflect the water away. <br> <br>good luck <br>chris

I keep seeing these adds in the home magazines that advertise gutterless gutters. Basically they're deflectors that sit at the edge of the roof and deflect water away from the house...maybe they would be worth considering in-between the rafter tails. <br> <br>Cheers, <br>Tim

I definitely want to find the reference that Ioni mentioned! Another possibility (if you find you must have something due to enough rain/drainage issues is what I have heard called "French gutters" which is basically 4 or 6 inch drainage pipe (the kind with the little holes) which is covered with a filter sleeve (both can be bought at HD or Lxxx's) and buried at the point where the rain hits the ground from your roof. You surround the pipe and come up to the surface with small pebbles ... it also gives a nice edge to mow up to a delineate the edge of the lawn. Foundation plants can be planted near it too. <br>This is what I am planning to put on my bungalow as soon as it gets warm in the Spring ... because the vinyl gutters handing off my exposed rafters look ghastly! (And I don't even have the tails left)

What is a "foundation plant"? As you can tell, I'm flora challenged. <br> <br>Tim

Plants planted closest to the house, i.e. at the foundation. Sometimes larger plants or small shrubs are planted in front of things like gas meters, water service valves, etc to hide them from view from the street.