I recently enclosed the porch on our house, and in doing so I needed a crown molding for the gable-end bargeboards. I didn’t have to look far. By ripping some lengths of aluminum gutter, as shown in the drawing, I was able to fashion inexpensive, zero-maintenance crown moldings that match the gutters.
I ripped the gutter into two portions, leaving a 1-in. wide flap on the crown-molding pieces. I bent this flap by hand over a piece of 1/2-in. stock. Then I drilled through this folded edge on 12-in. centers for nails. The rest of the gutter? I’ll use it for drip edges on my next project.
—Jack Murphy, Pittsburgh, PA
Edited and illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #102
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Looks like a good idea,
Wish I would have seen or thought of this a few years ago when I was redoing my own house, and old Victorian type story and half house I was putting up "maintenance free materials" on the eves, to help keep the original look, considered the "Brake Buddy" but the cost was more than I wanted to invest at the time, for the number of feet I would need,
Thanks for the idea,
Not bad if you don't mind how ugly gutters usually look. Some of the pricier gutters would look good and be stronger, but the cost isn't much different from real molding.