Birds and gutters

[os1kne]

I have an unusual front porch that appears to be made almost completely of aluminum (see pic). There are gutters underneath the sides closest and furthest from the house. The gutter closest to the house (right over the front door) seems to stay pretty dry - and this appears to be a perfect place for birds to nest. We, and most guests, enter our home through the garage - so the problem has been tolerable until now. Each year, more and more birds find this spot - and it's gotten to be irritating.

I typically wait until the fall and dig all of the nesting materials out, but this year was much worse than previous years and I couldn't wait any longer. Minutes after I finished removing the nests from the gutter, the birds were building again. Needing to somehow keep the birds out, I filled the voids with balloons. (I have a small child, I was frustrated and needed to improvise something. It seemed like a great idea at the time - unfortunately, balloons deflate when it cools down at night.)

The gutters appear to be "fused" somehow to the ceiling of the porch at the bottom of each "V", so it's impossible to slide in the mesh gutter guard material.

I'm hoping to get some suggestions/ideas for keeping the birds out. Due to the "VVV" shape, I don't think that the bird spikes for gutters will work well.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[LCHIEN]

put one of these HF owl decoys on your roof nearby.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=43746

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=96938

[os1kne]

First file upload failed, trying again.

[pierhogunn]

maybe fill the voids with expanding foam, and trim the excess out.

or maybe cut some metal screen to fit the /\/\/\ and use some sheet metal screws to hold the screen up

[pelligrini]

It looks like the metal porch roof was an addon. I would bet thet the fusing is just paint.

Is that gutter sloping from right to left with the right end being the start? From the photo It looks like it might be sloping the opposite direction judging by the difference from the bottom of the gutter to the trim edge below it. I couldn't see a downspout or leader coming off that end.

A wood cover, installed vertically, attached to the top front gutter lip might work. The wavy curves could be easily done with a pattern on a router table.

[os1kne]

Thanks for the replies. I've considered using a thin piece of wood (masonite?) or light guage expanded metal screen cut to fit the "VVV" profile - screwed to the gutter lip w/ sheet metal screws. I was curious to see what other options would come up.

If the fake owl works, then I may be overthinking and overworking the solution.

I initially thought that the metal roof was an add on, with just paint bonding the gutter, and I fought with that for a good while. The more I look at it, the more it seems like this was part of some "system". Not a particularly good or attractive system, mind you - truth be told, I'd love to rip it down and do something different, but we're planning to move in a couple of years and there are higher priorities. Anyway, gutters form a channel that runs around the perimeter of the roof - sloped to direct the water to the front-left corner, where there's a downspout.

[Richard in Smithville]

If you use the fake owl, you have to move it everey few days. Otherwise the birds catch on to it. If you fill the voids with something, don't trade in nesting birds for nesting wasps.

[os1kne]

After looking at it a bit more, it was clearly some sort of "front porch system". Which got me to thinking that there's no way that the roof and gutters were sent all in 1 piece - fused together. It turns out that after looking at the roof of the porch from an upstairs window - the roof is sheet metal screwed to the lip of the gutter assembly from above, at the bottom of each "V". I feel like an idiot for not thinking to look at this before.

Now, I'm thinking that the plan is to:
1. remove the screws attaching the porch roof
2. lift the roof up (supported on 2x material) enough to thoroughly clean out the mess (the way things are, I couldn't really do a thorough job due to the size of the hole vs. the size of my hand)
3. insert expanded metal or other gutter cover on top of gutter
4. replace the roof and screws

If you have a better idea, please let me know.

Thanks.