Gutters on an 80-Year-Old Shipbuilder's Town
Chickasaw was laid out as a planned company town during World War I, when the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company built housing for shipyard workers; the town incorporated as a village in 1917 and became a full city in 1946 after Gulf Shipbuilding's WWII production wound down. Much of Chickasaw's housing stock is now pushing eighty years old, with original rooflines that have outlived the shipyard boom that built them.
What Age Does to a Roofline's Drainage
Decades-old fascia, older roof decking, and gutter runs that have been patched more than once are common on Chickasaw's WWI- and WWII-era homes, and Alabama's seasonal downpours find every gap in a system that age has loosened.
Gutter Work for Chickasaw Homes
Planning Around a Company-Town Roofline
On a town built quickly under wartime pressure, gutter runs, valleys, and downspout paths were often standardized rather than customized to each roof -- worth checking against what a home's roof is actually shedding today.