Porch ideas and/or help

[JamesG]

I need some ideas on replacing my porches on my S&K gourd system.

They are all crumbling and falling apart and I am getting in sort of a tight.

I hate to reorder them because they are kind of flimsy and droopy in the first place. (plus the freight costs as much as the porches).

I thought before I did that I would fish for some ideas on here.

Thanks guys and gals,

James

[Louise Chambers]

There are several types of porches under gourds in PMCA shop site.

[edit] I forgot to ask, did you store your gourds indoors over the winter? No sense leaving plastic exposed to sunlight and winter weather, both could shorten its life.

[chickadee]

Hi I have sk big bo nine inch gourds all porches broke last year.so to make it even better I ordered from sk the clinger tunnels and reg crescent with a hole tunnel.they have porches.I just pulled out the old ones and screwd caulked these on now they have porches and a tunnel for more safety.it really up graded these gourds that they already liked.this is a thought we like them.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I will never again use bought tunnels or porches.

Use 5/8in fence cedar from the box stores
Cut the floor about 3in longer than a tunnel and 2-1/2in wide, the extra 3 inches is the porch (total 8-1/1in long)
Crosscut 3 pieces of the cedar, 2 sides about 3-1/2in high, then put a top on it. This will make a 5-1/2in long tunnel
Attach any entrance, then put it onto the gourd.

I used a staple gun to put them together. You can use small thin screws if you predrill the holes. Use exterior wood glue. I suppose you could use a thin 1-1/4in nails to hold it together.

Paint them if you want them white, they will last without paint for 20 years.
The porch will not break

These tunnel with porches looked very good when painted white on a white gourd, they are sturdy, and easy to attach to a gourd. Cut a hole into the gourd to fit the tunnel, and caulk or liquid nails it into place. The martins like them, use them, and they are opaque, and have insulating qualities.

[APB]

I switched my BBG gourds from the "stock" porches to the ultimate tunnels. The tunnels hold up a LOT better. The PM's seem to prefer the tunnel too. I switched all my BBG's to tunnels for this year.


Allen

[chickadee]

To the person that made the tunnels.do you have a picture u can post?I'm adding 12 natural gourds this year want tunnels
On them this could save some money.thanks

[JamesG]

Thanks for the quick response everyone. I am sure that there are a lot of folks in here that have come up with all sorts of repairs and through trial and error, will have already worked out a lot of the kinks, etc. ....
I did not know if I needed to try something out of metal, wood or what ever.
Thats the great thing about this forum. People will help in a heart beat.
Thanks again,
James


Louise,
No, I do not put them up every year....should I?
I was afraid that removing the gourds over and over would eventually make them loose on the rods and wear out the stars that hold them on. OOPS...I just thought of something. I guess I could remove the whole rack system. I think that would be simple enough and certainly the smartest....geezzzzz, am I slow or what??

Emil,
If you have a picture of your setup, I would love to see it. I have to do something. It seems the ones that broke are the ones most used and since they were nest building I had to do something quick. They looked like they were having trouble getting back inside. I made some temporary replacements out of some rain gutter material I had at the shop. I had lowered the gourds to about 5' off the ground and they were flying around my head and giving me heck. I turned my back to make a final adjustment on the replacement piece and when I turned back, about 10 of them were sitting on the rack not over 7 or 8 feet from me, just watching.... The trust made me feel good and it was also kind of comical....

Alan,
I am going to goggle "ultimate tunnel" so I can see what they look like. Even if I have to pay a little more, I want something dependable.

Thanks again everyone!!!
James

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

No, I am unable to resize my photos, and can't get photobucket to work for me...Sorry, the computer and I don't get along very well...smile

Maybe I can explain it better:
Make the floor the desired length, say about 8-1/2in, and make it 2.5 inches wide

Take the 5-1/2in cedar board, and cut off 3 pieces that are 3-3/4in long, and attach two of those sides to the floor. With the 3rd piece, attach the top of the tunnel.

Attach the desired entrance with some screws.

Attach the tunnel to the gourd

[M.Stephens]

James I replaced all of mine with the ultimate tunnel and I really like them.

I suggest you go with the ultimate tunnel with the clinger entrance...it has the wing entrapment guard built in.

The one with the round and crescent entrance does not.

I had problems with the "stock" porches also...they will not hold up in the sunlight for extended periods of time.

[cary-nw-fla]

re making plastic gourds last longer due to sunlight... I have some s&k gourds that I haven't put up yet and I'm planning on painting them using spray paint designed to adhere to plastic. I figure that this will help block the sun from the plastic making them last longer.

[TGivens]

Ihave a house i want to put up,but the porch does not seem to be wide enough,how wide should it be,the house has sreh

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

The porch can be any desired width. Some people like long wide porches and some like narrow short porches. My neighbor has porches that vary in length from 1/2 inch to 1 inch, and he says that the narrow porches help to stop the starlings from entering, they cannot push their way into an SREH if the porch is real small.

If your house has narrow porches, I would try it the way it was made. It may be difficult to change the porches on the house.

[Scott D.- La]

You can also make porches from 2inch pvc pipe. Cut a section to the desired width and split it on one side. Place in boiling water, shape the porch to the desired look. These do not degrade in the sun and are easy to make.

[TGivens]

thanks i will try these ideas