Installing a flag on the eaves of a house no vertical wood surface

Question

The picture shows the stucco exterior of my house. I'm trying to install the flag. The only exposed wood is in two places: the dark-colored decorative ledge, and the support beams under the shingled eaves (painted the same pale color as the stucco). If you look at the support beam that's a little to the left, you can see that it has a rounded shape on the end, which makes things hard to attach to it.

My first try was the small dingus you can see sitting on the left edge of the ledge. I have a metal bracket (white), which I basically nailed to the curved front of the support under the eaves. To get the flagpole to come up at a high enough angle, I had to add the little wooden shim that you can still see attached to the bracket. This was fine for a couple of months, but then we had a storm and the flag blew down in the wind.

What is a better way to do this with zero carpentry skills?

When I look at how other people in my neighborhood have done this, most of them have some vertical wood that is out in the front plane of their house. Ours is different because the only vertical surface is stucco, and it's hidden way back under the eaves. So I guess what I really want to do is attach something to one of the wood beams, like I did before, but find a better way to do it.

Answer 1

You said it's hard to attach to the end of the rafters because they are rounded.

You could flatten one. Your carpentry skills should not stop you. You could use a chisel to create a little kerf that will help you get a small hand saw started. Otherwise it will be hard to start the saw on the rounded end. You don't have to completely flatten it ... just a small area at the tip big enough for the bracket. Or you could use an orbital sander, that might be easier ... just go at the end of the rafter. It will take very little to flatten it enough for the bracket at the top end, you are not trying to remove the entire rounded end.

OR ... You could screw a block of wood to the SIDE of a rafter instead of the end, then attach your bracket to that. If you do that you could cut the front face of the block at an angle so it's parallel with the wall rather than with the end of the rafter. This is similar to @isherwood's suggestion, just using wood instead of metal. His idea is probably better if you can find suitable parts.

Answer 2

I think I'd add a steel L bracket to the side of the rafter (where it's least conspicuous), then mount the flag bracket to that. Something like this:

 |  |
 |  |<-- rafter
 |  |
 |  ||
 |  ||
 |__||<-- bracket
   __|
    *
    * <-- flag pole socket

You may have to shop a bit to find the right combination of parts, such as an L bracket of about 1-1/2" x 1/4" steel and at least 8" on the longer leg. You might cut one leg down to about 3", then use the cut off portion as a vertical extension to provide more mounting for the flag pole mount.

I'd use 5/16" x 2" lag screws to mount the bracket (or longer, if the wood allows).

Answer 3

This self-answer shows the solution I came up with:

This is sort of a simpler version of some ideas suggested by isherwood and jay613 -- thanks! This didn't even require a trip to the hardware store. I just had some scrap lumber, nails, and screws around. The only tools I used were an electric drill, a hand saw, a screwdriver, and a hammer.

I'm still not sure if it's strong enough to stand up to a once-per-year wind, but the white bracket is now mounted onto flat wood, which is held in place by a bunch of screws and nails. I think if I were to grab the flag and pull down hard, the longer lever arm would certainly win, and the whole thing would come apart. To make it stronger, I think the thing to do would be to add some kind of shim in the air gap below, and/or a steel strap wrapping around on top...?

But anyway, at least for now, with the help of stackexchange, we are once again flying the flag that to me and my wife symbolizes the constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the war that our grandparents fought against fascism.