Da Roof

By Andrew -

I'm babysitting/dog-sitting while Kim stomps around on the roof, pulling up old nails. We've been at this for just over a week.

It seemed like it was going to be a pretty straightforward job. Pull up the old, worn shingles. Lay down the new ones. It isn't entirely shocking that we found another set underneath. The bigger surprise was the third layer made up of tar and gravel, poured over a layer of fiberglass. Of course, we didn't find those until we pulled up some rotted wood at the edge of the back of the house where the rain had been settling and soaking, bit-by-bit over the years.

The complications slowed progress, and rain came earlier than forecast when we started the job. We did our best to cover the roof with tarps, but the rain was too strong, and leaked throughout the house (except, of course, the waterproof bathroom, where the ceiling already had missing tiles). Somehow we had enough buckets, totes, pans, towels, blankets, and laundry to catch and absorb water. We may have to replace some carpet tiles. All in all, the floor looks okay, and the water didn't get any furniture or electronics. I'm calling it a win.

We were just about ready to lay down the new roof when we realized that the nails we have would not reach through the original gravel and fiberglass roof. We inquired about longer nails and found that for nails long enough to do the job, they had to be used with a hammer rather than a nail gun. We had a choice between laying the roof with hammers or tearing up two more layers of roofing (never mind that the second option is technically required by code). Tearing up just a foot of that roofing along the edge had felt like taking a fiberglass bath, but it still seemed like the fastest option. With the help of a friend on his day off, we were able to remove half of the roof yesterday.

Kim will tag out soon and I will remove the other half. Then we will solve the problem of having the aluminum siding a couple of inches above the roof (because it was installed with 3 layers in place). Then we will, finally, roll out the tar paper, nail down the drip edge, chalk the paper, and nail down the shingles. All of this we must do before tomorrow.

It looks like rain.







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