Singles and Sleet...and then Snow

Saturday night we were determined to get some shingling done. The south face was finished the day before and that gave us enough sense of accomplishment to spur us on to continue the work. The weather decided to deliver a wet night of intermittant light rain and sleet. First step was to determine if it was safe to be up on the roof. So we got changed into our work gear (which is sometimes the lionshare of the effort for some unknown reason) and tested our footing on the wet plywood. Ta-da! we were both very secure...so off to the races we went.

Step one: lay out two rows of the moisture barrier. It's adhesive on the back and more than a little awkward to handle on your own. So Troy would roll it out, make it straight and I would hit it with the nailgun. We got lucky when a scrap piece finished off the last 3 feet of the final row so Troy could return two unused packages: woo hoo!

Step two: nail the metal edging along the long low edge of the roof.

Step three: lay out 4 rows of tarpaper. Troy bought two different brands; one is too short and one is too long, but again we were lucky when the part we cut off from the one made up the difference for the short one. 

Step four: nail the metal edging along the side sloped edges of the roof.

Step five: nail on the "half shingles" you had cut previously to the bottom edge of the roof.

This is as far as we got on Saturday. With enough layers and my flannel lined rain coat, I stayed mostly dry and pretty warm, excepting my hands which were wet and frozen, but not frost-bitten. I'm glad we have an excess of working gloves because changing them often makes a world of difference.

Troy noted that he reread the instructions on some of the roofing supplies and it said to prevent the bed (right word?) from getting wet at all times. Well, we didn't have a lot of choice so we pressed on anyway. The next day when we went out we discovered one reason why: all the tarpaper had done what paper does when it gets wet: it was wrinkled up and very bumpy and lumpy. So when we were shingling on Sunday we had to use a lot more nails (25-33%) to get the shingles to lie flat and spend a lot more time to make sure they were in the right place. But it fit with the quilting analogy because it was just like when some of your squares don't come out to exactly 6" but you have to sew them to other squares that are 6". Pin down the ends and then work from the middle out to make sure you're working in the excess bulk evenly.

Sunday was a lot drier because the rain turned to snow, but not real snow. The little dry pellet kind of snow that doesn't really ever add up to anything. It was nice to be working in daylight at least, and we kept the fire going so a little break inside cured whatever was ailing you.

With some luck and determination, I will be out there again tonight so I can get the tarpaper that's out there covered and give Troy a head start for his big work day tomorrow. It's wonderful to be inside the shop and see how dry one half of it is!

-christina

After our weekend work: the north face with 14 courses applied:

Our inspiring south face (inspiring because it's done!):

A view Monday morning of the snow that fell overnight: