Just in Time

So as of 6 pm EST yesterday, all the shingles were attached to the roof! Hooray! All we need now is a good sunny day in the 70s or 80s to glue them down and we'd be all set. (Ya, fat chance.)

I gave Troy the priveledge of finishing it up, especially as it included cutting shingles for a whole row and that is a pain in the keister. Plus I had other things to do. The "just in time" is because we woke up to a good 4-5 inches of snow that had fallen overnight. And although I have talked about shingling in the snow, it has never been anything that added up.

There is still an opening at the very peak of a couple inches, but the roof vent is on order to finish it up.

-christina

Git 'Er Done

Wow...reading through the "shingle countdown" pounds home the fact that we've been hitting the shingles pretty hard and steady. I was out again today while Troy was gone all day for CE. I had a half-hope that I could surprise him by finishing the north side but it didn't happen. For one, I ran out of shingles on the roof. I considered bringing more up by the 1/2 or 1/4 stack (not being able to wrangle 80 lbs up the ladder at one time) but then it started raining too hard and I guess I ran out of steam. Things were going smoother than last Wednesday though...that was an exercise in frustration.

Wednesday I got prepared to go out (which not only includes changing into many layers, but also getting the woodstove going steady so you can leave it unattended), laid out a row of shingles, got the gun, hit the roof, and...nothing. The gun would not work. When I pulled my earplugs out I realized there was a much louder than normal hissing coming from the air hose and sure enough, the hose had burst apart at a taped up connection. I went in the house feeling that I was defeated. But then the part of my brain that likes to work on shingles (it must exist) nagged the rest of my brain into remembering that there was another connection in the hose and long story short, I managed to hook up the air without the part that was leaking. Ok, back in business...

I nailed down the row I had laid out. Next was more tar paper because we were at the end of the tar paper and metal edging. Troy even left a roll on the roof so I was set to go. First roll went ok. Then I realized I had to roll out at least 3 more so that the metal edging could go on (it's 10 feet long). I carry up a roll up from inside the shop and as I roll it out, a few feet from the end it sticks to itself at the edge and starts ripping. I don't notice for quite a few turns and by then the rip is a good 8-10 inches from the edge. Crap! So I rip it off of the nails I had put in the end and go down for the last roll we have. This roll goes down fairly trouble free, but it's a little short (like the one brand has been). The only scrap left on the roof is 4 inches too short. :sigh: I go down to the ground and scrounge the strip of tar paper that had blown off by the wind. It has some nail holes, but with some creative placement, it patches the last bit that I needed. So now I've got one more roll to go and only a ripped one to do it.

I keep thinking, I have to get this done. So I look at the space that's left, and it's narrow enough that I can use most of the roll that had ripped. So I cut a clean edge, start unrolling from the other roof edge, and it does it again! Oh how frustrating. But I catch it a little sooner this time so the rip doesn't move too far up the roll. ("Git er done...git er done," I keep saying to myself.) By the end of that last run, I have patched together three other short pieces and finally end with one last 36 inch section and just a piece of the blown off tar paper with too many holes. I can't get the holes covered up so I finally leave it for Troy to decide. We went through a lot of nails with all that patching!

So then I think, well I can put the metal edging on the other end and start some shingling from that side. I measure the length that I need, and go down to a piece that was left over. Great...it's a foot longer than I need. I bring it up to roof, put it in place, and it's 1/4 inch too short!! I don't know what happened to my tape measure while I went down the ladder, but that and the rain was the last straw and I quit  for the day. But meanwhile I got one row of shingles and all the tar paper laid down for Troy to work on that night.

One bonus of working in the rain is getting to climb the ladder and look across the lower roof line and see the rain running off the roof. It's like magic, so gratifying.

Here's a recent pic of the inside of the shop. The floor is slowing drying up. It has a nice echo too.When I was in the shop, I noticed this bag hanging from the rafters. I'm not sure if it's garbage from the roof or Troy hanging the white flag in surrender one day.

Troy should finish up the shingles tomorrow. (If he's worth his salt, anyway.) Then just when I'm thinking we're ready for winter, Troy talks up about insulating the foundation and putting up Tyvec...but I think we're way past getting this done "by winter" cause it has snowed a little too often for that.

-christina

Shingling from a Quilter's Perspective

So as we're about to begin shingling, Troy is explaining how it all works to me. (I think he likes to use me as an audience just to talk things through out loud, but I just patiently listen...) As he's talking, this is sounding more and more like quilting. The pattern is like a strip quilt except the pieces overlap a little more than in a strip quilt. Even the scale is similar as the shingles show 5" for each row and a very common quilt square size is 6 inches. What is not similar is the area which needs to be covered. In quilt terms, the south face alone is about 17 king sized quilts. Pretty big. In quilting, your tools are the rotary cutter and self-healing cutting mat. In roofing, your tools are the utility knife and a spare piece of shingle. Of course what you don't get in quilting is the pneumatic nail gun. Shingling might be more cool just on that difference. (Of course, I think my new Husqvarna Viking sewing machine is pretty cool so maybe it's still a matter of opinion.)

But enough of that...on to the pictures. First we have the south face as Troy is preparing the first layers of moisture wrap (there's $400 I'll never spend on shoes, thanks to Inspector BS), tar paper, and fussy cutting (another quilting term) the first row of shingles.
Then the south face as the shingles are about half done. The last two rows were put in by yours truly, aka Rosie the Riveter.

This pic shows a piece of the house and you can see that the new shingles match pretty well in colour. The pattern is a little "livelier" on the shop, but I can live with it.
And finally, the north face, all swept off. But I will say I swept it in the dark, so I'm really not going to guarantee the quality. Of course, if we don't get the tar paper down quickly, we'll just have to sweep again anyway.

Troy and I worked quite diligently on Sunday after getting home from church with a break for the rain around 4:30 and to visit with Troy's uncle and aunt who stopped in. Apple pie is good for lifting spirits so we went back out until almost 8. The weather being so nice is encouraging and the threat of snow by the end of the week doesn't hurt for motivation either.

Monday I went out (yes on my own, since everyone asks that) after work and put in a hour or two. It was all worth it when someone drove up the drive to ask if he could put up a political sign in our yard the next morning for election day. I didn't really think about it until later, but in retrospect he was very surprised to find a woman working on a roof on her own. I was just happy he hit the cycle when I was using the nail gun! ::grin:: He commended me for working so late, and all I thought was, "It's not even 8:00 yet." I'd better watch it...I think Troy is rubbing off on me!

Still grinning,

christina

Aerobic shingle hefting

We have commenced shingling. Once your plywood (or God forbid, waferboard/OSB) is all nailed on nicely to your trusses, it's time for tarpaper and shingles. Prior to nailing the tarpaper on, you should sweep the roof off to remove detritous, stray nails, seeds (maple helicopters for the most part) and anything else that would make a bump under the tarpaper. That would cause a stressed spot in the paper and then the shingle, potentially leading to a leak. It wants to be smooth and flat as far as the eye can see. Double check for the third time that there are no nails sticking up.

We have finished about 20% of the shingles. Each row of shingles goes on in about 15 minutes (pneumatic coil guns ROCK!), but each row only marches up the roof 5 inches. So, fast yet slow. So, we keep plugging along and will eventually overcome the roof and the rain and the snow. Somehow I had it in my mind that each bundle of shingles weighed 60 pounds. After I hefted the first batch from the pickup truck onto the roof, I decided I was either really getting old or they weigh more than that. So of course, I weighed one. 80 pounds. Well, that was a relief. I'm not quite ready for "old" status.

I used to fly airplanes with a guy who ran a construction company. Even back then, he was older than dirt. At least that's what it seemed like to me, a 16 year old at the time. I suppose he was 60. He was a pretty astute business guy, and more than anything else, he outworked the competition. When he carried shingles up the ladder, he carried two bundles. Holy CRAP batman, that guy was tough. I think he did it to make sure the young guys stayed motivated. Jeez, if the old geezer boss can run up that ladder with two bundles, I guess I better do it too. He eventually gave that up after his second hernia surgery.

Since I have no employees to impress or motivate, I'll stick with one bundle at a time. Steady pace wins the race, and no hernias. We only have 85 bundles to heave up there. To save you the math, that's 6,800 pounds of shingles, not counting tar paper and moisture barrier stuff, nails, etc.

It's a good thing I'm doing this for fun, because you could never pay me enough to do it for a living.


Finest regards,

troy