JP, JA, and EM picking up shingles early in the morning
EM trying to push the wheel barrowMonday morning the long awaited re-roofing project began. We had had lots of people lined up either as volunteers or paid labor for Friday and Saturday, but of course it poured rain and snow on those days, so we had to wait until Monday when we would have at least 72 hours of clear weather.
The goal for Monday was to complete tear-off and start felting. Two of us started the tear-off at 7 am with the temperature around 21 degrees, hoping the neighbors wouldn't mind too much (although tear-off doesn't make that much noise compared to pneumatic nailing guns and compressors!). An hour and a half in, I thought I was going to die from exhaustion (cold was no longer an issue!). CK, who was helping me, was a professional roofer, and he probably cleared twice the area I did in the same time. I kept on eye on his technique and by the end was making much better progress for the same energy expended, but still was struggling to keep up. Fortunately at that time, backup in the form of CP, CK, BH, and the E family began to arrive and things began to progress even more quickly. By noon all the old shingles and felt had been cleared off the roof and were sitting on the ground.
With the shingles gone, some other problems with the roof, not related to the tree falling down became apparent. For instance the wood sheathing below the two dormer vents in the back were beginning to rot, as was the area near the chimney. Both of these areas had been improperly flashed when the roof was built forty years ago. After about one minute of discussion, I decided to just tear out the dormers, as I always thought they kind of looked ugly, they were a major source of potential leaks to a roof, and they were providing essentially no ventilation flow, which was their only reason for existing. After tearing out the dormers, we needed to replace the rotted areas and the small ventilation holes in the main decking. We also cut the peak of the roof to install a ridge vent.
At this time I had to go into work to interview someone for a position that had been scheduled weeks before. Fortunately, CP, CK, BH, and the E family continued working while I was gone. Unfortunately, they found that the rolls of felt we had purchased had a major problem, with edges sticking as they were being rolled out and tearing. We thought this was because of cold temperatures, so decided to call it a day at 5 pm, bring the rolls of felt into the house to get them warmed up, and start again the next day.
I had high hopes that we would complete the roof by the end of Tuesday.
Tuesday we started at 8 am. Unfortunately, we found that the felt was still tearing as it was rolled. The rolling went slowly, mostly because it took a while for me to get the hang of what CK needed me to do to make the felt lay tight against the roof. It also became problematic that our roof has so many valleys and ridges, all which require more care and present problems for getting tight fits of the felt. I also found that I had a hard time walking or standing on the already laid felt in a way that wouldn't cause signficant bubbling. I had to leave to go into the lab by 11 am, and from the report I got back from my foreman, CP, progress was slow the entire day and I admit I was deeply discouraged. Less than half the roof had been felted, and only 1/4 of the roof shingled. So much for finishing in two days.
Wednesday we began work at 7:30 am, but I had to leave by 10 am. Felting continued to go slowly but with CK working on it, we had at least completed 2/3rd of it before I left, as well as having shingled close to half the roof. CP, CK, BH, and the E. family continued work throughout the day. By the end of the day, felt had been laid down on all but the peak areas of the roof, and shingles on 3/4 the of the roof.
Because I was staying in late at the lab each day to try to make up for the time I was spending on the roof, by Thursday morning I was dreading another day and hoping that this was finally the day we finished. We began work again at 7:30 am, but I absolutely had to stop at 9 am because I had a talk I had to give that morning. By the time I had left, we had finished shingling all but the ridge areas which we had kept until last so we had a place to put shingles, tools, and such. By the end of the day CP called to say that they had finished. Thank goodness. It rained a little bit Friday night and Saturday night. I haven't had a chance to get up in the attic during a rain storm to make sure there are no leaks, but I feel pretty confident we actually have a stronger and better ventilated roof without any leaks.
Would I do it again this way? Probably not, but give me a few months to recover and maybe I would consider it.
