Up on the Roof

I almost titled this post, "The Never Ending Story" because it took forever to put a new roof on our little house... five weeks to be exact. Well, five weekends...

Step One: tear off the old cricket and build the new covered front porch.

Step Two: cover everything with tarps because it is raining. Call the inspector for a framing inspection on the new front porch.

Step Three: tear off all of the old roofing on the west side of the house, call the inspector to check the roof deck nailing, rent a roofing nailer, cover the roof with ice and water shield and/or 30# roofing paper.

Step Four: install shingles and corrugated metal on the west half of the roof. Cover the ridge with 30# roofing paper in case it rains because the ridge cap cannot be installed until the east half of the roof is done.

Step Five: tear off all of the shingles on the east side of the roof. Install new roof decking on the entire east side because the original decking was fifty years old and done for in many places. Call the inspector for a roof deck nailing inspection on the east slope.

Step Six: Build two new crickets, one over the double doors in the bedroom and one over the kitchen door. Call the inspector for a framing inspection.

Step Seven: Rent roofing nailer.  Install ice and water shield and 30# roofing paper on the east slope and gables.

Step Eight: Instal shingles, corrugated metal and ridge caps. Return roofing nailer. Wait for the weather to rust the cold rolled steel ridge caps.

Don't forget the diverter over the plumbing vent that the inspector ordered.

My neighbor, after watching me finish up last Tuesday... yes I had t take a day off of work, asked me if I would do it all again. Upon reflection, I probably would... if I didn't have to coordinate inspections and nailer rentals and labor. The actual construction was relatively easy. The hard part was making sure that I would be around when the inspector arrived and that I could get the nailer rented and returned and that I had enough muscle to lift plywood sheeting and roofing materials onto the roof. Both inspector and rental shop keep bankers hours while I can only work on the house on the weekends and my muscle (read Kelby and Zach) aren't readily available every weekend.

Anyways... as of yesterday, its finally done and we are happy with the results.

 

oops... not done quite yet. still gotta shingle the gable ends of the crickets.