WTF Moment of the Day

Alright, so the roof is done (except for cleanup, which will probably go on for a couple of weeks - yay...). Just in time, as we're getting some of the only rain we've seen in over a month. Not hard rain, but enough to wet things down a bit. I figure it's a good time to check things out in the attic, although a real hard-rain would be the best trial-by-fire for it. Below is typical of the 45 year old decking - nice and solid. I didn't mention it before, but there was absolutely no rot or noticeable water damage found during the roofing.




The previous owners, who had lived here at least 30 years, installed some wood decking which goes from the opening into the attic all the way to the garage where there is an access hatch as well. You can barely see it on the wall to the left. This is the first time I got a look into the attic and it was "interesting". I had wondered about the venting and where the stove and bathroom vents exited the house, which I now know. That's not what was "interesting", though. The "insulation" is what I'm referring to.




I don't know if it's "Yankee Ingenuity", just plain cheap, or the first signs of Alzheimer's, but the previous owners used old carpet and padding as insulation. Seriously, WTF?!? Over the living room is this egg-crate style padding surrounded by REAL pink insulation. Yeah, that'll work well.




Even higher on the Lame-o-Meter is this old carpet and pad which matches the carpet in the hallway and the bedroom we tore carpet out of. What I really like is how it has compressed the real insulation, thus ruining what little R-value it originally had. Most of the attic has at most 6-8" of insulation, nowhere near enough for Wisconsin. I had planned to blow in some insulation this fall, but didn't know I was going to have to remove carpeting from my freaking attic before I did so.



Before anybody asks, my home inspector did mention carpeting in the attic, but I thought me meant that they rolled some up and stored it in the attic, not that they actually tried to use it for insulation. I did look briefly while he was up there checking out the decking, but I didn't want to climb up there as I was still in my work clothes. I'm really interested in seeing how much easier the house is to heat & cool once this is done correctly. I'll have to check out the venting around the soffits when I do this to help the airflow. That should be loads of fun, so I'll wait until cool weather before I do it.

Roofing is Done, and Now Cleanup Sucks

By noon on day 4, the roof was done. My mad-purchazing-skillz served me well - I was only short 11 bundles of shingles (I was trying to get away without having any extra, but that backfired a little bit) and only used one of the two 20' ridge vents. I didn't see any reason in using the other roll, as I could have only used about 5' of it and would have wasted the other 15'. Might as well return it and get the $50 back. Most of my running for stuff on this job was for stuff like tubes of tar, ice, Gator Ade, etc. The roof is done, but that doesn't mean my work is done. Now comes the el-sucko job of clean-up. Usually people put down tarps to catch the debris from the roof, but since there were only two guys working (and our tarps suck), I had the debris dropped directly on the ground. It is easier to pick up with a pitchfork this way, though. My only concern will be nails which the rolling magnet doesn't get, I figure I'd have those either-way, so I'm going to hope for the best and pay the kids to use the magnet every few days.





Ah, sweet, sweet, ridge-vent goodness, how I've looked forward to having you. 20' of Owens Corning with the top shingled.




From the garage side of the house, the last side to be done.




Remember how I said that the previous colors on the roof might have faded a little? Well, make that "a LOT". I found this little gem mostly protected from the sun, and it shows that the second layer of shingles was actually RED! How freakin' ugly can you get! Red roof, brown and white trim, and tan brick. Yeah, that'll look good...