Friday, August 10, 2007
You Will be the First Against the Wall When the Revolution Comes
Days later, and I'm still schleping shingles from the yard into the dumpster. Who'd have known there were so many shingles on one roof?! The front, back, and one side are 100% done, leaving one small side to do tomorrow. The 20 yard dumpster is closing in on being 1/2 full - it's pretty much one solid mass of shingles now. If the old shingles weigh as much as the new ones, I'll probably end up with around 10,000 pounds of shingles in there (based on the weight of the 71 bundles which were just installed, coming in at around 5,400 pounds). The more time I spend in the backyard removing shingles (and lots and lots and lots of nails) the more I can't wait to get rid of the old shed which came with the house. It's got a swing-in door, meaning that about 1/3 of the room inside is wasted since you need to leave room for the door to open. It's also got a flat roof, which is pretty much the polar-opposite of a good idea here in Wisconsin. The 2 x 4 roof framing is rotting from years of leaks, and the thing is painted a wonderful shade of red which matches absolutely nothing else on our property. Well, that burning bush in front of it matches the shed for a few weeks a year, but that's not a good enough reason to keep it. After the shingles are all loaded up and we take a last sweep for nails, I'm going to break out Mr. Reciprocating Saw and cut that fvcker up. We'll be stuck with the old concrete pad from it until we get money to replace the patio, but at least we won't have an ugly shed 15' from the back door. Oh yeah, it was built 15' from the house instead of way back in the corner of the yard like normal people would do. When I look out one of our bedroom windows, the side of the shed is about 75% of my view. Nice....
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Soft hands. And a manicure. Never done a hard day's work in your life, have you?
From Trading Places, by the way.
I am one with the pitchfork. Unfortunately, I'll be one with it for the next few weeks. Couldn't somebody design a lightweight 25 year asphalt and gravel shingle which will hold up against snow, ice, and summer sun? Is that too much to ask? I think I'm getting blisters on my blisters. At least today was overcast, which kept the temps around 80. Pretty humid, thanks to yesterday's rain, but since we need rain so much right now I won't complain more than I already do.
That rolling magnet has so far been worth every penny I paid. My son has been "playing" with it and has found hundreds and hundreds of nails so far. My shoe found two, but luckily they were short nails and my delicate foot is safe. I'm probably about 1/3 done with the clean-up and expect to bleed before this is over. The 20 yard dumpster is about 1/4 full - I'm just hoping I have enough room left to throw out the crappy old shed, the old cement laundry sink, and all the human heads I've been collecting for years. I think I've finally outgrown that obsession.
I am one with the pitchfork. Unfortunately, I'll be one with it for the next few weeks. Couldn't somebody design a lightweight 25 year asphalt and gravel shingle which will hold up against snow, ice, and summer sun? Is that too much to ask? I think I'm getting blisters on my blisters. At least today was overcast, which kept the temps around 80. Pretty humid, thanks to yesterday's rain, but since we need rain so much right now I won't complain more than I already do.
That rolling magnet has so far been worth every penny I paid. My son has been "playing" with it and has found hundreds and hundreds of nails so far. My shoe found two, but luckily they were short nails and my delicate foot is safe. I'm probably about 1/3 done with the clean-up and expect to bleed before this is over. The 20 yard dumpster is about 1/4 full - I'm just hoping I have enough room left to throw out the crappy old shed, the old cement laundry sink, and all the human heads I've been collecting for years. I think I've finally outgrown that obsession.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
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.
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...
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...
Friday, August 3, 2007
Even When You're Not There to Hate it, Roofing Still Sucks
Lucky for me, I had to go in to work today and take care of some projects. Lucky for the guys doing my roof too, I guess, as without me the temp was only around 83 or so. I came back at lunch and brought them pizza and was surprised to see that they had the whole back side of the house stripped down to the planks. That's about as far as they got on a full day Wednesday with me there to "help", so the cooler weather really gave them a boost. Well, they're also leaving with the wives on Sunday for Vegas so they really kinda needed to move it along so the roof would be done. By the time I got home at 4:15 the felt was down and the roof was about half shingled. I made a run to Menards for another 10 bundles of shingles, as I didn't account for waste or ridge caps in my initial purchase of 60 bundles. I thought it was too good to be true.... By 7:30, the back side of the roof was done, as was the front and one side. All that remains is the other small end of the house and all the ridge work.
Old Lameness (installed about 25 years ago)
New Hotness (installed today)
The history of shingle colors at my place. On the bottom is the original plain gray 3-tab. On top is the second layer, a kind of sandy-tan type of color. Both may have faded over the years, but these should still be pretty close to the original colors.
Whoever invented the Shingle Shear deserves a big sloppy kiss. This thing works great at cutting shingles! My shingles don't come in pre-cut pieces for ridges, and I wasn't looking forward to cutting each shingle into three pieces and then trimming the top edges down. I pee'd a little out of excitement when Steve brought this baby out. It works like a paper shear you used to see in grade school, but it cuts shingles. Each shingle took about 30 seconds to finish cutting into three ready-to-go pieces for the ridge. (this isn't my roof, by the way - it's a stock picture from the internet)
The plan is to have the entire roof done by noon tomorrow. Clean-up of the old shingles will take me days, I'm guessing.
In closing, Your Honor, I humbly submit to you that roofing continues to suck more than any suck that's ever sucked a sucks suck.
Old Lameness (installed about 25 years ago)
New Hotness (installed today)
The history of shingle colors at my place. On the bottom is the original plain gray 3-tab. On top is the second layer, a kind of sandy-tan type of color. Both may have faded over the years, but these should still be pretty close to the original colors.
Whoever invented the Shingle Shear deserves a big sloppy kiss. This thing works great at cutting shingles! My shingles don't come in pre-cut pieces for ridges, and I wasn't looking forward to cutting each shingle into three pieces and then trimming the top edges down. I pee'd a little out of excitement when Steve brought this baby out. It works like a paper shear you used to see in grade school, but it cuts shingles. Each shingle took about 30 seconds to finish cutting into three ready-to-go pieces for the ridge. (this isn't my roof, by the way - it's a stock picture from the internet)
The plan is to have the entire roof done by noon tomorrow. Clean-up of the old shingles will take me days, I'm guessing.
In closing, Your Honor, I humbly submit to you that roofing continues to suck more than any suck that's ever sucked a sucks suck.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Roofing Still Sucks, Day 2
Today was pretty much a duplicate of yesterday with regards to the heat. Low 90's and plenty of sun. Before the guys got here to get working, I took a few pictures of where we stopped yesterday. The front has most of the felt laid down and it's ready for shingles. I have a little bit of clean-up to do as well. Mr. Good-Judgment says shingles and nails do not make a safe path to the front door.
As I mentioned yesterday, I was considering getting a dumpster because loading the shingles into a trailer, taking them to the dump, and then unloading them by hand sucks. I got a couple of prices this morning, and of the two companies in the running, the one I went with was not only $100 cheaper for a 20 yard (they didn't have a 15 yard so I got the next size up for no extra cost), but could also deliver within two hours and I could keep the thing for 60 days. The other place would pick up in 5 days, didn't have anything the size I needed, and cost more. Not a hard decision to make... The car ramps at the door of the dumpster allow me to pull the trailer for my garden tractor into the dumpster so I can fill it from one end to the other. This work still sucks, but it doesn't suck as bad as taking the shingles to the dump. $290 well spent.
By around 10:30 they were making decent progress considering the heat. I think the shingles are a little darker than I had wanted, but it's too late now. It's hard to get a good feel for shingle color when you only have a 3' x 3' display to look at. It's not perfect, but it's good enough.
Anybody who is re-roofing their house or even if you're just having the whole thing done for you, if there is tear-off involved, buy one of these rolling magnets! I was amazed at how many nails I found a few feet from where the shingles were landing. I guess they make a run for it when they're finally free from the roof.
End of day, day 2. The front is done and the right side is about 70% done. Timing was pretty good, because just as we were getting the last bit of material down to protect against the 20% chance of rain, we had about 10 minutes of light rain. It was just enough to get everything wet, but not enough to do any damage to exposed areas.
I'm ending this post with a quick few words of wisdom. Roofing sucks. Roofing Sucks. Roofing SUCKS. Next time you get an estimate for having a roof replaced and wonder why it costs so much, it's because the work sucks. I honestly can't believe people do this for a living in hotter climates than Wisconsin. I'd sooner french-kiss a rabid badger than do this again.
As I mentioned yesterday, I was considering getting a dumpster because loading the shingles into a trailer, taking them to the dump, and then unloading them by hand sucks. I got a couple of prices this morning, and of the two companies in the running, the one I went with was not only $100 cheaper for a 20 yard (they didn't have a 15 yard so I got the next size up for no extra cost), but could also deliver within two hours and I could keep the thing for 60 days. The other place would pick up in 5 days, didn't have anything the size I needed, and cost more. Not a hard decision to make... The car ramps at the door of the dumpster allow me to pull the trailer for my garden tractor into the dumpster so I can fill it from one end to the other. This work still sucks, but it doesn't suck as bad as taking the shingles to the dump. $290 well spent.
By around 10:30 they were making decent progress considering the heat. I think the shingles are a little darker than I had wanted, but it's too late now. It's hard to get a good feel for shingle color when you only have a 3' x 3' display to look at. It's not perfect, but it's good enough.
Anybody who is re-roofing their house or even if you're just having the whole thing done for you, if there is tear-off involved, buy one of these rolling magnets! I was amazed at how many nails I found a few feet from where the shingles were landing. I guess they make a run for it when they're finally free from the roof.
End of day, day 2. The front is done and the right side is about 70% done. Timing was pretty good, because just as we were getting the last bit of material down to protect against the 20% chance of rain, we had about 10 minutes of light rain. It was just enough to get everything wet, but not enough to do any damage to exposed areas.
I'm ending this post with a quick few words of wisdom. Roofing sucks. Roofing Sucks. Roofing SUCKS. Next time you get an estimate for having a roof replaced and wonder why it costs so much, it's because the work sucks. I honestly can't believe people do this for a living in hotter climates than Wisconsin. I'd sooner french-kiss a rabid badger than do this again.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Roofing in 93 Degree Heat SUCKS
Re-roofing the house started today as planned. By noon it was 93 degrees and sunny. No shade, no breeze. The two guys I hired busted ass until around 2:00, at which time they had to stop working until around 6:00. They were sweating like pigs, and that was a very reasonable request considering I'm getting a good deal on the job to begin with. I was very impressed with how they handled the heat, something I can't do. I was chasing shingles, doing clean-up, etc but I just couldn't handle the heat (I came very close to getting heat stroke a few years back and haven't been able to handle that kind of physical work in heat since then). Anyway, on with the pictures. First we get a picture of the roof as it was at 8:00 this morning. Two layers of old shingles. The top layer was at the end of it's life and there were a couple of small leaks, but nothing I had to worry much about. To the left of the chimney is the old antenna for the house. That's gone now, which should clean up the look of the roof a little. I was tempted to keep it to get high-def local TV, but I don't have a high-def TV. It's garbage now.
I was concerned with what kind of condition the decking would be in. The home inspector said that the inside of the roof looked like it was in great condition, but you never know until you get everything removed. An hour or so into the tear-off, we found the decking to be in as good of shape as I had hoped. Nothing other than a bunch of loose nails to pound down. This is the front, so I haven't gotten to the back side where the chimney is, which I know had a small leak. The back also has the vents which may need some attention. These guys have done a number of roofs and said this is in much better condition than the typical roof they see.
By about 2:00, most of the front exposure is removed, with just the edge around the gutter to be finished. We also took delivery on the shingles, felt, starter strips, and ice & water barrier. $50 for delivery via forklift to the roof. A boom delivery would have been a little easier, but we only had to walk about 15' max with the shingles to get them off the forklift to where we stacked them on the roof. Not bad - I saved around $50 this way. After the guys got back around 6:00, we finished the front and right side exposure and got the ice & water barrier down along with about half of the felt. Tomorrow morning we'll finish the felt on the two exposures and get those exposures shingled. There is a chance of rain tomorrow afternoon, so this will limit how much of the roof I have to worry about. Also tomorrow comes more hard labor. You can see in this last picture that I've got a trailer parked in front of the door. We're loading shingles into the trailer for me to take to the dump. If I were rolling in dough, I'd have rented a dumpster. I still might - hauling and unloading the old shingles by hand SUCKS.
I was concerned with what kind of condition the decking would be in. The home inspector said that the inside of the roof looked like it was in great condition, but you never know until you get everything removed. An hour or so into the tear-off, we found the decking to be in as good of shape as I had hoped. Nothing other than a bunch of loose nails to pound down. This is the front, so I haven't gotten to the back side where the chimney is, which I know had a small leak. The back also has the vents which may need some attention. These guys have done a number of roofs and said this is in much better condition than the typical roof they see.
By about 2:00, most of the front exposure is removed, with just the edge around the gutter to be finished. We also took delivery on the shingles, felt, starter strips, and ice & water barrier. $50 for delivery via forklift to the roof. A boom delivery would have been a little easier, but we only had to walk about 15' max with the shingles to get them off the forklift to where we stacked them on the roof. Not bad - I saved around $50 this way. After the guys got back around 6:00, we finished the front and right side exposure and got the ice & water barrier down along with about half of the felt. Tomorrow morning we'll finish the felt on the two exposures and get those exposures shingled. There is a chance of rain tomorrow afternoon, so this will limit how much of the roof I have to worry about. Also tomorrow comes more hard labor. You can see in this last picture that I've got a trailer parked in front of the door. We're loading shingles into the trailer for me to take to the dump. If I were rolling in dough, I'd have rented a dumpster. I still might - hauling and unloading the old shingles by hand SUCKS.
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