Roofing Days 5-16

I have been too busy and tired to keep up on posting about the roof, so let me explain, no there is too much, I will sum up.

Day 5: 4th of July

Happy 4th.

Please excuse the messed up picture...

More tearing off plywood sheathing and putting up new.

I sacrificed my tablesaw blade guard trying to cut a 45 degree bevel on one side of the plywood I was putting in at the ridge. The screw that held the guard on had bent and led to it being in the way when I started up the saw; sending shrapnel at me, which I avoided by ducking behind the plywood I was cutting. 

Day 6: thurs

That's 135 degrees on the tar paper

•  Started putting up some shingles from the northeast hip; didn't get very far.

my arms are badly scratched from all the plywood tear-off; my shins are just about as bad too.

Day 7: Fri, Dad arrives

• Didn't get any pictures from today so am verifying with the video, but as I recollect.
• Dad arrived in the middle of the day to help
• helped with cutting some sheets of plywood
• got tools I needed and adjusted the compressor for the different nailers

Day 8: sat, The Day I did too much
With Dad here and knowing we could get a lot of work done, we started on the gable over the garage. We took off the shingles over the garage gable first. You can see it in the next picture at the top right. It is a little hard to tell, but it sticks out a little and since I don't like that and it would have cost me another $50 to straighten it out at the lower part, we just cut off the upper part, making it a shallow gable. You might notice it later in the other pictures from the front of the garage.

Before... foreground shingling is new, background shingles are old, tar paper in the middle, some holes under the tarp.

Dad helping cut plywood for the garage and then for the main roof .

This is about the middle of the day when the garage roof was almost done replacing the sheathing.

 I don't have pictures from my camera of the sheathing that got replaced on the main roof the rest of the day, but basically, everything to the left in the above picture, that had the tarp on it or is old plywood got replaced late in this day. I got so frustrated with getting too much started at once that I didn't end up getting it all nailed  down but did that on Sunday. I did get all the insulation and baffles done before the plywood got fitted and placed for the night, though.

Day 9: sun

Sunday I got all the new plywood we had fitted on the roof over the main part of the house and the garage nailed down. with the exception of some pieces along the valley. There was some support issues we addressed on Monday before the tar paper got placed and we got back to shingling.

It was hot on Sunday, so Sam had fun running though the sprinkler while Aimee did some work in the yard. We enjoyed a watermelon at one point and Sam pretended to be asleep in the shade of the canopy. He was having a blast.

Day 10: mon

This is the framing we put up to support the plywood in the valley we had to cut where it went under the garage roof.  It worked really well to keep the new plywood edge supported.

These were taken kinda late, so you will probably have to enlarge to  see the details. 

The garage roof is started shingling and  the main roof has come along further. 

Day 11: tues

We got the front garage roof removed in the morning before I took Mom and Sam to the mall to see the $1 movie; Cats and Dogs 2. When I got back Dad helped me get the basketball hoop removed.

The basketball hoop was removed and the front got tar papered .

Then we got the front roof tar papered and the hip lined with ice and water shield.  

More shingling up the garage roof until I got to a point where I needed to figure out how to get the shingles underneath the gable before continuing on this side; which meant starting the front of the garage first. 

I ended up getting up to the hip on the front of the garage and  put on the ridge shingles over the hip, but....

they didn't turn out so straight and I took them back off to retry again in the morning.

Day 12: wed

Look! A straighter hip ridge.

and then got the rest of the east garage roof  done  to the ridge and ready for the main roof to be started again.

Day 13: thurs

This was the rest of the main roof shingled and then the hook blade on my utility knife slipped as I was trimming the last couple shingles ...

and sank into my arm. 

Luckily it was just before the Urgent Care Center closed and we were able to make it there to get my arm two stitches and not needing to wait several hours in the ER. Yay!!!

I was covered in shingle grit and it was getting all over the place.  The nurse/tech even had to swab my arm twice to clean it to give me the Tdap shot. I am sure I didn't smell too great either, so it was great to get such great service.

Day 14: friday

We tore down the chimney that was not being used any more on Friday. Whoever built that chimney did a good job, it was hard to bust apart. It took almost the whole day of me and Dad chipping bricks off of it and throwing everything in the dumpster. It was way more involved than I thought it was going to be.

When we got down to the roof, the shingles and the plywood around the chimney came out next. 

We took it down to where it was flat and I adhesived a piece of plywood to the top to keep out animals. 

Day 15: Sat
Saturday we took off more sheathing and framed in the top of the chimney with plywood so birds/squirrels wouldn't make use of the area above the chimney for a roost.

Sadly and reluctantly, I let my parents leave that afternoon so they could get home and take care of planning and packing for their trip. I really missed having someone around to work with and ended up calling Dad Sunday to help me figure out how to solve the plywood problem around the valley.

Day 16: Sun

Whoever put this in was not expecting it to ever come out, I think.

The dilemma for the day was to figure out how to replace the small section of plywood at the end of the valley (the piece with the 2x4 sticking out from under it. I was thinking I really should replace the plywood that the hammer is on in the next picture, but ...

with how I solved the problem, I ended up just putting in a 2x4 underneath that piece to re-enforce the  marginal  plywood and make it more solid.

The rest of the roof came off and went together pretty easy after that and  I got half of it nailed down before I realized I needed to wait on the last couple pieces toward the front so I could route the relay switch control cable from the sprinkler system into the wall since it was open from above and would be easier to get to that way. 

I haven't been back out or even tried to route the wire yet... although I did put up tarps in preparation of the thunderstorms and rain we were supposed to have today; of which nothing came of it but a little wind.

I decided to take a break since I didn't have anyone to watch Sam yesterday (and didn't set up anything for today) and have been nursing a lame arm that keeps wanting to go to sleep, and has some strange nerve tingling, and a body that is just worn out from all the work day in and day out. I needed a rest I guess cuz I slept in yesterday til almost 10, when Sam woke up, and went to bed last night after dinner, pretty much. I did get a little restless about 2am and read for about an hour, but I still woke up today about 9. Even though I feel better, I still feel wiped and hopefully tonight will allow me to make an effort to get back out there and finish this up by the weekend.

Labor Day #3, Sept 2011

We had a quick breakfast on Labor Day morning, day 3 of the work weekend. Aimee's dad got started doing the hole for the sump pump and I went and got another load of gravel I was thinking I would need for the holes and trenches, hopefully another 2 yards isn't going to be too much.

Dad worked with a short shovel I had and that 5 gallon bucket on it's side cuz it barely fit under the floor joists when upright. I emptied the first couple buckets for him, but Aimee helped out the rest of the day so I could work in the holes in the yard. Is it just me or does he not look too amused I took his picture?

He got quite dusty working under the house and crawling around to run the electrical line and the garden hose out the vent at the other end of the house.I am kinda excited about this being done, but kinda not looking forward to running the electrical line over to the panel in the garage and snaking it down to hook it up.

Dusty Bob.

Anywho, I dropped off the trailer at the rental place after I dumped the gravel in the driveway and then proceeded to dig out the end of the trench going to the east side drywell, wrap the hole and container with landscape fabric, insert the drainage pipe coming from the downspouts, fill the hole with gravel, put an extra piece of landscape fabric on top and start filling the remaining 12 inch deep hole with dirt. By about noon, I had gotten all the loose dirt around the hole scraped back into the hole, about half filled. I will have to move more from the other pile in the back, but after I get the other holes buttoned up to at least this stage.

Hole with gravel in the bottom and well container



Well and hole wrapped in landscape fabric



fabric folded over and dirt starting to fill rest of hole

After filling the east hole with dirt about half way, which is when I ran out of loose dirt by the hole, I think I had lunch and then started on the west side drywell. We hit some gravel which looked like some kind of drainage field, which would have been under the grass; maybe something left over from a septic system, I don't know. It will help disperse the water though so we left it alone.

It didn't seem like it took that long, but I got it wrapped and filled with gravel to the drainage pipe holes. I will need to empty the trench and grade it to the hole and fix the sprinkler lines I hit with the trencher before I can put the pipe in. I did realize that working in the full sun was really hot and put the canopy over the hole. It was hot that day, like close to 90 I think, but this made it at least manageable. Now I know why Dad wanted to work under the house instead of outside; much cooler, but more dusty I think.

Second drywell on west side of back yard, there was some kind of pre-existing drainage field that we hit, maybe from an old septic system?

West drywell filled to the drainage pipe connections, .

Labor Day #2

Day two started with a quick breakfast and trenching... lots of trenching. It took a long time cuz it again kept locking up on rocks and was a little underpowered for the depth and type of soil.

I decided to keep the loader past the 8am return time; for $35/hour. I was hoping to get it done in the 4 hour timeline, so it wouldn't get too expensive. It was well worth the extra time we had the loader and I was almost sorry I didn't keep it for the rest of the day. Anywho...
We got the trench along the back side of the house for the new sprinkler run that will water the new grass I will be putting in later this fall. Then we moved to the west side trench that goes to the first dry well we dug. I hit just about every existing sprinkler line in that area, sometimes in multiple spots... I will have a lot of repairs to do but it really wasn't that bad considering. I finished with the trench for the front yard hole but couldn't do more than like 4 feet due to not being able to back the machine through he side of the garage.


I was happy when it was finally finished and we were ready to unload the trencher back on the trailer.

East side - first trench

South Side of house

West side of house, with busted lines




Another on the West that I nicked

 

After trenching I decided to run as much gravel as I could to tarps in the backyard next to the two holes. I got a good pile next to each of them, hoping that I didn't do too little and praying I didn't do too much to have to move it back.

We took the loader back about 11:30 and paid for a day plus the 4 extra hours. It was some of the best rental money I have spent. We took a break and went to lunch when we got back; Dad took us out to Mexican and we started talking about what else needed to get done. The sump pump came up and Dad was eager to volunteer to get out of working in the heat on Monday; smart man.

I went and got another load of gravel that afternoon before the landscape supply place closed. Then I think I messed around outside but didn't seem to really get all that much done for the rest of the day... it was too hot. The front of the house looked like this at the end of the day.

[Next: Labor Day #3: "Labor Day"]