Monday, July 13

Summer Projects: Roofing!


Tons of moss on the garage roof our 1st year here.

When we first came to look at our house, there had been a huge snow storm and the entirety of the garage roof was buried in snow.  A walk through the inside didn’t reveal any issues, and our attention quickly turned to other things. That first summer, however, we realized that the whole roof of the garage was covered in a thick blanket of moss. There was so much tree coverage that it got almost no sun, and the lichen took advantage of the dimness to thrive.

The next year, we took a pressure washer to the roof and blasted all the moss off. Together with cutting back the forest line and opening things up to the sunlight, this improved the situation significantly. But it couldn’t reverse the damage that had been done by years of the previous owners’ neglect, and it quickly became apparent that the roof would need to be replaced. Leaks were developing, and several pieces of the foundational plywood were in extremely rough shape.

We slated the project for this summer, and set about working on the logistics. Fourth of July weekend, everything came together! 

I ordered a dumpster from the same nice company we've used the last two times we had major house projects. When I joked that we ought to get the equivalent of frequent flyer miles with as much as we call them, they even gave us a couple extra days for free! After work on Thursday that week, my Prince scraped off all the old shingles and my brother-in-law drove out. On Friday, we were up at hauling tookus by 7 a.m. 

I am not a fan of either ladders or heights. It's one thing to do Walk the Plank at the Tough Mudder, where you go in knowing that jumping off is the point. It is an entirely different story to be sitting on one's roof exceptionally aware of how important it is to not fall off... needless to say, although I helped a little, my time on the roof was limited. I spent most of my time on the ground cleaning up, playing gopher, or working on other things that needed to get done while we had the dumpster. 

The guys, on the other hand, were amazing! They were up and down the ladder, throwing packs of shingles around, and walking calmly around the roof like it was perfectly normal! They ripped out damaged plywood, put in new sheets, and completely redid the entire thing from top to bottom and stem to stern in 12 hours!!


The new garage roof with proper vents on top and everything -
isn't it beautiful?!
We didn't want to ever have to worry about the roof again, so it has ice and water shield as a base layer and vents on top to let moisture out when needed. It's rock solid, and we're delighted to have it done. The timing couldn't have been better - the weather went right back to being nearly nonstop rain the next day.

Hooray for another major project crossed off the list!

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