A new roof. An old deck. A light.

A few weeks ago, I completed a major home repair: A new roof on the back of my house! Keep in mind, I'm using the term "completed" liberally. The new roof is perfectly functional now, but there a few a details that are still awaiting completion. There is an old addition on the back of my house that has a very low-slope roof, that was leaking and in serious need of replacement.

The old roof. Note the high tech blue tarp.

Roofs with low slopes are more prone to leak, because water does not run off of them as easily, and any seams in the roofing material are more vulnerable to any wind-driven rain. Because of this, you can't really use shingles, like you normally see on a roof; you need to use larger roofing material, referred to as "roll roofing".  When researching and planning, I decided to not only replace the roofing material, but the actual wood structure, the "sheathing", of the roof itself. Now that it's done, I'm glad I did this, but the process of replacing the sheathing was extremely difficult and labor intensive. The first, and most difficult step, was tearing up the old roof. The old rolled tar roofing material came up without too much trouble, but tearing up the old sheathing was tough. My sister Jordana and I demolished and replaced sections of the roof at a time, so that would still have some roof surface to work on.

Jordana tearing up old roof/being a beast

Our process was as follows: tear up 4 foot wide sections of roof (which includes the old tar stuff, the old sheathing, and all the nails), add plastic "baffles" to improve airflow above the fiberglass insulation, nail down a new piece of sheathing. As the roof became crowded with junk, we would carry down bags of demolished roof to the backyard, and every piece of new sheathing was carried and hoisted up from the rear deck onto the roof. Our bodies were very sore after the first day...I felt old. For the new roof sheathing, I chose to use a product called "zip sheathing", which is a typical sheet of OSB (a sort of "particle board" common in new home construction) that has an extra water resistant layer on the top.

ready for sheathing

 If you read my first blog post about the construction of my drum shed, you might remember that I felt very disturbed when my partially completed shed was rained on repeatedly. I feel that this past trauma influenced my decision to purchase this water resistant building material. Before I continue, I feel that I should mention that, for this project, I bought a framing nail gun. I was a little hesitant at first because it wasn't cheap (even though I bought it used on eBay), but once work began, I was quickly reassured. It is amazing. It makes work go ten times faster. It looks cool. It makes a loud sound. What more could you ask for?

fully sheathed roof

Once all the sheathing was nailed down, my sister and I (basically all my sis on this one) taped over the seams of each sheet with special super amazing ultra sticky special magic sealing tape. Seriously, the stuff had extreme properties of adhesion. After the sheathing, it was time for the new roll roofing-I used a product that had 3 layers, called Flintlastic. The first layer is rolled out onto the roof, and simply nailed down with small roofing nails. The (optional) middle layer is rolled out, but then stuck down, like a big sticker, to the first layer, and the final top layer, the cap sheet, is laid out the same way. It doesn't sound very complex, but it was definitely a pain in the ass. There were a lot of small things to get

first layer nailed down

right: all the rolls had to be overlapped properly, and the ends of any roll can't be within 3 feet of each other from layer to layer. Also, the cap sheet required a significant amount of roofing cement for the overlaps, which I discovered is a horribly smelly and sticky (essentially impossible to remove from skin. I had am experienced friend recommend dousing the affected areas with GASOLINE) substance. My very clever and resourceful girlfriend Nicole devised a solution of warm water, coconut oil, and dish soap which helped me get the material off, while retaining most of my skin. I'm very glad it's done now, and I'm immensely satisfied to know that I have a roof that should last at least another decade and a half! Although, as with most projects I've done in this house, I end up discovering more problems. In this case, as the structure of the roof was exposed during demolition, I became aware that there were definitely some structural problems the old addition. It appeared that the original (possibly undersized) rafters of the roof had been pulling away from the main structure of the house for sometime, and that someone had tried to correct it at a later date by doubling up, or "sistering" new rafters onto the old ones, with varying degrees of success. Well, whatever. Can't deal with everything at once. THROW THAT FEELING OF DREAD RIGHT INTO THE TRASH CAN.

the cap sheet done!

 During the demolition of the old roof, I threw some pieces of wood off the side of the house, and they smashed the exterior light outside the door of my basement apartment. I don't normally do any electrical stuff (scary), but I did manage to successfully (it turns on! what could possibly be wrong) replace the old light with a new heavy duty one that is significantly more awesome.

an awesome light

cleaned, sanded and sealed deck 

The deck on the back of my house was looking very bad, and if left as it was, probably only had another year or two left in it before replacement became necessary. I cleaned a lot of junk off the deck, including huge piles of leaves.
If you'd like your deck to rot, I suggest you let piles of leaves sit on it for years. After clearing off the deck, I bought a deck cleaning product, and sprayed the deck with it, using a regular garden sprayer.  After the deck dried off, I did a lot of sanding with a hand held orbital sander, over a few days. After replacing two rotted boards with new pressure treated 2x6s, I painted on a semi-transparent waterproofing stain. The deck looks and feels much better now, and will be weather protected for a several more years. I feel pretty good about it. More drum related stuff next time! I'm thinking exercises and techniques for playing uptempo (300+bpm) jazz time. Yes? Stay tuned!