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It's late, I'm tired, here's another post.
The roofers arrived this morning - five or six of them. They worked quickly, and the back half of the roof is done. So is the porch roof.
We got some bad news, but not disastrous news. We have paperwork from the previous owner claiming that the roof had been completely stripped and replaced ten years ago. We now know that that was a lie. The wood under the shingles was quite old; it wasn't even plywood! It was boards, and all of them were rotten.
As you can see, they were able to pull up chunks of some of the boards by hand.
So rather than $5,000.00, we were looking at more like $7,400.00. The news could have been worse; at least there was no need to remove the old wood (which would have upped the price a good bit). They put new plywood over the old boards. This seemed odd to me, I must admit. Wouldn't the old rotted wood spread the rot to the new plywood? The roofers assured me that it wouldn't. My parents were visiting, and my father told me that this was true. I don't understand it, but if my father says it, I know it's true.
They put plywood over the whole half-roof (saving the other side of the roof for tomorrow, weather permitting). Then we got a little more bad news: the porch had been covered with a slightly unusual extra-thick plywood. Another $75.
The last bit of bad news (so far) is that with the new raised height of the roof the chimney needs to be re-flashed, and that cost another $400; apparently lead is very expensive. So we're looking at around $7,955.00. Here's hoping it doesn't go higher! But unless the beams or joists are bad on the other side of the roof - and they were fine everywhere else so far - the cost shouldn't go any higher.
Here they are putting the new shingles on:
The shingles on the main roof looked very good. I don't know if you can see it, but they're gray and have a pleasing complex look. But the shingles on the porch roof were different. They were long rolls, the full width of the roof, and they were much lighter than the shingles on the main roof. It turns out that they came from different manufacturers. Here are samples of both, with the roll-shingle on top of the main roof (architectural) ones:
The result looks simply weird. Teri didn't like it at all, and I was rather dubious myself. Here's how it looks now that this side (including the porch) are finished:
Weird, huh? The porch roof kind of blends with the siding. Teri hates it. What do you think? Does it look cheap or bad?
A few other notes: it was weird being inside the house while the men were on the roof. The thunder of footsteps was deafening. Sarah (our cat) disappeared for the day. And when I picked up a cup by my nightstand this evening, it was covered with dust.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. The forecasters were talking about thunderstorms, but they haven't had a great record for accuracy lately. If the weather's no good, the roofers will come back on Monday.
The roofers arrived this morning - five or six of them. They worked quickly, and the back half of the roof is done. So is the porch roof.
We got some bad news, but not disastrous news. We have paperwork from the previous owner claiming that the roof had been completely stripped and replaced ten years ago. We now know that that was a lie. The wood under the shingles was quite old; it wasn't even plywood! It was boards, and all of them were rotten.
As you can see, they were able to pull up chunks of some of the boards by hand.
So rather than $5,000.00, we were looking at more like $7,400.00. The news could have been worse; at least there was no need to remove the old wood (which would have upped the price a good bit). They put new plywood over the old boards. This seemed odd to me, I must admit. Wouldn't the old rotted wood spread the rot to the new plywood? The roofers assured me that it wouldn't. My parents were visiting, and my father told me that this was true. I don't understand it, but if my father says it, I know it's true.
They put plywood over the whole half-roof (saving the other side of the roof for tomorrow, weather permitting). Then we got a little more bad news: the porch had been covered with a slightly unusual extra-thick plywood. Another $75.
The last bit of bad news (so far) is that with the new raised height of the roof the chimney needs to be re-flashed, and that cost another $400; apparently lead is very expensive. So we're looking at around $7,955.00. Here's hoping it doesn't go higher! But unless the beams or joists are bad on the other side of the roof - and they were fine everywhere else so far - the cost shouldn't go any higher.
Here they are putting the new shingles on:
The shingles on the main roof looked very good. I don't know if you can see it, but they're gray and have a pleasing complex look. But the shingles on the porch roof were different. They were long rolls, the full width of the roof, and they were much lighter than the shingles on the main roof. It turns out that they came from different manufacturers. Here are samples of both, with the roll-shingle on top of the main roof (architectural) ones:
The result looks simply weird. Teri didn't like it at all, and I was rather dubious myself. Here's how it looks now that this side (including the porch) are finished:
Weird, huh? The porch roof kind of blends with the siding. Teri hates it. What do you think? Does it look cheap or bad?
A few other notes: it was weird being inside the house while the men were on the roof. The thunder of footsteps was deafening. Sarah (our cat) disappeared for the day. And when I picked up a cup by my nightstand this evening, it was covered with dust.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. The forecasters were talking about thunderstorms, but they haven't had a great record for accuracy lately. If the weather's no good, the roofers will come back on Monday.
