Roof Repairs and Shingling

Some of my faithful readers may recall that we had a pretty bad wind storm near our cabin early last September. I posted stories about the damage and our cleanup efforts in October and November of last year. Most of the local contractors, including the guy who has always taken care of our repair needs in the past, were unavailable then to help us out. Everyone was busy doing storm damage repair. Also, the economy has evidently improved, because lots of new house construction was (and is) underway. So, we had to wait until our return this spring/summer to see about repairs. For those of you who may not remember, here is an example of what things looked like after the September storm but also after some of the larger trees had been removed. Note the damaged porch roof.

As it turns out, availability of contractors this June has not improved. So as I looked at the damaged porch roof, and looked at it again, I started thinking, "I could do that!" I'm not very patient. I do like building things, as you know. It would be cheaper to do the work myself. Nothing ventured--nothing gained. Other rationalizations upon request. So, I bit the bullet and began by tearing off all the old shingles. Once that was done, we wondered how to dispose of them. The local lumber yard, where I buy most of our construction and repair materials, pointed us to a local sand and gravel company that accepts construction waste, so that problem was solved.

I made a list of all the materials we needed: sheeting, facia, soffit, drip edge, ice barrier (paper over the sheeting), shingles, and quantities of shingling nails. After the shingles were off, I cut away the broken sheeting, replaced that, and stapled on the ice barrier. Then I installed new facia and soffit and put a new drip edge all around the roof.

Kathie provided yeoman service by sorting out reusable nails. More than that, she made it possible for me to seriously reduce the number of trips up and down the ladder by passing tools up to me, cutting shingles to size, and handing up the shingles as I needed them. Tighe was quite curious about the whole process, but he loved simply hanging out with us (well, mostly Kathie) while we worked. Throwing one of his frisbees from time to time added to his enthusiasm.

I got one side mostly shingled yesterday, but as the sun and temperatures rose, the shingles became soft and were too easily marred by my boots, so I stopped working in the early afternoon.

From the lake side, the ladder reaches the roof easily, but on the woods side of the cabin we had to use the pickup to boost the ladder's reach.

Here I am earlier today reaching the peak with the last rows of shingles.

The view of the lake is great from up there. It was cooler today too, and a nice breeze helped.

I have all but the ridge caps in place, and I'll take an hour tomorrow to finish that off. Then I have to reapply a little stain to the new facia, and we'll be as good as new.

Truth is that I quite enjoyed this project, but I won't likely try anything like it again. My old 71-year-old body has really felt the work, so I'll look for someone younger and more spry next time. And maybe our contractor friend will eventually be available to us again.