We Finished Shingling

In the interest of saving our sanity, we decided to rent a lift in order to finally finish shingling. We finished this project about a week and a half ago but I am just now getting around to blogging about it.

Let me tell you, this is a project I won't miss. By the by, shingling from the lift greatly improved our shingling speed. A big thanks to my Dad for helping us put the shingles on our roof. He is a apparently a glutton for punishment.

Shingling Progress

We've finished shingling the north side of the house. Now for the south side.

You can still see some mud from our boots up there, but I think we'll let the rain wash that off.

We've also started putting up the 2x6 tongue and groove planks that make up the second floor. I don't have any pictures of that yet so I'll write more about that later.

Shingling

Since we've had all the fun we can stand putting up ice and water membrane, we decided to start shingling as soon as the temperature would allow. But before we could start shingling we needed to do some prep work.

We decided to go with 1x6 cedar fascia and standard drip edge. I spent the extra money to purchase stainless steel ring shank nails for the fascia boards. We could have used galvanized, but I didn't want to risk them eventually corroding and staining the cedar.

We also needed to put up some flashing in any area that could potentially be at risk for a water leak in the future.

The system of shingles we chose comes from the Novik company. It's a company out of Canada. The product is Novislate. It is a polymer panel made to resemble slate tiles. I won't go into to much detail about the panels since the website does a good job of describing the system.

We chose them because they are a good choice for collecting rainwater and they come with a 50 year warranty. A long lasting shingle is important for a roof with a steep pitch like ours. So far they haven't gone on as easy as I thought they would but we are getting the hang of it. One thing I'm a little concerned about is the fact that they tend to scratch easily. Only time will tell if this will be a problem.

We are a little further along than the pictures show, but we didn't snap any pictures the last time we were out.

Mini-Roofing

While we are waiting for some of our shingle supplies to come in, we are working on some "smaller" jobs. One of them is the small section of roof beneath the shed dormer. We wouldn't have to have this roof here, but it makes it so we can run a gutter the total length of the north side. This is what it looked like before.

We started by cutting mini-rafters. I took us a little while to figure out the angle and get the length right. But once we did, my Dad and I didn't have any troubles cutting them with the miter saw.

Next we ripped a piece of 1/2" OSB on the table saw and nailed it on with 16d nails.

And then we covered it with the same ice and water barrier.

I have to say, if you are going to do any roofing - do it from the ground. It's so much easier!

It Happened Again

Thursday was a beautiful day, so we worked on the house wrap for the gable ends. We were able to get the east end completely done. For some reason, the store I bought the wrap from only had red seam tape. So for now our house looks like a candy cane.

Everything went swimmingly. We used 2 inch plastic cap nails to secure it to the OSB.

I'm not sure if they had to be 2 inches long but I was sick of pounding nails that I couldn't fit my fingers behind which was the case for the ice and water barrier on the roof. Speaking of the roof.

As I said, Thursday was a beautiful day. Friday was a different story. Friday we had a blizzard with winds gusting at 60+ mph. I wanted to go check on the house, but by the time I got off work the highways were already pretty dangerous. So ... this happened.

In light of the recent events in Japan, our little bit of destruction is insignificant. While we were picking up scraps of ice and water barrier from our house up to 1/4 mile away, I couldn't help but think about how awful it would be to wonder if your family was still alive.

So, today we cleaned up the ragged edges and began putting it back up. This time we'll use more ... everything. More nails, more wind strips, more nails in the wind strips. It's a good thing I married a woman as stubborn as I am.

We Finished Covering The Roof

Last weekend we finished covering the roof ... finally.

I have the day off tomorrow, and we are going to work on putting the house wrap on the gable ends. One step closer to being truly dried in.

A shameless plug
Each year, this being the third, I participate in a charity called St. Baldrick's Day. We raise money for childhood cancer research. You can read more about it (and donate - hint hint) here. All donations are appreciated.

Back In The Saddle

We fixed the storm damage

And then some.

In the first two photos the seemingly random pieces of lumber on the roof are actually strategically placed roofing protectors - we are calling them 'wind strips'.

The second two photos are the work we got done tonight. We covered the shed dormer on the north side of the house. It goes really fast when you can actually stand on the roof.

We Had A Set Back

We were all fired up to work on our house tonight. When we left the house on Sunday, it looked like this.

Then, a wind storm came through with wind gusting to 60 mph. And tonight it looks like this.

When we pulled up, our hearts sunk into our stomachs. In the grand scheme of things much worse things can happen to a couple. Nothing is broke that can't be fixed. Nonetheless, tonight we cry in our beer.

The Roof III

One cold day whilst I was doing some engineering (more on that later), the sun came out from behind the clouds and shone brightly on our little cottage. Soon after, I heard a sound that now makes me cringe each time I hear it. Drip, drip, drip. The sun was strong enough to melt the snow that was on the roof and it was dripping in between the panels of OSB.

I decided it was time to cover the roof. Not exactly a job I wanted in the middle of winter. Nonetheless, it needs to be done. So I borrowed a harness from work and I bought some roof jacks (sometimes called roof brackets). This is how far we've gotten.

 The shingles we have are a polymer faux slate. They require the entire roof to be covered in ice and water barrier. It's more expensive than regular roofing felt, but it's also more water proof. At first the goings were pretty slow, but I quickly learned that I needed a couple more sets of roof jacks. Once I bought more and mustered up some bravery, things started to speed up a bit. It's still a lot slower than a roof you can stand on, but we'll get it done.

The ice and water barrier needs to be tacked on with roofing nails when the temperature is below 40 degrees. Once the temperatures warm up it will adhere to the OSB.

Odds and [Beam] Ends
The engineering I was talking about had to do with attaching the beams to the concrete walls. I think it is a little overkill, but since we paid an engineer to design our roof I suppose we should probably listen to him.

The beams are clipped to the wall with 1/4" steel brackets that I had made up at the local steel fabricator. There is one on each side of the beam. They are through bolted with 5/8"x7" bolts and bolted to the wall with 5/8" wedge anchors. This "little" job was tedious and I'm glad it's done.

Also, I plumbed in a propane heater to warm our hands and feet.

The Roof II

We have a roof! Toby and his crew did a great job building us a (very) solid roof. I guess this means that I have to get off my duff and get back on the project.

Here are some pictures that my Dad shot during the process. We're grateful for him being able to be there and take pictures for us.

We obviously need to cut some windows in on the second floor. But at this point, I figured it was more important to keep the weather out than to have the holes for the windows ready to go. Next, we'll start putting in the first floor windows and doors.

The Roof

The contractor we hired to put the roof on, Tobias Marman Construction, began work this week. So far they've been great. I would recommend them to any owner-builder that may need some help with framing up their roof.

First they put down some OSB across the beams to give them a platform to work from.

They put in place the gable ends.

Then they got a crane service to come out to lift up the ridge truss.

They fit it into place.

And this is how far they got. Toby said they would likely be out on Monday to hit it hard again.