Roof Update #3 (Saturday)

So, we have the old roof torn off and moved into the dumpster by 1pm on Saturday. Moving the rubbish pile took about 5 hours and countless wheelbarrow loads.

We are now about mid-way through this endurance race against the winter rains. According to the forecast the rain was going to start Monday evening (and not stop until May of 2010, this is Seattle after all). This gave a little bit of extra motivation, because I would have a huge mess on my hands if it started raining in the middle of the job.

Right about the time the rubbish is all cleaned up, Bob shows up to start installing the new materials to the garage structure. Also, a few other friends came over to show off their carpentry skills:

The crew

The first step in the process of installing a new roof was to lay the foundation. Because the old roof was originally cedar shingles the roofing support structure was composed of lath or rib type boards. Modern roofs use CDX (plywood) or OSB (chip board) as the support structure.

So, we had to cut CDX panels to fit the stud spacing just right. The idea is to make sure that you drive all of your galvanized 8 penny nails through the CDX sheet and into the studs. This creates a very stiff sub-structure to lay the roofing materials on. Unfortunately nothing about these old buildings is straight, so we ended up making some pretty crazy cuts to get the panels to fit.

Here you can see how we install the CDX to the old structure

This process of installing the sheeting took us approximately 6 hours to finish. As it started to get dark, Bob installed the 30lb felt paper onto the roof using a tack nailer (like a hammer and a stapler combined). It has been a long and laborious day, time to enjoy a delicious cold beer from the cooler.

Bob installs the felt paper at the end of a long Saturday