Seriously, it feels like a miracle.
The roof was reaching end of life and had a small problem that we knew about, but wasn't leaking anywhere, so we were cautiously optimistic that it might go smoothly.
The thing we knew about was the fact that Mr. Bunkport's roofer hadn't done the most thorough job joining the new roof to the existing roof during the 2014 project. Looking at the pictures our roofer took before starting, it's uglier than we thought, but still not leaking four years later -- he gets credit for that:
Also, this little vertical wall wasn't really done well in the first place -- it was just sort of a mass of shingles layered on top of each other:
There turned out to be three things we didn't know about.
First, we didn't know that there was loose tar paper left flapping in the wind under the flashing on this small vertical wall:
Not a problem, per se, but a little annoying.
Second, there turned out to be dry rot in this one board on another short vertical wall:
Easy replacement.
Third, after the crew had removed the old roof, they found that the plywood underneath wasn't properly nailed down -- it was sort of 'tacked down,' with fewer nails per foot than it should have had. If a strong wind had somehow gotten under one of the sheets of plywood, it could have pulled up a whole section of roof.
Thankfully, also an easy fix.
Day One
Everything went smoothly, and very fast. The crew arrived at 8:15 am on Monday, and immediately started tearing everything off. It was loud, and the whole house shook all day.
Everything went into this "small" dump truck:
Unfortunately, this small dump truck was large enough to accidentally knock over the 30-foot tree in front of the neighbor's house (the tree technically belongs to the city). The tree trunk leaned out over the street, and as it turned out, the tree's roots were rotten. The top of the truck caught the leaning part of the trunk while backing up, and the tree broke off at soil line. It was very dramatic.
Back up on the roof, installation began quickly.
There was no ventilation in the attic (which affects the life span of the roof). After nailing down the plywood properly, they installed four air intake vents, and this ridge vent:
Midday, materials arrived on a truck with a crane attached:
At the end of day one, they had already gotten this far:
Day Two
Work began again promptly at 8:15 am. The main part of the crew got right to work on the roof.
As you can see, the air quality from the fires was a bit worse on Tuesday:
The masks they wear on the job also keep the particulates in the air out, so it was not a problem for the work to continue.
While the crew worked on the roof, the project lead came into the house to start installing the long-awaited sun tunnels (generously given to us by Neighbor Jonny! Thank you, Jon!)
A sun tunnel is like a small skylight -- it has a clear bulb on the roof side that connects via a highly reflective metal tube to a light-scattering lens on the ceiling side.
I've been dying to get these installed in our dark dining room ever since our Realtor suggested it when we bought the house in 2011.
First step, cover everything with tarps and plastic, and cover the entrance to the dining room to keep the dust from the ceiling cuts out.
Skipping ahead, you can see what a difference they make in there:
The ceiling cuts were a little nerve-wracking for both us and the project lead, who is an experienced builder. This is because our ceiling is made of lath and plaster. Cutting a round hole in a piece of sheet rock is easy. Cutting a round hole in lath and plaster is difficult and unpredictable -- depending on the quality of the original plaster and how well it's held together over the decades, there is a chance of cracks spidering out across the ceiling. Or worse, large chunks of the ceiling could come down.
The roofer's official recommendation was to bring in a contractor experienced with lath and plaster to make the cuts, instead of having his crew do it. Rather than play it safe and add a whole other set of logistics to coordinate (and increase the cost off the bat), I decided to take the odds that the damage could be minimal enough that I could fix it myself. Worst case scenario, I would just get someone in to fix the damage afterwards, on my own timeline. So I signed off that I would assume the risk of damage, and take care of whatever finishing work would be needed.
As it turned out, the original plasterer did a very good job. The first hole created a hairline crack, and lost a few chunks around the edges. The second lost a bit more plaster, but nothing catastrophic. In fact, I was indeed able to repair the damage.
Here is the progression of the first installation:
And my repairs:
Here is the progression of the second one:
And my repairs:
I'm pretty happy with how the repairs turned out. My attempts to match the texture of the ceiling turned out better than I expected, too. I'm very happy to have taken those odds.
Here's a before and after of the dining room:
They make such a big difference.
Back up on the roof, the crew finished, cleaned up, and cleared out by the end of Day Two. Some photos of the finished project:
A view of the top of the sun tunnel, and the project lead who installed it:
The short vertical wall that had had the loose tar paper:
Vents and the bathroom exhaust, primed and painted:
The new board:
I still can't get over how fast and smoothly this whole thing went. And, with a 25-year warranty on the installation, we won't have to think about it again for a long time.
In other news, I just wanted to share this snapshot of life in a smokey city:
