After raising and stabilizing inside the roof, and all of that pretty much took a week to complete, we moved outside. First came the stripping of both wood and asphalt shingles, the latter at least 50 years old, the former even older.
Then the endless pounding of leftover nails.
To strengthen and support the old roof Wayne decided to lay 2x4 'sleepers' on end, on top of the old rafters. The nice thing about Wayne's plan is that the sleepers will extend past the old, basically nonexistent, eaves and the house will now have proper eaves which will provide not only more shade but also some definition to an otherwise rectangular design.
An Idaho morning and the once and future sun room, minus the washer and dryer:
As mentioned, nothing is straight or true so we had to do some serious finagling with the sleepers to insure that the plywood would align and seams would fall on the sleepers for nailing. From there, felt paper, fascia, soffit, and, finally, shingles will be laid in pretty much the same way as any other roof.
A little helper (thanks for the photo, Bob!):
Slow work and long days that last into the night:
It's the event of the season. It's a new roof and by the looks of things not a minute too soon. My first thoughts were, "Those shingles look bad, better replace them by the winter." Soon after the first shingle was stripped I decided, "God-a-mighty, this is a disaster."
The first and so far best step was to hire Wayne to run things. He runs the saws at a local recycled timber shop but he's also an ex ranch foreman, an oil field welder, a cowboy, a farmer, and all-around genius. He's a perfectionist and is dedicated to quality work. None of what follows would have happened without him and he is owed a lot more than the money we will pay him.
The supplies arrived, part of the roof was stripped, and we were on our way.
The roof is a damn mess. There isn't a true corner or straight line on it and it rolls and waves like the ocean. The first issue has been severe sagging. To solve this, Wayne devised a way to jack the old rafters up from inside the attic. The only things holding up the roof were old 1x6 supports shot in at suspect angles and various locations. Many of these were cracked and some weren't even connected to any support, just kind of hanging there. Frankly, it's a wonder the whole thing hasn't collapsed. We hauled two giant laminated beams up through a hole we cut in the roof, ran a line, then went across the beam jacking up every rafter that sagged.
There is a false ceiling in the house. The original ceiling is made of lathe and plaster. It, too, was sagging severely--which probably prompted putting up a new ceiling from within to hide it. To stop the sagging we put a third beam across the top of the ceiling rafters, then sucked it up a bit with a jack and nailed new blocks to the old rafters. It didn't raise the old ceiling as much as it will prohibit it from sinking any more.
To be continued.
09 November 2012
First night in the new/old house. The roof is still under construction. There is no insulation. The wood floors are dry and full of splinters. The electricians left several holes in the lathe and plaster walls. The new wood stove is outside waiting to be installed. It's 29 degrees outside and the high tomorrow is supposed to be 34 where I will work on the roof.
I'm sitting on a dusty 50-year-old chair sipping génépy, eating a bowl of stove top popcorn (first meal!), and listening to Yo La Tengo. In total, it couldn't be much better.
