Roofing - Day . . .WTF?!?!
Last year we had a couple of roofing places come out and give us bids on the roof. I thought they were all too high, so I decided to do the work myself. In retrospect, that probably would have been a good idea.
Instead, I decided to hire someone to help me do the work. And for 95% of the roof, it went really well. This is the story of the other 5%.
Roofing a house is something that probably anyone can do, but that needs to be done right. To make a long story short, everything that I thought should be done one way should have been done that way.
Nailing the shingles
When the guy started off, he started nailing the shingles down with 6 nails. When I pointed out that the installation instructions said that you only needed to use 4, I was told, "You're the boss." Part of the reason I did this was so I would not have to buy another carton of nails, but this issue turned out to be the least of my problems.
Shingling the cricket
Where the downslope of a roof meets the chimney, there is a triangular structure called a "cricket" meant to divert water around the side. The book that I got from the library indicated that this structure should be shingled first. When I said this, I was told that it could be done later and I had nothing to worry about because I had used a special waterproof underlayment. He actually forgot to shingle the cricket, so I did it myself. The guy who came to look at the roof told me that the job I did looked good except for the fact that it should have been done first.
Shingling around the vents The only vent which the fix-it guy said was done right was the one done by my friend. The other ones (for the plumbing and bath fan) will have to be redone because water can go right under the shingles.
Flashing
Where one roof meets the sidewall, you need to install flashing to guide the water away from the wall and off the roof. I had removed the flashing to better clean the old shingles away from the wall and redo the work cleanly. Again, the guy did not install the flashing and told me the water barrier I had would be enough.
What I Learned
Anytime you hear the words "Don't worry, we'll black jack the shit out of it," fire that person.
Fixing the Damage
The man who came to my house in the rain and pointed out the mistakes will fix them for $100. And, we're done.
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