After living with roof that leaked during EVERY rain storm for the past year, we have a new roof- and it’s water tight with R-9 insulation value!
The re-roofing has been a 4 day process. On day one, Abril‘s team arrived at 8:30am on the dot and got straight to work. About 4 men of the 6-or so person team went straight up to the roof to start removing the gravel and old fashing. Another 2 guys (including Al, who was the day’s project manager) came into the house and started taping plastic to our ceilings to collect any dirt and debris that seeps in:
Believe me- dirt seeps in… see:
They were very thorough- even getting plastic up in the closets. Unfortunately, the tape didn’t hold very well- by the time we woke up the next morning, about 1/4 of the plastic had fallen. Not a big deal however, because when it finally came off the next day, Andy did a good job at cleaning up. My guess is that Abril’s team would have come in and done the same, but I going a little nuts having plastic everywhere so Andy took the initiative to take it down. He’s a good husband.
After the taping, the whole team focused on the top of the roof and removing the gravel. They used a giant vacuum cleaner that was connected to a dump truck.
It was loud- like they were running a lawn mower on the roof. That commotion is what created all of the dirt in the house- and even loosened a light fixture in the office (probably my fault for not attaching it tightly after water seeped into it during the last rain storm).
They added new 4″ flashing (8″ in the atrium)- which is primed gray (we’ll most likely paint it white with the rest of the trim):
Finally, they added a black primer to help the foam adhere to what was left of our roof (tongue and groove wood, tar, a little gravel):
Notice they left the satellite dish up there as long as they could so we could continue to watch tv through the whole process except the middle of day 2! They also dug up quite a bit of the old tar, as you can see in the foreground of this picture- in some spots they dug down to the wood ceiling.
On day 2, Abril’s team arrived again at 8:30 on the dot. We had a new project manager, Jose. Jose was the lead foam applier, as you can see by his shoes (he says they’re his foam shoes- I’m glad all his shoes don’t look like that). I took this on their well deserved lunch break (and my lunch break).
Before they got to spraying the foam however, they finished up flashing (Andy decided to extend some fascia he added during the roof extension after he got home from work on roofing day 1- so they just had that small area to finish up), disconnected our 7 down spouts and added new flashing on top of the roof for them. We decided to have them enlarge the down spouts on the recommendation of Kevin Sullivan, our favorite contractor. They also removed the skylight in our hall bathroom and built up the base a bit so the new sky light will sit well above the foam. Then they started spraying on the foam:
They were very diligent about protecting everything around- our gate and mailbox, our lawn furniture, every car in a 3-house radius, the entire atrium etc. Luckily there was very little wind so there were no accidental over sprays that we’re aware of.
On day 3 the team added sealant and granules to the foam roof, and replaced the 6 existing 2″ down spouts with new bigger 3″ ones and added a 7th down spout, all to help aid drainage:
Before we reveal the new roof, here’s what the old tar and gravel roof looked like before:
(sorry, we don’t have a good wide angle shot)
And here she is now.:
Isn’t she beautiful, like a pristine snowfall in the Sierras?
(On day 4 they replaced the bathroom skylight which you can see in the photo above- the one they had on day 3 was the wrong size).
The best part? It’s currently 91 degrees outside and only 77 degrees inside! Not bad for a house with tons of giant single pane windows and no insulation in the walls (last summer it would have been about 98 degrees inside if it were 91 outside). We’re in looooooove and can’t wait for the next downpour!