Well it all started a couple of years ago. I found water dripping from my bathroom ceiling during a heavy rain. Not a bad drip but still...
I waited for the sun to come out and couldn't find an obvious hole in my roof. I bought some Henrys sealer and slathered it in the roof and vent jacks above the leak and waited for the next rain. When that came it was a light rain and no leak so I figured I got it. Next rain came and during the heavy part sure enough the leak was back. After the storm I went and spread more Henrys about the roof.
Again I waited, this time through the Summer. Finally it rained in last Dec and damn it dripped still. This is when I put together my heavy rain theory. Alas and alack in Jan this year I awoke one night to hear drip, .....................drip..............................drip in my bedroom. I got up grabbed a flashlight and looked for the source. drip, I couldn't see one my ceiling was dry. drip, I located the noise from the drip and sure enough water was dripping onto a plastic bag on my table. drip, Somehow it was coming out over the top of the trim at the wall and ceiling, drip, and running down the face to drip off. Maybe one drop every 20 seconds. Drip. I moved the bag and laid out a towel to catch the drops.
Next day I again went on the roof and saw no obvious holes. My neighbor Carl drove by and asked what I was doing and after hearing my story offered 2, 16' x 12' tarps. I went and bought a piece of plywood and cut 2" 8' lengths and then put the tarps on the roof covering a little over half my roof.
Now I'm not a wealthy person by any means and I knew it was going to cost $$$ to get the roof fixed no matter how I did it.
I really wanted to go with a metal roof. I had one company come out for a quote and never heard back from them. I knew I wanted to wait for dry weather and the tarps were doing a great job, no more leaks during the rainy season. It was good because I didn't have to rush into a bad deal.
Then a couple months ago my insurance company, State Farm, sent someone to take pictures of my house. They dropped 4-5 of my neighbors in the last year. I knew nothing good would come from this.
After checking prices and considering my age and infirmities I decided to take the last $20k out of my 401 and do as much of the roof as I could afford.
I called up a local guy who came recommended. He came out and looked around and I liked his manner. His guestimate was under $5k and in a couple of days he came back with a written estimate for $4.9k. I told him we were a go.
He finished up another job and thought he could squeeze my 980sqft job between another.
I contacted a gutter guy and got a quote from him for one-piece gutter and screens which are supposed to be good for redwood duff. Another $1,650. Still all told not the thousands I had dreaded for the whole job.
One sunny day before the roofer was to start I removed the tarps.
The next day the roofer came, new shingles, "Weatherwood", and vent jacks, felt paper were delivered, and tear off started. It didn't go well.
Water damage was all along the ridge.
Here is when it got complicated. Let me see if I can explain;
My house is from around the 40's, the front peaked part was likely a summer cabin and the flat rear added on at some time. We discovered that the roof(from now on I only talk about the peaked roof) was made from 12" tongue and groove 2" thick. The bottom of the t&g opened into the attic space. On top of the t&g was 2x4 with 2" rigid foam insulation, on top of that was 1/2" plywood followed by felt paper and shingles. The attic has no insulation and 2, 12" gable vents. The insulation was almost useless
I bought the house in 1990 and it had sustained some damage during the 89 Loma Prieta Quake and had been repaired to meet VA loan standards. The roofer guesses the roof has been leaking 15-20 years.
Back to construction, inside the roof has a raised ceiling. The joists were nailed to the t&g and there are no rafters. A ridge beam runs along the top of the attic and the top of the t&g rests and are nailed to that. Sheetrock is hung from the joists and to the bottom of the t&g for about 2' to the wall.
The issue was the top 6" of the t&g had water damage and needed to be removed. How without the roof falling in because there were no rafters for support. Mike put the tarps back over the now open ridge while he formed a plan, did another job and come up with another estimate.
I was heartsick, There went all the money I had saved, the last 2 years living mostly without heat in my house because I couldn't afford it. Saving $ for this day, not going on vacations or pleasure drives. Then it rained while the tarp was on and no leaks, WHEW!
Mike the roofer cane back a week or so later with a plan and an estimate, Another 5 grand. What could I do? I had the money for that and I've been poor most of my life so go for it. It needed to be done for the potential resale value, my health, so State Farm wouldn't drop me when they got around to it.
Finally the big day came about 2 weeks ago and the tear off finished.
You can see the 2x4 and the rigid insulation.
It was decided all the old plywood had to go, the dark spots are water damage.
And the insulation and 2x4's
You can see rot all along 1 board of t&g
The center if the house has a dropped ceiling above a hallway and the bathroom. When they opened it up due to rot there was insulation just thrown in there. Plus an old 110v--12v transformer for maybe a doorbell.
Once the t&g was exposed we could see the full extent of the damage. It wasn't pretty.
The ridge beam was determined to be still good, but 6" of the t&g had to be removed. The front was worse than the back.
Mike's plan was to cut off the bad ends, take a 2 x 12 and screw it to the ridge beam. This would support the t&g and it could then be screwed to the support to tie it all together. The house was divided into 4 sections and the plan repeated 4 times.
Here are some of the repair pictures.
We also decided to put R30 fiberglass insulation in the attic with the rigid insulation outside covering the angle portion of the interior ceiling.
This is inside the dropped ceiling over the hallway.
A short movie of the rot...
Eventually the front got done. A 2x4 was run lengthwise to hold the rigid insulation and a new fascia added.
There was some casualties to the sheetrock inside.
Here you can see the lower section is attached to the t&g and the upper where the saw cut is is attached to the joists.
When the back was opened up I got to look inside the bathroom ceiling. Since this was the first place that leaked my theory is the jack around the pipe in the lower of the picture had the rubber seal perish and that allowed water in.....for years. You can see the stain under the pipe.
Now it is insulated!
The following pics show the work done;
Any suspicious spots were coated with copper green. The next day began the rigid insulation on the front and filling in with 2x4 for the plywood and vents cut in the backside.
The plywood was laid down, 20 sheets.....I couldn't help but think of the cartoons when the $$$ were in the characters thought balloons. As the cost was tearing me up.
The felt stuff was laid out until it ran out and more was bought. $$
But it was coming together! The plywood really tied it all together! Not bad for a Sunday half day!
Monday came round and the Weatherwood shingles started going down.
New jacks were put on the vents and they were painted brown.
The vents for the attic were also installed and painted.
Clean up was done and they were paid off! I got to go up and look around.
They even did the roof of my hot water enclosure, which turned out was made from wood paneling....
The next day I went to the paint store and grabbed some brown paint for the fascia and started painting it. When I got to the hot water enclosure I did some rot repair on the fascia.
The roof was almost done! Gutters are next.
I decided with the roofer I would take care of the inside sheetrock repair. I bought a kit with fiber backing. And a 4' ladder.
Starting off with deciding to fix all the cracks and holes I could I presanded, used my dremel tool to notch the cracks, Then patched and plastered and sanded and plastered and even tried to fill the hole around my bedroom ceiling light. Paint will come later!
While the cost is killing me, I am pleased with the job and it had to be done. Lots of nice comments from neighbors. After all I have the crappiest house in the neighborhood. Seriously!
After the gutters I see a lot of painting in my future. What color?
The letter from State Farm came yesterday, demanding my roof be repaired or be canceled.
What do we say to the god of Death? Not today!
