Are you handy?

[BigV]

These rolls are very heavy. They probably weigh 75 pounds. I was very very careful to keep the axis of the roll perpendicular to the slope of the roof. I needed to adjust the position of the roll so that I had a 12 inch overlap. This was a generous overlap, the instructions were for just four inches. If some's good, more's better, eh? Anyway, it made for a narrower exposed surface, 24 inches, and it looked nice. But I had to be careful to start the roll at the right "altitude" and to roll straight so I had even lines. I hesitate to use the word "level". I didn't use a level on this whole project. I have a long level, a four footer, but I didn't trust that I could have a level roof so I didn't bother. I also didn't have enough hands for another tool. I found this to be a problem when I began to cement the rolls down. But I digress.

I don't have the pinch strength to grip this roll and drag it uphill, so I used my foot. I bumped it into place, maybe a little low, then used my toe to ease it up to my mark. Then tack. Roll it out a little. Measure again. Tack a couple of nails again. Roll. Measure. Adjust. Tack. Repeat. Not surprisingly, the roll wanted to roll downhill. I found I had to lift it each time with my toe.

Pic 01: In position to lift the roll with my right foot.

Pic 02: Measuring my 12 inch overlap.

[BigV]

Here is the last roll to cross the valley. This material is pretty rigid. As you can see it does sag a little across the valley, but it doesn't drape like, say, satin.

Pic 01: Across the valley, before trimming and nailing.

Pic 02: The material can have "wrinkles". This is the result of a too long rollout before measuring again and having to make a large adjustment. I found some of these wrinkles on the lower edge like this one and on the upper nailed edge. It was surprisingly difficult to roll out this material straight. Sometimes, I went back and tore out the tacks between the wrinkle and the end and reajusted it without the wrinkle. Sometimes I just nailed the crap out of the bulge, hammering it into submission.

[BigV]

Coming up to the end of the last roll to cross the valley. This was a good stopping point for me.

Pic 01: Makeup!

Pic 02: I'm ready for my close up now!

[BigV]

The weatherman was right on target. Rain. This stuff is as slick as it looks, and I didn't die (!!!) but I don't know how I managed it. Basically, I sat down and scooted everywhere. I was quite wet by the time I was done.

Pic 01: Wet roof.

Pic 02: Lovely wet roof and no safety net.

[BigV]

Eventually, I got all the rolls rolled out and nailed down. They look all straight and purty, don't they? Even the valley looks good.

Pic 01: Wide shot of covered (but unfinished) roof.

Pic 02: Wide shot of functional if wrinkly valley.

[BigV]

So those edge strips I nailed to the roof? Here's where they get to do their job. I've rolled back the installed course and I'm preparing to cement the edge along the rake to the edge strips.

Pic 01: Edge strips.

Pic 02: Asphalt roofing cement.

[BigV]

This stuff is tar. Pitch. Asphalt. Black gold. Texas tea. Movie stars, swimming pools. Wait, sorry, back up. This stuff is really just tar. Goobery gooey **messy** stick tar. I had two grades of this stuff, #11 and #33. Grade #11 is "pourable". I guess. In warmer climes. With patience. Grade #33 is the consistency of old, cold Play-Dough. I mixed the two together and hawked a glob out there and then mashed it flat-ish. I repeated this process for the lower edges of all the strips.

Pic 01: Cementing down the eaves. (bringing in the sheaves, we shall go rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves)

Pic 02: Got to glue down the lower edge of the strip to keep the wind from lifting it up and tearing it off. You can easily see in this picture the residual moisture from where the upper course covered the lower one. This made for a nice guideline as to where to (and where not to) apply the cement.

[BigV]

It was twice as messy and eight times as dangerous and difficult as it looks. I don't think I did this part right.

I believe it is effective, but there's got to be a better way of applying this shit. As I said before, I didn't have enough hands for my tools at the rolling out stage, and adding a big can of tar and a trowel and a hammer and a ragbag of nails and the roll and the tape measure and don't fall off and kill yourself--too much.

But I think I made extra work for myself by not doing it in one pass. Lifting this strip is heavy, a hassle, and frankly, this stuff isn't made to be flexed and hassled this way. It sheds the mineral coating at best, and cracks and tears at worst. Bad idea.

I tried folding it up, and painting the lower surface, folding it up and painting the underside of the lifted layer. I built a little jig to hold up the strip (worthless). I tried reaching over and painting downhill, I tried moving below the strip and lifting it and holding it up with my back as I sat underneath it. This last one was a Bad Idea. I didn't like or need any "help" moving me towards the ground. No thank you.

Pic 01: Middle progress picture of best method. When I was above the valley, the whole strip could be flexed over, held with my ankles/calves, and I could paint/scoot/paint/scoot. Worked ok.

Pic 02: Do you see the straight edges of the courses? Do you see some light brown curving lines? They look like water stains, yes? Those lines are the piles of the mineral coating that flaked off when the strip was curled for cementing. Bad. Imagine a sheet covered with sand. Now lift one side of the sheet. The sand will flow dowhill and you're left with a drift / high water mark of sand. Same thing here.

[BigV]

A couple of small mistakes still visible after all my work.

Pic 01: A wrinkle that I didn't notice or didn't bother to rework. Too bad. It's a feature now. And that black blob? You guessed it. Tar. I **dropped** the trowel at one (only one) point. As it went skidding and cartwheeling toward the gutter, I managed to pin it with my downhill foot. Saved myself a round trip to the grass below, but I did leave a mark on the roof and on my work shoe. There are a couple of small thumbprints on the roof too from my gloved hands, but this one is the most noticeable.

Pic 02: The valley already has a crack in it. I will probably pave it over with some of that good old #33, forsaking form for function. It'll be dry, but highly visible. Maybe I'll sculpt it in the shape of a mole. Or my initials. Or something the squirrels and crows will find amusing.

[yesman065]

WOW _ that looks like a ton of work and waaaay more than I could imagine tackling. Seems like you are doing a good job - congrats!

[Happy Monkey]

Very cool! Too bad about the crack. Otherwise, looks great!

[glatt]

Man, that's a lot of work. I've replaced a few missing shingles here and there, and going up on the roof to do work is a lot like doing work in outer space or under water. The simplest jobs are much more difficult when you are spending so much energy trying to stay alive. Not to mention trying to avoid getting yourself covered in tar.

And you took your camera up there too. Talk about complicating things. Did you take your good camera up there with all that tar splattering around and stuck to your hands, or an old obsolete one?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Buy stepping down the valley with strips, it's not smoothly supporting the overlap and any pressure will cause it to fail(crack). Good thing there are no goats on the roof.

Rather than risking life and limb, send the kids up and supervise from your neighbors upstairs window. Besides, if they fall off, you can make more.

You've got more balls than me, I put scaffold along the whole lower edge.

I'm very handy, got tha' crispy towel to prove it!

[BigV]

Hello friends!

Time to revisit this thread. What you've seen here represents the southern exposure of my roof. But the roof has a nearly identical north side, which I've been able to ignore, and an eastern exposure that can no longer be ignored. Just as sunburned as the old southern side. I have decided to take advantage of the Labor Day weekend and labor on the roof.

I got a late start today due to a combination of procrastination and rain. Finally I got up there and started the semi-tear off. Pictures to follow, I promise. I'm too pooped to offload and upload just now.

This stretch has a similar valley, and it's in shit shape. A couple of places I was able to see into the attic. Fucking fuck. I got 90% of the tear off done then my sister and my mom showed up. I went to dinner with them, then came home to find all of my motivation gone, completely gone!

Tomorrow, *I promise*, I'll finish the tear off, and get the paper nailed down, and the edges "shingled". xoB, I reread your remarks about the difference between nailing down a series of "shingles" versus a single or even two long strips. I think the original recipe that I followed was written for three tab shingles.... That would account for how they described how to reinforce the perimeter of the area to be roofed. I think the goal is to have an extra layer of roofing material around the very perimeter. I don't think it matters if it's shingled ever nine fucking inches. I'm going to cut strips across the long axis of the roll material, giving me 36" "shingles". That will cover the ground a LOT faster, and a lot straighter. I'll still overlap it but I think this will be just as effective and more efficient.

This new section will also need a metal valley. Or not. Shit, I don't know. I might just fill the channel with some rigid expanding foam and then interleave it like before. Otherwise I'm in for a lot of cutting and a lot of fiddly bits on the one side of the valley. Also new on this phase of the project will be the replacement is "hips". Convex sections of the roof that need to be covered. I'll figure this out tomorrow. I'm rapidly running out of gas. See you all tomorrow.