Roofing in the Rain

We had just resumed framing when it started to rain. And it did not stop. It was the wettest week of the year. Framing quickly came to a halt since we didn’t want the wood to get wet. Our progress, however, continued, as we have an endless amount of other things to work on.

The garage doors were one of the top priorities on that list. Sam is designing the structure of the giant doors as well as the operating mechanisms. After catching up on some design work, Sam recruited Aiden again for some welding. Aiden helped make frames for the doors to roll up along and welded them to the steel building columns. The first door is about 12’x14′.

The “big door” is 17’x19′.

Sam and I applied a coat of primer to prevent rust. They will eventually get painted.

We occupied ourselves with some organization and hung string lights, when we received news that the roofers would be coming!

The day before their arrival, a crew came with a crane to load the shingles on the roof. Sam neatly staged the shingles so the crane could reach them all easily.

Unfortanely, it rained a lot the night before the crane came, creating a giant mud pit. The crew was less than pleased with the mud and insisted on parking in the gravel on the opposite side of the building. So, Sam had to relocate the neatly staged pallets, one at a time, driving back and forth in the mud.

The crew put special peak-shaped pallets on the ridge, hoisted a pallet of shingles up, and then re-stacked the shingles onto the new ridge pallet.

The roofers (two brothers) came two days later to shingle the roof. The rain hadn’t let up! Unlike the crane crew, the roofers were unphased by the terrible conditions and got to work. They put the aluminum drip edge on first, which fit nicely over our fascia cladding.

Then they started shingling from the bottom up.

When they got to the chimney, Sam went up in the bucket truck to help with the chimney flashing and support brackets.

After four long days of roofing in the rain, the roofers completed the first half of the roof. They went home for the weekend.

Ironically, it stopped raining when they left. Sam, John, and I resumed framing. We were determined to put up as many gifts as possible while there was a break in the weather. We finished framing around the giant door. Our pile of 20ft long 2×6’s is finally getting low.

The roofers and the rain were back again on Monday morning. They shingled and shingled. Even though it took eight full days to finish, they worked very quickly. We had the rhythm of their nail guns stuck in our heads all week. Bang. Bang-bang-bang-bang. Bang.

Sam gave one of the brothers a ride in the bucket truck to transport the last few bundles of shingles up to the ridge and cupola. He wore the classic “bucket truck smile” the whole time.