August 15 - 27, 2008 Roofing; a really big project

Prior to closing we had a home inspection, which is common before purchasing a house. Our home inspection revealed that the house would need a new roof within one to two years. The home inspection also revealed that there was a mold problem in the attic. The inspector claimed the mold was "inactive". We had a mold remediation company come out after we took possession to get their opinion. These experts told us that mold is never inactive. (There is one reason that I would never hire that home inspector again nor recommend him to anyone.) We asked the mold remediation company for their advice. The first thing needed was more ventilation. The portion of the house that had mold faces north and doesn't get much sun. Without proper ventilation any remediation they did would be wasted. After new vents were installed, we needed to have them come and remove all the mold.

Well! That was a project we didn't anticipate. Since we already knew we'd need a new roof sooner than later. And since we knew that we could get rid of the mold by taking out the effected wood, we decided to have the house re-roofed. Obviously, we couldn't get rid of every piece of effected wood, but taking out the larger pieces felt more reassuring to me. So, after many estimates and scheduling multiples mini-projects, we embarked on our first major project on Friday, August 15th.

First up - vents. It was so strange to me that the home's original builder did not put in adequate ventilation. Air needs to flow in a circular pattern to keep an attic properly ventilated. (I learned so much from this project!) Our attic did not allow for this. We hired a home improvement company that was able to install the vents and do the roof. Then they sub-contracted for new gutters and downspouts. The picture below shows one of the newly installed soffit vents (the dark brown thing). A total of 22 were added. Since we were having the ventilation added, we upgraded the lights in the second-floor bathrooms to be light/fan combinations. The new light/fan exhaust was routed to the soffit vents. (See how projects can snowball?)

Next up, the roof. Definitely the largest part of the project. My mom took some of her vacation time to be with us that week. Here's Addy with her Grammy B. watching the roofing materials get unloaded.

Most roofing jobs I've observed in passing seem to take two to three days. Time is money, isn't it? Well, not to our guys. The first day of the job, Monday, August 18, all they did was deliver the materials. On Tuesday a full crew showed up and we were anxious to see them get going. But, it was slower than any of us expected. I think it drove my mom especially crazy. As the days passed, fewer and fewer guys showed up to do the work. It took them six days to completely finish roofing. And I admit, that does seem to be a very long time in the roofing business. But, pregnant as I was, I couldn't exactly climb on the roof and do the job myself.

During the roofing process the mold remediation company came back and did their thing. From having guys walking around in the attic (it's completely unfinished; just support beams) we got a hole in the hall ceiling and a cracked ceiling in one of the bedrooms. The hole was a good-sized one created when one of the guys' foot slipped off a beam and went straight through the drywall. Yup, projects snowball. At least the home improvement company fixed their mistakes at no charge.

On Wednesday, August 27 the sub-contracted gutter company came out in the rain and installed the new gutters complete with leaf guard and new downspouts. It was a long process, but thankfully (and prayerfully!), we won't have to go through that again for a very, very, very long time.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

[End note: it was only now, in 2011 that I realized that I didn't have any "after" pics. So, if you noticed Isaiah in the first "after" shot, that's why. We've made quite a lot of landscape changes to the front of the house too. :-) ]