All,
Sunday morning March 30, 2008, a good friend of mine was kind enough to meet me at Piney Grove to take a look at the various roof issues we have. Doug Hyatt, is a roofer out of the Philadelphia Main Line area and is an all around fantastic person. He did not come over to try to sell us anything, I asked him if could just give us his insights on what we have and what we should be looking towards. Below is a (not so brief) overview on our discussions. I will try hard not to interject any of my opinions into this as I am sure we all have our own opinions and we can evaluate his “guidance” with our own experience and opinions in mind.
Overview1. The main roof
A. His first reaction was that the roof is farther gone than I had described to him earlier.
B. He noted that the reason we are getting the degradation and curling on the main roof after only about 20 years +/- is most likely not because of a poor installation. At the time this roof was installed, the industry had started using cedar from “second growth” trees. Many people think of cedar shingles lasting 50 or more years because in earlier years, shingles were cut from old growth trees where the wood was much more stable. Unfortunately the industry learned fairly quickly that this made a big difference in the longevity of the installations. Our shingles are ½” machine cut shingles with a 5 ½” exposure. Apparently the exposure is controlled completely by the spacing and layout of the lathe underneath. The peek of our roof has an “overlapped” shingle as opposed to a cap shingle configuration. He noted that although the overlapped shingle is acceptable practice, he would highly recommend the cap shingles when we plan a new roof.
C. Moving forward, Doug is of the opinion that we can take temporary action to nurse it along at least another year, perhaps even another five years to give us time to truly evaluate all of the needs and priorities we have up against us. The first thing he advised us to do is to get underneath the roof during heavy rains to inspect and identify if and where any moisture might be coming through. He was fairly adamant that we not allow moisture to continue to infiltrate any longer than absolutely necessary. The temporary solutions include sliding pieces of aluminum underneath shingles where gaps are allowing moisture through.
D. As we look toward replacement in our priority listing, he noted that as a positive note, a new roof installation with wood shingles can be done in smaller parts as opposed to having to redo the whole at once. In order to extend the life of a wood shingle roof, the industry has moved to a thicker shingle. Doug’s recommendation is to go with the 5/8” taper cut shingle. The thicker shingle will typically out last the ½” machine cut, however he noted that because the wood is a natural product, there are not longevity warranties. He recommended contacting the Cedar shingle industry association that has great information on the materials available.
E. Jeramie and Neal brought out the sample of the plastic/rubber shingles that look like the cedar shingles and asked what his experience with them was. Doug noted that he has worked with similar products in the past. He has used the version that appears to be slate shingles. His comments on those were that they seem to be a fairly good product with a 50 year warranty; however, they are still fairly new and there is not very much information on their longevity yet. He did note as an example that real slate shingles over time will keep a fairly shiny appearance: When he had viewed a couple of roofs using this type of shingles after a year or two, they looked a bit like the texture of rubber tires. He said that as the roofs he was viewing were some of the earlier installations of the products; it is very possible that the manufacturers have made improvements to the products since. Again we just need to do our homework for this potential option. Doug noted that in order to install the plastic/rubber shingles, they would require that ½” plywood be installed as an underlayment over top of the existing lathe throughout to support them properly. (Note: he stated that ½” plywood is perfectly adequate as the lathe underneath has such close spacing, 5/8” plywood would be unnecessary.) Pricing in the end for this option would likely be a bit more than a wood roof.
2. Gutters:
A. The gutters on the house are galvanized steel. ( I think we all new that.)
B. Although we have some current leaks in the gutters, he cautioned us not to replace these gutters until the roof work is to be done. The gutters use a hanger system that attaches underneath the lower shingles and these hangers should be replaced when the roof work is done. Otherwise we will likely do damage to the lower shingles which will potentially cause other moisture issues.
C. Doug noted that the gutters can be repaired for now using a form of “pitch” (I can’t remember the name he used.)
3. Kitchen roof:
A. Speaks for itself as far as its condition, however, Doug noted that regardless of the appearance, if we do not see any leaks now, it is possible that this will last another year or more while we get a handle on our priorities.
B. He noted that ultimately the only “proper” installation for this low slope roof is metal roofing. However, we can get by as we have so far using the asphalt shingles; however, highly recommended using the self adhering “ice and water shield” underlayment throughout this roof.
C. His opinion is that if we have not experienced any water problems at the interface to the house, the flashing against the house is very likely in good shape and can also likely be reused. He noted to Neal that if necessary a new flashing could be cut in using a masonry blade and the flashing would be folded over and inserted into the notch cut in the masonry. He also noted that as an alternative, the newer caulks/sealants are so good that a flashing could be caulked. I indicated that I was more of the opinion that a caulk joint is very temporary. Doug noted that historically that is correct, however, newer products a very much better than before.
4. Garage Roof
A. These shingles are likely asbestos and very possibly will last for a very long time. There are a couple of pieces of broken or missing and he suggested we look carefully around the place to see if we can find any extras stashed for replacement. He noted that he would be happy to help fit pieces in if we can find them.
B. The gutter at the front of the garage sags to the middle. Just above this point is a fairly major hole in the fascia likely from squirrels getting into the attic space.
I hope this is helpful information and I will post this on our blog for reference as we research our options and discuss how we move forward.
Chip
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