Flash and Goop

More fun on the roof this afternoon. It rained against yesterday -- another 1 1/2 inches in my rain gauge pot, even with the dog taking a drink out of it (she thinks I keep it there for her convenience). Plus, downtown San Francisco flooded, with the subway full of water and ground floor shops having to close and everything. Very dramatic, though of course it was less dramatic here, because the one big roof repair Noel did over the weekend helpd up perfectly, and for the first time ever, the attic was nice and dry after a heavy rainfall.

Today he made another foray, to deal with the last little seam of the part of the roof that's over living space.

This is a little section of hip roof returning towards the front of the house. At the top where Noel is scraping away at the old tar is that crazy big hole.

While Noel scraped away at the tar, I checked out some other things on the roof. Like how all the old wooden shingles peeking out from under the asphalt shingles have moss growing on them.

And this is the part Noel didn't do today: the crack along the sides of the side porch roof. It's not actually leaking all that much, and it just leaks down onto the side porch. So far, not a huge issue. I say that so that when we uncover it in a couple years I can kick myself for being so blithe.

But the best discovery, the one that made my day, was that not only are the shingles on the bay on sideways, but somebody at some point came up there and tried caulking it (you can see the little stripes of caulk between the flaps of the shingles). Because, you know, that was effective. I'm halfway surprised nobody tried putting a layer of concrete or fake wood paneling over it, but we haven't seen what's under the shingles yet.

Yeah. So one of the things Noel cleaned out there was this enormous hole (not the one at the top, this is another one). This is where the majority of the water from this part of the roof was getting in, and this, combined with its twin on the other side of a quoin coming down from the second-story roof, was the cause of all the water damage in the downstairs hall and on the north side of the dining room (one of the walls we're planning to de-plaster this weekend).

How big a hole is it? Here it is from the inside:

And that's only the half that isn't behind the bathroom wall. Duuuuuude. Fortunately, it turned out to be an easy hole to patch up, with some foam back rod stuffed in the gap and a decent layer of goo over the top, it was as good as gone.

At the big hole at the top of the roof, Noel fitted in some flashing to cover the big gap, then the same routine.

A little fun with the can of sealant...

...and we're tight and ready for the next rain. (Well, apart from getting to reshingling the bay, of course. I still think we should rent some scaffolding to do that, for safety's sake. Noel thinks we can do it from a ladder.)

Technorati Tags: flooding, rain, renovation horrors, renovations, roof, stupid, water, waterproofing

posted by ayse on 10/20/09