dusty, dirty, noisy work

Just as planned, the roofers showed up this morning ready to wreak havoc on our house. A stream of young, strong, non-English speaking gentlemen citizens climbed the ladders and before long, our beautiful shake roof was a thing of the past.

Back side of house before removal

The way this works, as best I could tell, is they pry up the shake AND the tar paper it sits on, roll it up and toss the whole bundle into a huge truck bed. I have a picture of this but for some reason it will not load to the blog. I'll keep trying; maybe it will work on the Air®.

At any rate, here it is, 2 1/2 hours later and they are finished on the roof and are now cleaning up the mess they've created.  It would have been much worse but for the fact that, before anything started, they draped huge tarps over the shrubs, flower beds, patio tiles, etc.  When finished, they would simply have to gather up the tarps and be on their way.

Roof line with shakes peeled back at the ridge line

Back roof stripped of shakes

Garage cleaned of shakes.  Next:  skylights.

Assorted debris

After having a dozen or so guys swarming all over the roof, pulling up shakes and paper, then began the big noise.  What they had to do was fan out over the roof and, working back to front, hammer in about a zillion horseshoe nails than had been holding everything in place.

It sounded as though the whole thing was going to cave in.  Even the neighbors could hear it.  But soon it was all done and the stream of workers returned to their truck and disappeared, leaving behind a bare roof and tidy surroundings.

Right now Dave the Roofer and his sidekick, John are up on the roof repairing worn and rotted spots.  Some new insulation, some new plywood bases, a new flashing around the brick chimney ~ the other one is fine ~ and some adjustment of the flasher around an existing skylight in the master bath.  Tomorrow they'll start on the new skylights and solar tube.  I know there's an inspection somewhere along the line but I'm not sure when. 

All in all it wasn't too bad but, I know, I know, they've just begun.