work with and seem to have done a good job, finishing in one day.
(Sort of makes me nervous, though, that I was originally told they'd
take 2 1/2 days!) At one point, I saw 6 people on the roof. The
weather held and the roof is all done before the house is repainted
next week but I still have some reservations.
One issue is solved at least:
I was really bummed yesterday to see the beautiful new roof with
ugly, dented, tar-smeared stacks poking up out of it. I DON'T think
the stacks were dented before but who knows. On the old roof, the
bases of the vents were covered with roofing tar and roofing granules.
Today spouse woke me up at 7:30 am to tell me the roofers were here -
again! When I staggered outside, they asked if I wanted the bases of
the roof vents painted white or silver to hide the sticky tar and
dents. I chose silver and they returned shortly and spray painted
the bottom of the vents and wood stove chimney. Now instead of
standing out like sore thumbs, the vents blend in nicely. You can
only see the dents with binoculars.
I'm still not completely happy about the ridge vent:
The impetus for the ventilation came entirely from me. A week or so
ago when I read that the Dupont roof liner is a vapor barrier and the
attic space underneath would need ventilating to prevent moisture
problems, I put in a question to the roofer about that but heard
nothing back. The morning of the reroof, I asked again and now he's
agreeing to the need for more ventilation on our over 50 year old,
government built home to protect the warranty on the roofing
materials. He suggests gable vents but I tell him how difficult it
is to get contractors out in Los Alamos and then he suggests a ridge
vent.
Naturally, the idea of cutting a slot on each side of the roof ridge
made me want to throw up then and there. Roofs aren't supposed to
have holes in them and we knew beans about the technology behind the
ridge vent he was proposing. Late last night, the roofer's wife sent
us a link to the product used - Owens Corning VentSure Rigid Roll
Ridge Vents with Moisture Protector Barrier. This helped a lot in
our understanding because spouse really wanted to know how the ridge
vent would keep out driving rain and snow.
There are some minor issues with the installation of the ridge vent
that I'm trying to understand, though:
On the north side of the house, the ridge vent appears to stop
(viewed from the ground) about a foot short of the wood stove chimney
(chimney is NOT on the ridge). In addition, the end of the ridge
vent looks to be more than a yard back from the eave overhang. When
I look in the attic space, though, it looks like the actual slot was
cut up to only 4 or so inches from the chimney but since the ridge
vent stops a foot or so behind the chimney, that means a foot or less
section of the ridge vent slot-cut is only protected by the roofing
liner and ridge shingles, sans the VentSure Ridge Vent.
Then, the other odd thing is that on the south side, the ridge vent
abruptly stops about 4-6" from the edge of the eave overhang. There
is no room for transition of the ridge shingles to blend it in so it
looks like there is a missing shingle. This doesn't seem important
since the "missing shingle" is on top of the eave overhang.
Lastly, it irks me that the roofing owner did not check in on the
crew more often yesterday and didn't even stop by at the end of the
day to take a final look at the roof. Today he came out and I paid
him big bucks for the final payment but he only inspected the roof
from the ground. He seems loath to walk on it. Maybe it's because
he is a big man and in the warm afternoon with heating of the
shingles, he's afraid he would damage it. It seems to me that if you
are a roofer, you should be willing and able to go up on the roof!
He offered to fix the ridge vent on the north end but I need to
research it more and get back to him. I don't want the cut extended
any further but extending the VentSure ridge vent to the end of the
cut seems prudent. He'll be out of town next week. The labor
warranty on the roof is 7 years. I guess I can put a pan in the
attic underneath the unprotected ridge vent slot and check it after a
big rain! I need to have someone unbiased look in the attic to tell
me if I need to have him extend the ridge vent cover - maybe the
county building inspector? Maybe I can ask him to send his crew out
again and he could come too to take a look? But not tomorrow - I
want to sleep until 8 am!
To put things in perspective - our 84 year old next door neighbor was
helicopter-ed to St. Vincent's today. Her spinal osteoporosis is
pinching a nerve. She's in terrible pain and may need surgery. Her
husband is very worried.