He wants some sort of flashing at the windows. They sell this stuff at all the big box stores. It should look like this when done (bottom first, then sides, then top, overlapping each time).

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ojHx29lMM6...0/P1010407.jpg

For the decking he's probably interested in the nail pattern, and maybe edge support. Plywood typically gets nailed 8 inches on center on the seams, and 12 inches on center in the middle. You can always do more to make him happy. Nails are cheap. Tell him you used ring shank, even if you didn't.

Edge support means little metal H-clips in between the joists or rafters. You may not need them, but again they're cheap and will make him happy. (You don't need a whole case, that's just the first relevant thing that popped up when I asked google for a link).

Oh yeah, you should also tape any seams of the house wrap. You're going to be really hating life after spending $15 for a roll of freakin' tape, but it's supposed to be done, and that's what they charge for the right tape.

Thanks zikzak.

I was driving home today and I stopped to look at a house that had just been wrapped. I noticed that butyl tape stuff for the windows. I'm glad you gave me the link because I didn't know what it was. Thanks for the links!

Yeah, I figured as much about the decking and I've got a bunch of h-clips left over from when I did my garage. I thought the same thing, just overdo it so he can't find a reason to gripe.

In other news, this fell off my house last night. It's a piece of rafter.

I really like doing this sort of thing, but I agonize over the littlest things.

The hardie specs say to use 16ga 2" finish nails for the fascia and trim. I couldn't find these anywhere so I finally googled it and HD and Lowe's sell them, but only for a finish nailer. Don't really want to buy a finish nailer so I figured I'd just get a box and bust them up and use a hammer. But, sheesh, those are tiny little nails. I can't see how they could possibly hold this stuff up. I ended up buying some 6d 2" nails and even those seem tiny. I dunno. And, they say to nail the siding with roofing nails. That doesn't seem right to me either but I'm going with it.

Then, I drove around and looked at roofs in the neighborhood. When I was young, we put down valley metal in the valleys and shingled on each side and cut about a 4inch path for the water to run. But, apparently, nobody does this any more. They lay one side over the other and cut the shingles on the high side so the water just goes down a shingle valley. So I went online to see how they do this and they showed some sort of water barrier stuff they put down in the valley first. I got some of this stuff. http://www.owenscorning.com/roofing/...-self-sealing/ Not sure if I'm doing it right.

also, here's everything I bought today (hope I'm better at roofing than taking pictures)

I started this blog in H&F. Sort of related to both. I decided to not do deadlifts this week so I wouldn't risk hurting my back before I got started with this. I got everything lined up for tomorrow - jackhammer to bust up the porch. Dumpster for the old shingles. I'm ready to go. So, I'm doing light dumbbell curls because I can't not go to the gym. Bent over to pick one up and pop goes the back.

This week/weekend will not be fun.

Got an email from someone at the city.

"We were able to sign off for floodplain on the life safety permit for the garage on Tuesday. "

Not sure where it goes from there, but at least I know they are doing stuff.

I'm pretty sure the ice and water shield isn't required in your climate anywhere except the valleys. It's a bigger issue up here in Yankee land on the eaves and stuff.

You also don't need cut the shingles at all if you don't want to. It's purely an aesthetic thing. Personally, I think they look better feathered.
http://rpm.rcabc.org/images/0/04/7.1.5.3.jpg

Can I just put valley metal underneath? I already have some and I'd like to take that expensive ice shield stuff back.

This was waaaaaayyyyyy harder than I thought it would be. That concrete is about 6 inches and it just doesn't want to break. I think the part by the door will be easier.

I got this far and my body just said no. Any more and I'm sure my back goes out. I used to be able to do this all day but no more I guess.

My plan was to bust it up today and get some labor tomorrow to help tear off the roof and toss this concrete away. I really didn't want to pay for two days for the jackhammer. Oh well. I'll have a laborer do the rest and I'll just pay for another day.

At least I look like I put in a days work.

The good news is, I started tearing off the roof to see how hard it will be. Looks like it will come off pretty easily.

City update.

"I made of copy of the application and plot plan for a the life/safety permit for the garage. The application has been approved, and it will be in the permit center tomorrow morning.

You will need to pay for a life safety permit and call for the inspection.

Sorry for the confusion. "

I'm enjoying your blog! Obviously follow code, but I would ALWAYS spend more on keeping water out. The Ice and Water is amazing in that it makes up for little mistakes made on the outer part of the roof by sealing up the nail holes in the flashing, as well as helping with other flaws. (If you haven't opened it up, it's very gummy on one side.) The underlayment is an important part of the system, especially if you have lots of cuts in your roof. GL

I like the interlaced roof better also, it hides that shiny flashing and looks better from the ground.

Dumpster guy just came. He said he can't take all that concrete because it is too heavy. He said he'd take half. I guess I'll just have a pile in the front yard until it's time to get another dumpster for the old siding.

I broke up a smaller porch once and I just put a few pieces in the regular trash every week. Probably gonna do this too.

Yes, but what tyler said, too. Self-healing underlayment is pretty awesome.

Today I decided to get a couple of laborers to finish busting up the porch and take the roof off.

The city has a day labor facility that you just drive into, tell them what you need, and they send out some guys.

The first guy that got in looked older than me. I'm pretty old. Turns out he was 60. The second guy was much younger and spoke English (first guy didn't). The young guy said "hey man, let me get my friend - this guy is too old". So, I told the young guy to tell him that he would have to be able to run a jackhammer and work on a roof. "Si, Si" the old guy said. The young guy wasn't buying it and I wasn't really either. Then the guy that was in charge of the place came out and said nobody has ever complained about him so I let him stay.

We got to the house and the young guy immediately went for the jackhammer. The old guy started picking up pieces and putting them in the dumpster. After a while the young guy started getting tired and we told the old guy he would need to do some jackhammering. "no, no" he said. He never even tried. The young guy got it all busted up after about 4 hours. Having done this already, I know this will kick one's ass. He looked pretty spent.

We went to lunch and I got the young guy to tell the old guy we would be up on the roof and it would be hot and was he SURE he could do it. "Si si". So, we started taking off shingles and it was indeed hot. I know we were over 100 degrees today. After about an hour the old guy went down the ladder, which was fine. I told them to take a break any time. After about 30 minutes I needed some water so I went down. I looked around for the old guy and he was nowhere to be seen. I have no idea where he went.

Back on the roof, the young guy and I continued working and after another 1/2 hour or so, the old guy showed up again. He told the young guy in spanish that it was too hot on the roof so he wasn't going to work any more.

The young guy and I worked a couple more hours. We were both pretty spent.

Of course, we didn't get everything done that I wanted to get done. We did get the porch busted up, but we didn't even get 1/2 the roof off.

I docked the old guy and gave the young guy that money. That jackhammer **** is hard.

Some pics coming

Here's my laborers and the finally busted up porch. I'm not exactly sure what that concrete footer thing is but I'm leaving it as a water barrier.





Here's the partially torn off roof.



We got lazy and stopped tossing shingles in the dumpster and just shoved them off the roof.

OK, check out this wonderful decking job. This seam runs all the way from top to bottom. There's another seam just like it about 10 feet away. Not sure what the other side looks like. It actually looks worse than this picture.

I'm debating whether or not to cut some of this out and replace it with plywood. Like in a pattern so there isn't a single seam. I mean, it's probably fine but it just bugs me. What say the experts?

Some roof sag but I guess you can't tell from the pic.

OK, here's some expert carpentry work. Notice the new little deck boards. One end is nailed to the end rafter but the other end is just nailed to a 2x6 which is just nailed to the rest of the decking. Here's a pic from the top and the bottom.

Ha, wow, how is that barge rafter even staying up? That's crazy. I'd say don't worry about the wrong-but-not-terrible seams all lining up and focus the effort on cutting in some lookout rafters before the next wind storm blows that into the neighbor's yard.

I was kinda rooting for the old man laborer. Am disappoint.

So, the guy that worked so hard yesterday assured me he would be at the day labor place this morning. Only he wasn't. I forgot to mention that he told me yesterday he had paranoid schizophrenia. Anyways, I go in and tell the guys sitting there what kind of work it was going to be. About half raised their hands. One guy was sort of like Horschack and actually kind of looked like him too. Some really big black guy seemed eager so I picked him and another black guy. But the guy running the show told me they didn't get along and wouldn't work together. So, I picked the second one (not sure why). The second one told me to pick this older looking black guy but I was obviously a little gunshy about the old guys. But both of them said he would work.

Neither one was a ball of fire, but they did both work steady the whole day. Overally I was happy with them.

My goal was to get the roof completely taken off and dried in (do they still say that?) and everything cleaned up. I found a little more decking to be replaced than I expected and it took pretty much all day just to get the old roof off so we didn't put any felt on. Oh well, everything always takes longer than you think.

Some pics and some questions coming.

Random pics

Side of the house after tearing stuff up.



Some roof rot



More roof rot





Hope the posssums don't find this.

OK, this seam is worse than expected.

The pics don't do it justice, but to the right of the seam the roof is sagging, making the boards on the seam pop up. It's pretty bad really. I'm going to take this section out (to the left and right of the seam) and hopefully I can try to support that sagging rafter some. Then, I'm going to put plywood over it.

Here's an unexpected problem. It appears as if they completely sided the house before putting the roof structure on.

The rafters are all notched. However, the notch goes not only over the top plate, but over the top row of siding. I don't know what to do with this. I can try to pry out that siding but I'm not sure if it will come out.

I also thought that maybe, just maybe, I can cover this with soffit but it might be too low. I dunno.

HELP!

My next framing question is how to add soffit and fascia to the ends of the house.

My thought is to make a long box out of 2x4s. Sheesh, I can't describe it, I'm going to try to draw it.

Something like this:

Then, just nail it to the wall studs and the decking? I dunno.

You can add some bracing in the rafters for very soft spots. If you get in the attic, you can usually see the flaws in the construction and can sometimes shore those up.

One other thing, use the best caulk that you can buy, it will pay for itself in the end. Those cases that they sell cheap are not really a good deal in the long run. The expensive silicone types (like GE II) tend not to dry out.