Planning stages: Soffit and fascia and decking, oh my.

I had mentioned earlier about the roofing quote I had received.  That quote was just for tear off of the shingles and felt, and putting fresh felt and drip edge down.  That was the bare minimum, but in actuality, I needed more.

The fascia (the vertical part that comes down from the roof, and the part that the gutter attaches to) and  the soffit (the horizontal part that encloses the eaves) needed some attention.  They are old, the paint is peeling, and as you can see in the one corner, the fascia has started to pull away from the house a bit.  The soffit itself is probably original, and since it has minimal vents, it doesn't allow the attic much ventilation.  It's just thin plywood.  So in addition to the roof, I'm going to replace the fascia and the soffit.  The fascia will get new 1x6 trim, and the plywood soffit will be replaced by vented aluminum soffit.

And now the decking... The decking is the wood that is directly under the shingles.  Back in the 60s, the decking they used was 1x6 or 1x8 boards.  Over the years, they dry and shrink, and leave gaps for water to get through (ostensibly the source of my roof leak).  Some boards have knots that dry and fall out over time.  Either way, it leaves quite a bit of roof surface without a decent place for the roofing nails to attach to.  In the interest of doing this project the best I can, within reason, I decided to replace the old 1x6 and 1x8 decking with 5/8" plywood.  All ~2000 square feet of it.  While I anticipate that being the most physically demanding part of the job (one sheet of 5/8" plywood weighs 80+ pounds), each sheet will cover a large area (32 square feet), so it shouldn't be too bad.

So, the roofing project grows.  Roofing.  And decking.  And fascia.  And soffit.  Essentially, a new house from the top of the stucco line up.

Useless random fact:  The word origin for soffit is from the French soffite or Italian soffitto.  The origin of that word is from the Latin suffixus, meaning "fastened below".  Obviously where we get the English word "suffix". The word fascia is actually the Latin word fascia, meaning "band or doorframe."

Delivery Woes

This post is definitely not a complaint about Menards delivery service.  Considering I only had to pay $69 for them to pick my entire list of roofing materials, 10,000lbs+ worth, and deliver it to my driveway, I'd say it's an excellent deal, even with all the hassles.

Ah, hassles.  It took 3 weeks and a day for everything to get delivered to Menards, so they could deliver to my house.  Not a huge deal, I wasn't in a rush, except being anxious to get started. The soffit was special ordered from one manufacturer, and the shingles were special ordered from another. It was supposed to take 2 weeks and be delivered 5/5, but after checking tracking on 5/4 and seeing that some of my stuff wasn't even at Menards yet, I knew it wouldn't be 5/5.  A call from Menards confirmed it.  They'd be in contact when everything was ready for delivery.

Everything was received at the store by the following Monday, but I never got a call from them. Gave up waiting and called on Wednesday to check, and, oh yeah, we can scheduled delivery for Friday, 5/12.

Thursday (5/11) rolls around, and I get an email about a new special order I had just placed that day.  Except I hadn't been to Menards in a couple days.  It was for 12 pieces (1 box) of 12' soffit panels.  I called Menards, and they said that while I special ordered 2 boxes, only one box was actually delivered.  They started that order to cover the situation, but they had an alternative that had just arrived in store: Boxes of pre-cut 1' and 2' sections of the soffit.  4 panel, 2 vented, 2 solid, white, basically pre-cut versions of what I wanted anyway.  I needed to make sure it would work, and that my soffits weren't actually 2' 1" or something.  I checked and the pre-cut soffit would work just fine.  Preferable, even.  So I called them back on Friday and said to send the boxes of the pre-cut soffit, but the truck had already left.  She said she'd call me later to schedule a separate delivery.

Let's take a break from the soffit for a moment to talk about another issue.  Fascia.  I'd ordered 17 of them.

Obvious damage before the strapping was removed.

1 of them was severely damaged...

Not cool.

and 3 others were slightly damaged.  But that wasn't the main problem.  The main problem was, I'd ordered 6" white smooth aluminum fascia, and received 6" white rustic aluminum fascia.  With a very fakey looking woodgrain.  The receipt said smooth.  The pick sheet from Menards said smooth.  Delivery sheet said smooth. But the barcode (and obviously the product) came up as rustic.

So, Sunday, 5/14 rolls around, I take my delivery paperwork, original receipt, and pictures of the incorrect fascia to Menards.  I'm glad I wasn't in a hurry because it took an hour for them to finally go through enough managers to help me.  We got the fascia squared away (they'd pick up the incorrect fascia and deliver the correct fascia), and I'd save them the hassle of delivering small boxes of the soffit to me, and just pick them up that day.  The guy got it squared away in their delivery system, and handed my original paperwork back to me.  I was standing by a checkout line and pointed to the 12 boxes of soffit in my cart and asked how I'd get through without paying for them.  And without looking like I'm trying to steal them.  He said, "No, it'll be fine."  Riiiight.  So, I take not 10 seconds to walk over to the checkout line, and when I explained the situation, the cashier wasn't buying it.  So, they called over the manager that finally approved everything, and she said it was fine.

The delivery of the correct fascia was uneventful.  The day before that, I got an automated email from Menards saying my second box of 12' soffit was in (that I had already swapped with the boxed soffit).  Guess they never canceled the order.  Oops.

Roof Material Options

We bought our 1964 ranch home in suburban Central Ohio at the end of 2006.  The home inspector estimated that the roof was between 5 and 10 years old at the time.  11 years later, we're looking at between 16 and 21 years old, which about the average lifespan of a traditional asphalt shingle roof.  Not bad.

So, at this point, we knew we were looking at replacement.  We got an estimate from a reputable, local roofing company.  In business since the 1950s, not a huge company, but excellent reviews all around.  Their estimate for removing the existing shingles, putting down felt, and 3-tab shingles, was around $6,500.  At 20 "squares" (1 square = 100 square feet of roof), that's $325 a square.  I'll consider that my high estimate.  Checking Craigslist, I see that a who-knows-who-they-are-roofing-company estimate of $189 a square.  $3780.  I'll consider that my low estimate.

I previously mentioned 3-tab shingles.  These are the traditional, and extremely common, asphalt shingles you see.

It's a shingle with, you guessed it, 3 tabs.  They're your "bottom of the line" shingle for people who don't care what kind of shingle is on their roof.  Nothing wrong with that, it is what it is.

Another option, is an architectural shingle, or dimensional shingle.

These are (with a few exceptions) the same size and shape as 3-tab shingles, but with a few differences.  There are no notches cut out like 3-tab shingles, they're solid across the bottom half. Secondly, they're often laminated, and made from 2 pieces.  This gives them a 3-dimensional look... because they are.  They have higher wind resistance, and a longer warranty than 3-tab shingles, and aren't significantly more expensive.

And finally, we had the option of metal roofing.  On a house?  Not a barn?  Not a commercial building?  Yes, metal roofing isn't just for barns or office buildings anymore.

Metal roofing offers many advantages, and for a long time during my 2+ month internal debate about which product to choose, I was leaning toward metal roofing.  First, it's sold in long pieces that go from the ridge right to the eave.  The pieces are sealed together.  The only way water could get inside is through the screw holes, but those have rubber washers that seal it up.  Metal roofs have better wind resistance, hail resistance, and lifespan than asphalt shingle roofs.  Also, the lighter colors are Energy Star rated, to keep the attic cooler.  Those advantages come at a price, though, and metal roofs are more expensive than asphalt roofs.  The large panels themselves are reasonably priced, but the necessary trim pieces; the valleys, valley cap, ridge cap, gable-end cap, all really add up.

My roof isn't complex, per se, but it's not super-simple.  I've got 2 gable ends, a hip end, and 2 valleys.  When I priced out the metal roof, the trim pieces ended up being about 2/3 of the cost, and the main panels about 1/3.  If I had a super-simple roof, something with just 2 gables, I might very well have gone with the metal roof.

As it is, after much research and internal debate, I chose Owens Corning TruDefinition Duration architectural shingles, in Shasta White.

These, to me, offered the best compromise of features.  I would get the increased wind resistance (110mph vs. 60mph) and warranty (lifetime vs. 20 year) that is common with metal roofs, without the cost and extra detail required for a metal roof.  Also, the Shasta White shingles are Energy Star rated, and should hopefully contribute to a cooler attic.

Intro: The Leak

The whole reason for this blog started one day in an unseasonably wet and warm January, 2017, when a small, Ritz cracker-sized water spot appeared on the ceiling in our bedroom.  My response?  "Huh.  That's not good."  The next day, I turned the light on and it was now the size of a dish.  But not just any dish, it was as big, or bigger than, a large Waffle House platter; the oval kind you get when you order a nice big breakfast.

A not-so-quick trip into the attic (through a hall closet, where five adjustable Rubbermaid shelves have to be removed), and I found the spot.  It's not hard to miss soggy insulation.  Not really being able to see where it was coming from, I got a piece of plywood (to span the joists) and put an old cat litter pan down to catch any more dripping.  I went up the roof, and not seeing anything obvious, laid out a blue tarp over the area, and held it down with landscaping bricks.

Not the best job... read on!

The whole tarp thing actually went through several iterations.  The blue tarp on a grey roof was an eyesore, so I got a larger grey tarp from Harbor Freight.  The grey ones are thicker, more durable, and better at handling UV rays for extended periods.  And grey tarp matches grey roof.  This grey one was larger, and so I used rope to tie it off to several places: plumbing vent stack, furnace chimney, and our fence below.  Still had the landscaping bricks on it though, to keep it down.

An important note on tarping a roof:  Wherever your leak may be on your roof, follow it straight up towards the peak (ridge) of the roof.  Your tarp should overlap that ridge.  If it doesn't, all the water that falls on the roof above where your tarp (and leak) is, will run down the shingles, under the edge of your tarp, and right into the hole you're trying to cover up.

Bett*ER*, but not best.

So, landscaping bricks still on the tarp to keep it down.  That works with light winds, but we had a really windy night, 40+ mph.  We kept hearing *thump* *thump* *thump*.  The wind was getting under the tarp, shifting the landscaping bricks, and causing them to slowly slide down the roof.  That won't do at all...

Next iteration: Same tarp, rocks removed, and 1x2 strapping boards from the local home improvement store.  Nailed them around (and through) the edges of the tarp, and used some roofing cement/caulk to seal around the nail heads and boards.  That, to me, was tough... the first nail holes in the roof.  I was knowingly putting MORE holes in something that I was trying to fix a hole in.

That'll have to do for now.

Being that this was January in Ohio, it wasn't ideal roof workin' season.  So with the leak under control, it was time to do some roof research.