Roofing

In the old days they would have neighbors come together for a barn raising. Well a couple of weeks ago our neighbors came together to replace the roof of our neighbors home. I had a bit of responsibility to help things come together, which can be a bit of a problem. We let folks know about the roofing project, and when to meet on Sunday, but I didn’t send out any reminders the day before. The weather looked a bit sketchy as well, but in talking with the owner we decided we should go for it.

I got over there at the determined time, and I was the first one there. We got right to work, and I had one neighbor show up, and my son came over on his bike to help out. After about 20 minutes with no one else showing up I made a phone call to a friend that I knew couldn’t come personally, but I hoped he could call some people for me. He was in a position to do that, and within 10 minutes or so the guys started showing up. My other son managed to get over and help out for a little while after he finished up at his work.

We had at lest 15 people show up for some period of time that Friday evening, and we worked till dark before calling it a night, and planning to come back in the morning to get going again. I was the first one there in the morning again. We got right to work. With the light we could see that there was some damage to the lumber on the facia, and some of the planks making up the actual roof were going to need to be replaced as well.

We pulled off the gutter where we needed to replace boards, and started tearing off the old roofing on the front side of the roof. We had only just started working on that side the night before. It didn’t take long for guys to start showing up in the morning, and I had both of my older boys on Saturday. The roof had 3 layers of shingles, and the oldest layer was probably 65 years old. There were nails everywhere, and we were having to shovel the whole thing.

We worked as hard and fast as we could, and everything went as well as could be expected. I had a couple of great guys there helping that were able to handle the repairs to the boards while I started laying shingles on the other side. We cut in a ridge vent, and replaced the pipe jacks. All in all we did a respectable job. I’m not sure we could use it to get hired to work professionally, but for a good old fashioned barn raising we did pretty good.

I haven’t been doing as much physical labor these days, so I was feeling it a bit to be up there working so hard. I did alright though. My neighbor called and said it was a 4 ibuprofen day for him. I’m not a big fan of medicine, and I think I was probably feeling a bit better, so I didn’t take anything.

It was a great time working with my neighbors. Many of them had talents I wasn’t aware of. We joked and played together. It’s probably as good a way to spend time together as I can think. Life is great.