One of the items flagged on the initial inspection of our house was that the roof had to go. We eked another two years out of her, but the company we had received a proposal from had an opening (we had been procrastinating otherwise) so we jumped at the chance. New roof in Portland winter? Crazy? These guys work year round so it’s part of the gig. Besides, it was going to be a two day job and the forecast gave us that window clear.

Step one was to tear the old shingles off. We could have put new shingles on top, but we opted to do he job right, get a good look at the base layer, and replace felting and rotted wood. Good thing for that. The Saturday morning of the tear-off, while we’re sitting on the couch enjoy some warm beverages, we receive a knock on the door. It turns out that one half of the house had not been plywooded and was instead 100+ year old cedar shingles underneath the tar ones. Welcome to having bought a rental property. There had clearly been a patch job or two, but nobody went to the trouble of doing the job 100% right. So there was an extra 25% to the cost. It was an option to leave it, but not when we’re doing the job right. Hopefully that value comes out when we sell down the line.

Anyway, that adds a day to the project. A lot more removal labor and then tacking on new plywood. The weather didn’t give us an extra day. With no roof on the house, the skies open up. The fellows put down weatherproof fabric and tarps, but in the middle of the weeklong string of rainy days, I was awoken to water dripping on my face. Yes, literally right on my face (pic below). Of all the spots on the roof, it leaked directly above where I slept. It turns out that the high winds had caused our sewer line vent to rub through the tarp and create a channel in the tarp that funneled a stream of water right to it. Without flashing, the water poured right down the outside of the pipe to the basement. Apparently our bedroom wall/ceiling touches the pipe on its way, saturated, and then caused that 4am drip. Despite living an hour away and the fact that a storm was howling, the owner of the roofing company came out and remedied it. After the job they also patched the wall.

After another weather delay or two, the job was finally completed and it looks pretty good. I don’t know squat about roofs, but I chose these guys because they really took pride in their work and it was a small/personal operation.

In case you were wondering, the color of our shingles is “Heather.”