New York Renovator

It’s all Hurricane Irene’s fault. And Hurricane Lee’s fault.

During the torrential rains, my son reported dirty brown dripping water coming from the attic hatch located in his room.

GRRRREEEEEAAAATTTT.

I hate roof leaks. It means going into The Attic (insert creepy organ music) and scuffling around the giant fluffs of dirty cellulose insulation and suffocating bat dung. *groan*

Well, we didn’t have to go far into The Attic (insert creepy organ music). As soon as we popped the hatch, we saw that the chimney was crying wet. Most likely, the flashing. Which meant that the husband would have to go clambering atop the roof to see what was up.

Our roof is scary. It’s steeply pitched and it’s a long drop down. I always freak out when he goes up there. What I want to do is run away to the store or the movies where I can not think about him being up there. What I wind up doing is balancing the ladder and biting my nails as he skitters across the shingles. He’s never fallen– never even slipped (as far as I know), but he did lose grip of a Shop Vac one time…. oh, that was an event to remember. We laid that poor thing to rest. We didn’t go so far as to get it one of those fancy memorial plaques or corporate signs anything, but it was tough watching $150 plummet to the ground into a gazillion smithereens, lol.

Anyway, yesterday, he went up to see what’s up with the flashing. Our roof is 15 years old so I can’t say we were very optimistic. The shingles are, surprisingly, in very good shape for their age. The flashing…. not. The husband reported that it appears that the roofers had “cobbed” together bits and pieces of aluminum, stuffed them beside the chimney and slathered them with caulk (which has since eroded). That probably explains the water damage in the son’s bedroom closet….

So he came down and we did a little investigation online about chimney flashing. I’ve done roofing jobs as a kid and installing a roof is actually not too difficult. But the flashing requires a lot of skill. You can’t just slather caulk on the seams and expect it to last very long. After a half-hour of slogging through boring chimney repair websites and unhelpful videos, we found this video about elastomeric paste. This stuff looks good!

I think this may solve our problem, at least until we eventually get the roof redone and the chimney removed (We no longer need the chimney since getting direct vent appliances). The husband went to the Big Box retail stores and guess what— SOLD OUT! Everywhere! All that’s left standing are multiple types of office signs! Looks like everyone is slopping this goop onto their Irene-stricken and Hurricane Lee-battered chimneys.

So he wrapped the chimney in a tarp. Did a good job. I’m thankful he used the green tarp instead of the fluorescent blue one.

If I ever get the chance to take a little break from my Technical Writer Jobs and build my own house– NO CHIMNEYS! I’m sure in their heyday they were a marvel of modern Stone Age technology. But in a rainy (constantly rainy) climate, they really stink. The era of the chimney is over, as far as I’m concerned.

High oil prices are affecting roofing materials. Unfortunately, when a house needs a roof, a house needs a roof. Be prepared to pay through the nose. A news story from Syracuse quoted a roofing contractor as saying that roof prices have gone up fifteen times in the past two years. What was once an expensive $43 a square foot for basic asphalt shingles is now about $60! Ouch! I’m glad we got our new roof installed when we moved here, but that was eleven years ago. Depending on the environment (heat, ice, the absence or presence of trees), the average lifespan of a new asphalt roof is 20 years.

By the way, you should never install two roofs– you know, a new roof on top of an old one. When we moved here, one roofing contractor said we could do that to save money; he said there was only one roof layer on and adding another on top might be a good idea. It would also be cheaper, because there is nothing to tear off and dispose of (which is very expensive to do). But we decided to swallow the price of a more expensive tear-off.(And we hired a different roofer who wouldn’t try to sell us something we didn’t want to do). BOY was THAT a great decision! Because there was not one, not two, but already THREE layers of roofing on the roof of the house. And the wood beneath it was moldy and cracked. We have to pay extra to replace the bad boards. But I don’t care. If we had just slapped on another layer, I doubt the rafters would have held the weight. And the old roofing was leaky and rotted. I shake my head at the folks who owned the house before us, because they were the Methodist Church, and this house was their parsonage. They took such crappy care of this place that I am amazed they’d even lift their heads to greet their pastor. How can anyone let a young family live in such deplorable conditions? This house was a disaster!

Well, anyway… slapping a new roof on top of an old one is inadvisable and you’re asking for trouble. If you are nubile enough, you can always strap on some cabling and rip the old stuff off yourself, saving money. Gee, the old days of musing over expensive frivolities like espresso machines is over, I think. We’re being squeezed over the basic necessities, now!