There is one major flaw to having the non-construction-oriented member of Fixer-Upper (me) write our blog entries. That problem is, I often have only a faint glimmer of understanding as to what the plans actually are. So when I get around to explaining these complex ideas, I break them down into something so simplistic and random that it scares the hell out of those of you (Derek, Pat, Gary, etc) that know what you’re doing.

Fear not, loyal readers. We have not started the roof yet – first, we have to finish the downstairs hardwoods! But when we do dig into the roof, it will be well-planned and executed. Teague worked for a roofing company and has a great deal of experience, so even his incredibly paranoid and worrisome wife is confident that it will be ok.

Some insight on the roofing project:

When the original roof leaked, someone decided to throw a new roof up over the old one. This roof overlaps the cupola by about 2 feet and wrecks the look of things, so we’re taking that out and starting back down at the original.

Our roof has very, very little slope to it, so we won’t be working with traditional shingles. Instead, we will be replacing the old membrane roof with a new synthetic rubber membrane, which I believe Teague calls “EPDM”. This material has a long lifespan (some brands are waranteed for 20 years) and is low-maintenance. It’s most often used on commercial buildings and low sloping residential buildings.

We did a bit of discovery yesterday and found that the original decking (8″ wide wood boards) is pretty much intact and usable. This is VERY good news, since it means no boom lift or other device is needed to get plywood up there. Hooray for small miracles.

In spots where the decking needs replacing, we will probably be cutting our own dimensional lumber courtesy of the Wagner family lumber mill (my in-laws own many acres of wooded land and harvest their own lumber).

Over the decking, there is currently a layer of metal, and then the rubber membrane. The old rubber and the metal will get pulled off so that we can start things as cleanly as possible.

Just wanted to ease the minds of all you pros out there ;)