Yes, we’re doing our own roof. Yes, we’re slightly obsessed with DIY. We’re also pretty broke, and I’ve got a talented husband and father-in-law with many successful roofing jobs under their belts.

We finally ripped into our roof on Saturday, and despite my many fears it’s been going well. Teague’s father, Don, gave up his entire weekend to sweat buckets up there with us, and we’re so grateful. Having a knowledgeable helping hand was a tremendous help.

On Saturday we got up early and started the tear-off. Under the rolled rubber was a layer of asphalt, and then a layer of felt. All of that, and about 3 billion roofing nails, had to come off. The tear-off and cleanup took all morning and most of the afternoon. It was hot up there, but a nice breeze and 5 gallons of iced tea kept it from feeling unbearable. I spent most of the day with my butt in the air pulling nails with a crowbar, so I won’t have to do any hamstring exercises this week at the gym.

This is the roof mid tear-off. You can see that some of the plywood was rotting out, and some of the bracing beneath it needed to be repaired – that’s what’s causing the dip. Most of the rotting was near the edge of the roofline, where the rubber had come apart from the drip edge.

By the end of the day Saturday, some of the plywood decking had already been replaced and the framing beneath it had been repaired and reinforced. By the time we quit, I was too tired to even dial for pizza – luckily, Teague’s mom brought over a nice meal. I’m pretty sure I would have went to bed hungry had I been forced to open the refrigerator.

On Sunday, Teague and Don worked on replacing the rest of the decking – 6 new sheets in all – and putting down the felt paper to dry it in. I got to mow the lawn and weedwhack since they had no need for an unskilled laborer up there getting in their way. I can’t say I was sad about staying grounded.

It rained last night, and winds ripped through our open windows for hours. We both slept terribly, worrying how the felt was holding up and whether the ladders had tipped over and crushed something beneath them. In a half-sleep stupor, Teague actually thought his own drool was rain leaking in from the roof! But our fears were unfounded; everything held up fine and Teague’s out there right now laying down the asphalt. Which is, by the way, being done to code ;)