Roof progress!

I had assumed that Dennis Crookshanks wouldn't be able to start work on the roof until spring. Much to my surprise, I got an email last week saying that he would beginning shortly. He began replacing the slate in the trouble area with flat-seam copper, which should hold up better than the slate.



The copper, it looks so pretty.

My new blog - Cleveland Area History

I'd like to introduce you to a new blog that I'm working on, Cleveland Area History. It is an opinionated, sometimes snarky, usually rabidly preservationist look at the history of the greater Cleveland area. This will be a group effort - there is far too much to be addressed for me to tackle it alone.

Hopefully this will also serve to move some of the content that is less house-related away from this blog

Tiny attic windows of DOOM!

One of the last city point-of-sale violations that we have to address is replacing the broken glass in this window. It's a tiny dormer window on the third floor, on the front of the house. Actually, we have to replace the broken glass in two of these windows, as the city didn't note which one (perhaps one has broken since they recorded the violation) and I know that when the inspector shows up, he's just going to see the broken one.



The windows don't look so bad - just another couple to reglaze - until you realize how high up they are. One option, working on them from the inside, was out of the question because of the lack of space to work and the relatively small window opening - the glass is just 8.5 inches wide. Once you take into account the framing of the dormer, it doesn't leave much space to work.



I considered renting or buying a large extension ladder. The ladder I have right now reaches comfortably to the edge of the roof, but not much higher than that. The positioning of such a ladder concerned me. I realized that the angle the ladder would have to be at to get to the window would be such that it would be difficult to properly secure it.

If I wanted to use ladders to get to this window, the best option seems to be to have one ladder to get up to the roof and then a second one resting on the roof, held in place with a couple ladder hooks over the ridge. I don't think that I'd be comfortable working up on the roof like that - while I'm ok with using the ladders, once I'm up high on them and things start moving, I get nervous. I worry that the movement of my tools will jostle the ladder and cause it to fall.

I talked to the guys at the local rental place, Handy Rents about renting a lift. The cheapest one that they had would be $170 a day. Once I heard the price, I suddenly felt a lot more willing to spend quite a bit of time in a small, cramped, space, trying to chisel away at the glass from the inside.

I'm finally almost finished removing the glazing from the first of these two windows. Rather than describe the process I went through, I'll instead describe how I plan to do the next window, based upon what I've learned so far.

First, I'll do my best to try to use the torch to soften up the glazing. This will be a challenge and will likely be only partially successful at best, as I won't be able to see exactly where I'm trying to hit with the torch from the inside. It should help some of the glazing to come out when I break up the glass. Then, I'd tape the glass, on the outside and the inside, with packing tape, because it's hard to catch every single little bit and the fragments tend to bounce down the roof. I'll hold a box lid from a file box underneath it and break out the window with a hammer. Once the glass in thoroughly broken, I'll remove it, to the best of my ability.

Next, the fragments of glass that are left will be taken out with a hammer. At this point, with the access that I now have through the space where the glass used to be, I'll use the torch again, to do a more complete job of heating up the old glazing. Then I'll chisel under the glass, trying to get the pieces out. Part of the trick here is to realize that you don't have to see what you are doing. One can, very carefully, work by feel instead. I'll take a methodical approach, chiseling the glazing out, to the best of my ability to feel it.

This won't get absolutely all the old glazing out. It's near impossible, given the work angles involved, to apply sufficient leverage to do so. I'm ok with this - hopefully the glass will stay in place.

Finally, I'll lay a new bed of glazing for the glass to sit in, install the glass, and then begin to glaze the window, reaching around the frame. The work won't be as clean as I would like, but it's high enough up that it won't be seen.

Leather work gloves are a necessity for this project. A very short chisel would be quite useful, given the cramped workspace.

Midtown Roofing Supply - purveyor of copper goods for roof repair

Midtown Roofing Supply, at 2695 E 55th St, Cleveland, OH, 44104, (216-431-4545), is an unassuming brick building that you'd probably miss if you weren't looking for it. There are no windows and it only has parking for two or three cars. I certainly wouldn't have stopped there if not for the recommendation by the people at Sutton Industrial Hardware.

Midtown Roofing seems to be the best place in Cleveland to buy the various supplies and tools that one might need to work on a slate roof. This includes slate hooks, in both copper and stainless steel, copper for flashing and valleys, as well as the various tools, like slate hammers and slate rippers that are needed to work with slate.

They might have quite a bit more, too - I'm not sure - most of the stock was back in their storeroom, not out on display.

Re-glazing Steel Casement Windows

I've replaced the glass in enough wood windows that I feel reasonably competent with it. The old glazing usually comes out easily, because a little bit of humidity always manages to get into the wood. The putty never looks quite as clean as I would like, but it does the job.

Steel casement windows are a different matter. The existing glazing tends to be rock solid and impossible to remove. It was so difficult that I resorted to removing one of the windows and taking it down to my workshop to chisel away at. This took forever and resulted in many small glass chips.

Finally, someone told me to use a torch to heat up the glazing. The heat softens the putty and makes it quite easy to remove. Unless great care is used, the difference in temperature will crack the glass, but since the glass is usually already broken, that shouldn't be an issue.

With a torch, I was able to replace one of the panes from up on the ladder, without having to fear for my life. It is a worthwhile expense, especially given the number of panes that I will eventually have to replace. The fancy new torches with electronic ignitions are quite nice, too.

The library is finally mostly done!

Remember back in February when the leak from the seal on the toilet in the second floor bathroom led to us tearing down the ceiling in the library? Remember how the project just had one complication after another after another? Remember the scary looking broken joists? Well, thanks to A. kicking my rear end a bit, it is finally complete. Almost.

I still have to make some crown moulding to fit the space, and I have to put the endcaps on the radiators, but that's little stuff. The room is now usable, for the first time since February! One can walk in there without tracking out dust!



It is at this point that I want to give a big shout-out to Perpetual Renovator. In that post, she discusses a product, Restore-a-Finish, which she has had good luck with in the past. I used it on the floors in the library, which were all scratched up because someone failed to properly cover the floor before beginning demolition and also had lots of water spotting from the previously mentioned leak. The floors don't look like new, but they look a lot better - enough so that I'm no longer in trouble. After using the Restore-a-Finish on the floor, I finished it with Feed-n-Wax.

Now I just have to get to work on fixing the table that my computer will sit on.

Photos taken by the always lovely and tolerant A.

Avoid Paul David Plumbing for anything but plumbing!!

While he is a good plumber, he is horrible as a general contractor! (He also does business under the name "Feldman Mechanical Contractors" or "Feldman Mechanical Contracting".)

When we hired Paul David Plumbing as our general contractor, it was because Paul David had done good plumbing work at a reasonable price. He was willing and able to deal with the old plumbing in our house, and to do things like rebuild our 1920s toilets.

He has proven himself completely incapable as a general contractor. We paid the deposit for materials, about 65% of the total cost of the job, in April. The contract was entered into with the agreement that a subcontractor with experience in slate would be doing the vast majority of the work, and that Paul David would be doing some work to assist them.

Paul David Plumbing provided us with excuse upon excuse upon excuse why the work had not begun on the roof. Last week, Paul David himself began work on the breezeway between the house and the garage. When one side of the breezeway repair was complete, he asked if we were satisfied with how it looked - I was - but this was based on appearance only. There was another slate that he had replaced, with a nail driven through the face of the slate, which I infomed him was improper practice, and that such repairs needed to be done with a slate hook. Paul David was unable to locate a supplier of slate hooks, which should have been a warning.



Next Paul David began work on the rear part of the roof, where there had been considerable damage from ice falling on it the previous winter, and where it was obvious repairs had been performed previously. The slate for the bottom few rows are 28 inches long. The slate installed was only 24 inches long, which did not provide sufficient overlap. Paul David did not realize this was an issue until it was pointed out to him. He further didn't realize that the slate needed to be shimmed out, using smaller pieces of slate, to fit the slightly curved framing of the roof.

It was at this point that we realized that Paul David Plumbing had failed to live up to their end of the contract. A professional with experience on slate had not been brought in, as had been specified in the contract. Further, slate adequate for the job had not been provided.



When Paul David Plumbing informed us that the proper sized slate wasn't readily available, we told him that we expected the exposed area and the improperly slated area to be covered to prevent damage from rain, which is expected for the rest of the week. When it appeared, on Sunday, that it was going to rain, we called Paul David Plumbing, informing him of this, asking him to cover the area. He said that he'd try to be out that afternoon. When we called him again, an hour later, when rain was threatening, he said that he couldn't make it and that his insurance would just have to cover it.

That was the absolute last straw. While Paul David may be a competent plumber, he simply cannot be trusted with anything beyond that.



On further inspection of the breezeway, in the area where work had not yet been completed, I saw that the slate was not installed properly - the nail holes in the slates were not countersunk, so the nail heads will rub against the slate above, eventually wearing through. Further, the flashing at the house is in such poor shape that it really should be replaced. This was not part of the original contract, but something that should have been brought to our attention - it makes little sense to repair the slate now, only to have to take it off in a couple years to redo the flashing.

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I took a very long lunch today (and as a result will be working quite late tonight) and met with Paul David to iron out the details of the completion of the contract. By next Friday, he will present us with a list of all the money that has been spent on materials, which will be deducted from the amount we paid, in April, for materials. From his costs will be deducted the cost of a temporary repair on the main roof of the house and repair of the improper work done on the breezeway. If he doesn't provide us with the expenses by next Friday, the amount will be assumed to be $2000. Either way, the amount due back to use will be paid in full by two weeks from that Friday.

I'm not terribly confident that we'll get our money back, but at least now we have everything in writing, and we have some legal standing, I hope.

In good news, Dennis Crookshanks (of Dennis M. Crookshanks Const., Inc.), whose gallery features some pretty impressive work, will be at our house either today or tomorrow to evaluate the situation and install a temporary patch. He clearly knows his stuff - I only wish I'd gone with the estimate that he'd provided when we called him originally. Fortunately, he still has our information on file, so it shouldn't take him terribly long to write up.