A finished roof and an update, finally

I haven't posted here in a while because there hasn't been much going on around the house. The roof repairs are done for this year. I'm really pleased with the job that Dennis Crookshanks did on the job. There was a large section of slate that showed evidence of several different repairs in the past. He replaced it with flat-seam copper and installed ice guards. He also replaced some of the slate on the breezeway and replaced the flashing there, too.



The flat-seam copper really looks great.

Of course, now I'm seeing all the other flashing work that needs to be done - one project at a time, I guess. Given the build quality of the rest of the house, I'm surprised that they used galvanized flashing instead of copper.

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There's another reason why I haven't posted on here in a while. I've been working on another project, Cleveland Area History. I've been writing about all sorts of things relating to the history of the greater Cleveland area. I toured the house where Langston Hughes lived during his sophomore and junior years of high school. I've talked about two of the oldest houses in the area, one in Cleveland Heights, the other in Cleveland. I've illustrated a National Register of Historic Places historic district. And there's more. Check it out.

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.

Dorkyness of flashing painted copper green?

Among the plethora of projects around the house, one is painting some of the galvanized flashing here and there where the paint is peeling off. There are two possible choices for the paint color here: we can either go with the brown of the rest of the trim on the house, which we still have to decide upon, given that there are no fewer than four shades of brown used on the exterior trim on the house, and I'd really like to just have one; or we can paint the trim a patined copper green.

Painting the flashing brown has a certain amount of merit. It will require less work, becuase for uniform results, we won't have to repaint everything. It'll be a little more subtle, too - it won't scream "look, there's copper on this house, come and steal it!". But it'll be boring, and what's the point of having commer gutters if you're going to be boring about them?

In the past, I've tended to think of the idea of painting flashing green to look like patinaed copper was somewhat dorky. Now, I'm not so sure. I've come to realize that there's more copper on this house than I had thought - the gutters and downspouts are all copper, though some have been painted. Would a bit more green look good or would it just be silly?

Anyway, I'd love to hear some thoughts on the subject.