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.

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.

Disappointment

We are presently looking to see what our options are for pursing legal action against Paul David Plumbing. He has failed to deliver on the projects that he was contracted to complete, namely repairs to the roof, the chimney, and our gutters, supplying us with excuse after excuse after excuse.

He had said (and I should have specified further in our contract) that he had talked with a roofing firm who was to repair our roof and that he would only act as assistant. Now, with excuse after excuse, he's begun the work on the roof, himself. First he completed some work on the breezeway, which acceptable. Then he began to work on the main roof of the house. The slates that he had ordered were not long enough for the job, but he did not realize that. As a result, as installed, they do not have sufficient overlap. Further, the framing of our roof curves out, and the proper slate shims were not installed to avoid stress upon the slate.

This guy doesn't know what he's doing. He's taking forever. Right now, there's a big open chunk on our roof and we're screwed.

I bring up these issues and he just comes up with one excuse and then another. It's always going to be done in just a couple days, just a couple days more.

I just don't know how to handle all this. I'm freaking out because I feel I have no options. I'm not going to be able to meet the deadlines that the city has set for addressing the violations on the house, and I'm going to have a big hole open on my roof all winter.

On the plus side right now, and this is really the only thing on the plus side, the first gutter that was sent out to be repaired was returned today, and looks great. The gutter is copper, and they were able to roll out all the dents, thus that it looks like the rest of the gutters, or perhaps a bit better.

Finally, an update!

It's been forever since I've actually written anything about the house - this is mostly because the house projects are moving forward at a snail's pace. My general contractor has been moving at the speed of molasses and I haven't felt too motivated myself recently.

The contractor has finally started work on the slate, and I'm told that one of the new gutters will be here today, I think - I'll believe it when I see it.

I've finally finished the drywall on the ceiling in the library - I hope to start working on the crown moulding in there tonight.

Further, I've learned something that I wish I knew earlier. It can be just about impossible to get the old glazing out of steel casement windows - unlike wood windows, there seems to be less chance for humidity to get into the space between the glazing and the frame - so the glazing is often rock hard. I learned that a bit of heat, from a torch, will soften the glazing up enough that it comes out quite easily!

Hopefully I'll be able to make a post later this afternoon illustrating all the progress on the house.

Preparing for the work to start

Our plumber/general contractor, Paul, came over this morning and we went over the work plan. We discussed our concerns about the removal of the trees, the work on the roof, and the garage floor.

I thought it might be nice, at some point in the future (when we have money again) to run an electric line and water line out to the turtle patch, so that we could have a little circulator pump and perhaps a slightly larger watering hole for the turtles. Another concern that I'd like to deal with at some point in the future is the electrical service entrance. It's currently on the garage, about seven and a half feet above the ground. With the presence of the basketball backboard in the immediate vicinity, that's just too close for comfort.

I brought up these concerns, and, after first suggesting that it wouldn't be that much more to rough the plumbing out to the turtle patch (I reminded him of our budget) then suggested that it would be better for the plumbing to go through the garage wall near the floor, rather than go through the floor itself. He suggested a similar approach for the electrical - a trench through the yard so that the service would be below ground, and then coming into the garage through the wall. With some sort of planting in front of that spot, it wouldn't be noticable at all. Fine.

I had raised these concerns, I should clarify, because I thought that the likely way to run them would be through the garage floor, and that we should at least address the rough in while we have the garage floor out.

Paul took a sample of the slate from the roof with him to be sure that the color is right. He's going to get the permit for the garage floor at city hall today, and will be dropping off some of the materials tomorrow. The lift will be delivered Monday, I think.

Monday, unless it's raining hard, Paul will begin work on the trees. This, unfortunately, will involve driving the lift through all the beds that I just Rototilled. Oops. Failure of planning on my part. If the wood looks good, we'll cut it up for firewood. If not, it'll be hauled away.

He'll be here with his crew full time for the next two weeks, tearing out and replacing the garage floor, cutting down the trees, and fixing all the issues with the roof and gutters. It'll be nice to finally move forward on all these projects.

While they've got the truck here to haul away junk, we'll be able to throw in some of the stuff that we've been wanting to get rid of but haven't been able to. This will include all the junk concrete that I've pulled out of the yard. It'll also include, once I finish digging it out, all the dirt that was used to fill in the pond. Perhaps some other junk will go in the dumpster, like the mirror from the dresser that I'm using to hold my tools in the basement and the ugly mirror that will never rejoin the mirror in our bedroom. This only matters because I can't put this stuff out in the trash in Shaker Heights.

Finally, an update!

There's been a fair amount of work being done on our house recently, unfortunately, most of it is the sort of stuff that doesn't lend itself terribly well to photography.

We had the previously-discussed plumber provide us with an estimate regarding items on the city point-of-sale inspection as well as a considerable amount of work with regard to our radiators. Many of the radiators, you see, have valves that either don't open, don't close, or are leaking. Further, many of the bleeder valves won't bleed. A couple of the radiators, in the attic, didn't have shut-off valves at all.

His estimate seemed very reasonable, so we decided to go ahead with the work. When I did a final walkthrough with the plumber before he ordered the parts and began the work, we found a few more valves that needed to be fixed, as well as several bleeders that didn't bleed. He said that he could get all of this done, at the price he had estimated originally.

There was some additional work required - the baseboard radiators in the library had to be replaced, as they didn't have a hot-water return line, and had become clogged. This was done at reasonable material cost.

The entire time, the plumber kept us well informed of his progress, consulting us at each step along the way where decisions of aesthetics might be involved. He is quite comfortable dealing with the issues involved with older plumbing systems.

As this work was nearing completion, we had talked about the repairs that I hope to have done on the roof. I thought that the plumber might know someone who could do the repairs on the roof at more reasonable rates, given that his rates were lower than what I might have expected. He talked to a roofer with considerable experience with slate and came up with an estimate considerably lower than the other estimate I received. The plumber would act as the general contractor and would be doing some of the basic work on the job. His estimate was such that it seems we'll be able to get almost everything done this year!

I came up with a diagram of all of the areas of damage that I saw on the roof and discussed this with the plumber. On Sunday, we went over everything again, including my specifications, and I wrote him a check for the cost of materials. He's begun assembling materials and tools in the garage and will begin work on the roof on Wednesday, if weather permits.

I'll be sure to keep posting as the work progresses.

More roof photographs

I actually got some decent looking photographs of the roof yesterday. This one happens to illustrate the chimney and a couple broken slates as well.


This is the area behind the gutter. Note the utter lack of paint. This appears to be the case all the way around the house. Note also that the gutters are soldered together at the seams, which will make removing them somewhat difficult. Ugh.


This illustrates why it is not a good idea to use aluminum for ridges on slate roofs. Copper or galvanized steel is sturdier.


Finally, here's something that I just don't understand at all. If you look at this picture, you'll see, in the first row of slates, two slates that have a wider gap than might normally be expected. In those gaps, you can see what appears to be a short slate. This does not make sense to me. Kurt? Anyone?


Here's a slightly better detail. It occurs in several spots on this, the west side of the roof, across several rows. I can't imagine that these are the result of broken slates being repaired, but I can't think of anything else that it might be, either. Surely there's something that I'm missing here.

Oh where, oh where has my cricket gone?

I knew when we bought this house that there should be a cricket to divert the water around the chimney here. You can't see it in the photograph, but the chimney is about 3-4 feet wide. Thus, there's quite a bit of water hitting it when it rains - and some of that water is leaking in.

Today, I climbed the extension ladder to investigate the condition of our roof.


And then...


The site of the missing cricket.

It seems that there was a cricket to divert the water around this chimney, but at some point in the past, some idiot, likely the one who installed this lovely bit of flashing, removed it. Meh.

If there's a reason why this would be a good thing, please, let me know.

Water, water everywhere

This fireplace is in our master bedroom, directly above the fireplace in the living room. It's been raining on and off for the past couple days, and with the rain, a rather interesting occurance:

Water is dripping down the marble crosspiece. It is somehow coming down behind the wood trim of the mantle, presumably due to bad flashing somewhere along the way. Sigh. We're going to keep a roofer busy for a while. I'm not sure which one, but one of them...

I see dead slates!

When I woke up on Sunday morning and looked out onto the breezeway, on my way downstairs to get the newspaper, this is what I saw. Note the broken slates and the couple hundred pound chunk of ice. Also note the chunk of wood broken off of the porch railing - however, that is minor, in comparison to the roof.



When I went out to get the newspaper, I saw that the gutter on the breezeway had suffered some significant damage, too. Doh!



The worst part, however, is underneath this dormer.



Here's a detail from one side.



And from the other. Note the row of slate hooks. Note all the copper, almost pristine, indicating a relatively recent repair. Clearly we need to address the root cause of this ice damage, namely, the large pieces of ice falling off the house, or this will continue to be a problem for the forseeable future.

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Update:
Dennis M. Crookshanks will be over this afternoon to evaluate what we can do short term to prevent leaks as well as to look at the house and determine what need to be done long term. Here's hoping...

Not quite what I had expected

From the ground, the bit of wrought iron between the chimney and the roof seems appears quite ornamental and of relatively light weight. This appears, on further inspection to be entirely because of the distance from the viewer.



This is where the wrought iron bolts in place in the attic. Note the diameter of the iron. Massive. I doubt that it does much to hold the chimney in place, but it's still a couple hundred pounds of iron, I would imagine. The water stains in the photograph are all dry, and of unknown age.



This is just a wide angle shot of the same, for comparison.

Think happy thoughts...

Last night, I went up in the attic in preparation for the beginning of the insulation installation, which is another story altogether. Due to the rather steep pitch of the roof on my house, the "attic" comprises a large area above the third floor, as well as some small crawlspaces around the edges of the third floor rooms. My intent had been to determine the amount of free space between the joists, but I then became distracted by the structure and the little random things I found up there.



The most significant thing I saw was evidence of significant water damage around both of the chimneys. Fortunately, the leaks appear to have been in the past, as there is plenty of snow on the roof right now, the attic is warmer than it should be, and the areas that are water-stained are dry to the touch. These still present a councern, I assume, but they are not as bad as if the areas were still leaking water.



The water damage by the other chimney appeared to be more significant.



Yes, that is flashing that can be seen through the missing sheathing.



Three of the four ridges also showed some very light evidence of water staining.

Additionally, there are some issues in back where the roof has a bit less of a pitch.

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Insulating all these spaces is going to be a real challenge. There are so many areas that will be somewhere between difficult and impossible to get to. One might consider blowing in insulation, but the spaces in question are so large that a huge quantity of insulation would be required.

At present, we have no insulation at all, which I had planned to address next summer. However, it's been so cold that I really wanted to do something now. I purchased ten sheets of Owens Corning Foamular 150 because sheet insulation seemed the perfect product for sliding into the spaces that would be impossible to roll fiberglass into. It has an R-value of 5 per inch of thickness, which helped cement my decision over blow-in products.

I chose this product over the one offered by Dow (which has an R-value of 5.5 per inch) because it came pre-scored to fit between the studs. Unfortunately, those are new-construction studs. Doh!