Wednesday, October 28, 2009

It's Raining Perplexities

We need a new roof and have been on the list for months now but have continuously been put off due to this year's seemingly interminable rain which put the roofers way behind schedule. As November loomed, we were within an inch of cancelling our order, but the workers finally arrived this morning with a promise to make everything hunky-dory again should we experience any sort of roof damage because the shingles didn't have time to set properly.

Amidst much noise, they were able to re-shingle the garage and porch this morning, but it's all quiet overhead again because they quit by lunch time ... because ... because ... you guessed it — RAIN.

However, that gave me enough time to wonder about two things.

  1. When did roofers stop carrying shingles up the ladder in favour of trucks craning them up? It had to be within the past two decades because we last had a roof done within that period.

  2. When did everyone under the sun (or clouds more likely in our case) stop using hammers? I can't remember exactly when I saw my last one, but I'm sure it wasn't that long ago. Pop, pop, pop.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I agree about the hammers and shingle carriers. We had never had a new roof put on our house anytime before until a couple of years ago, hail, hail, hail, everybody in town got a new roof. We have a high pitched roof and the insurance examiner said, "I can't get any higher I see enough, you get a new roof too." There were roofers coming from every direction. Some shams too, we had the best though and thank goodness.
QMM

Bernie said...

A/C we had a real housing boom in Alberta until the last year and half...I live outside the city and I tried for 3 years to have the inside of my condo painted and new floors laid....I was finally able to have the work complete in March of this year. They were too busy to bother with a small condo when they could be doing big homes and complexes.....hope it's dry tomorrow....:-)

Mara said...

I still use a hammer! I don't do any roofing though. I am fortunate enough to be renting and the housing company I rent from have only recently renovated the whole neighbourhood, including the roofs. If I have a problem with my roof now, I phone up and then they come and fix it within a few days!

Barry said...

Yes, we've had endless rains this summer and fall. We had our roof done last year and I well remember the endless hammering.

Donna said...

When we had ours done it was at Least 140dgrs on our roof but they kept on working! Incredible...and when removing the old shingles, they backed the truck up to the house and dumped the shingles directly into the back end! Cool! No more messy yard!
I can Still hear the POPPOP!hahaa...hughugs

Mary said...

AC,

We had roof work done a couple of years ago and they still carried the shingles up the ladder. They also used hammers. Guess our roofers are behind in progress, but they did a fantastic job.

Enjoyed your posts of your holiday and also the video of the salmon spawning.

Wishing you a great day. It's not raining here but is very overcast. Yesterday was also a wet day here.

Blessings,
Mary

MARY G said...

Ours was done in late August in the one open weather spell we had. I notice the comment about dumping the shingles into the truck. So did our guys, but they missed a few nails. So the truck has a nice, new tire. Grrr. JG went out with a powerful magnet and went all over the lawns, drive and parking area and found quite a few more.
And yea, power nailers are nasty. Not just the pop, pop but the sound of the generator.
It is forecast to stop raining by Monday. Sigh.

Lorna said...

I used to use hammers, but I find that bricks and paperweights and high heels work just as well.

I don't do roofing but if I did, I'd arrange to use turf rather than shingles---so much lighter. And you can just roll it out and let it lay there.

Amanda said...

So, your not the only one getting lots of rain?!?
I hope it does stay dry long enough to get the job done.

Diana said...

They must have been members of the lazy roofers union!
Love Di