The Home Improvement Thread

[lennytheweedwhacker]

I've never re-roofed using asphalt shingles. Sounds absolutely horrible. I would consult YouTube and/or Reddit.

I feel like I could spend a week on it and it still come out like sh*t.

[spike]

I'm re-roofing my parents' shed next week and would be happy for any tips or insights from any experts here. It's a small enough project, I measured each half of the roof at about 21ft x 7 ft.

I'm going to need to rip up the decaying asphalt shingles that are up there now and a couple pieces of the plywood decking that got wet and are rotting a bit. Replace those couple pieces of plywood, and check the rafters to see if those are still OK. Then lay down the felt underlayment, then put down the new shingles. And replace the metal strips on the rakes and eaves as I go along.

So far I've cut away the leaves and branches that had grown up onto and around the roof (hence the poor condition), and I'm trying to put together a shopping list on the Home Depot website.

Any tips or preferred tools would be welcome. I am a dummy at this sort of thing

Please don’t break your neck.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

Better to break your spirits than your neck.

[spike]

We hired an exterminator because people were complaining about rats in our courtyard.

Now they’re complaint about rat traps in our courtyard. JFC.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

spike i'm praying hard for you in this new role.

[The Argonaut]

that shed was mouse city earlier this summer. we cleaned it out and now no mice (i think). deliver the dead rats to the doorsteps of anyone who complains. then they will understand your hard work

[spike]

It’s super constructive when, after a known special assessment is announced, someone has to challenge it. I’m not thrilled about having to pony up thousands of dollars either, but it’s the reality of the situation and not something any of us looks forward to. Maybe come to a meeting once in awhile.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[spike]

It’s super constructive when, after a known special assessment is announced, someone has to challenge it. I’m not thrilled about having to pony up thousands of dollars either, but it’s the reality of the situation and not something any of us looks forward to.

hire argo

The previous president and myself have both suggested hiring a management company to deal with this stuff, but the rest of the board never signs off because it costs money and they know they can just go radio silent if there’s any pushback from the owners.

[tommy]

that shed was mouse city earlier this summer. we cleaned it out and now no mice (i think). deliver the dead rats to the doorsteps of anyone who complains. then they will understand your hard work

Watch out for that mouse poop. We don't need you getting a hantavirus and dying.

[Chris_H_2]

It’s super constructive when, after a known special assessment is announced, someone has to challenge it. I’m not thrilled about having to pony up thousands of dollars either, but it’s the reality of the situation and not something any of us looks forward to. Maybe come to a meeting once in awhile.

how in the world are they challenging it? put it to an owner vote (i'm assuming your declaration doesn't say it's a board vote if it's in excess of 125% of monthly CAM).

[spike]

It’s super constructive when, after a known special assessment is announced, someone has to challenge it. I’m not thrilled about having to pony up thousands of dollars either, but it’s the reality of the situation and not something any of us looks forward to. Maybe come to a meeting once in awhile.

how in the world are they challenging it? put it to an owner vote (i'm assuming your declaration doesn't say it's a board vote if it's in excess of 125% of monthly CAM).

We aren’t required to do an owner vote on needed maintenance stuff. Everyone was made aware these expenses were coming; that being said, due to some poor communication within the board, we’re on an accelerated timeline before winter comes and are asking for the money in a two week window. That poor baord communication also meant at the time of the owner’s meeting last week, we didn’t quite have all info, so we discussed an estimated number. Turns out the actual number is a couple grand higher, so that’s what was being challenged. I again reiterated that the previous estimate was always just and estimate, and the emails have stopped, so I think we’re good. Just getting tired of the board VP and her procrastination/communication on all things. That’s what tends to get us in these conundrums.

[The Argonaut]

hello all, shed update. I was hoping day one would include stripping the old shingles off the roof, taking out the rotten plywood, buying new plywood and installing it, and laying out the felt protective layer. But I was only able to strip the shingles and cut out the bad sections of plywood. It was a hard job. The shed currently has a skylight, but no rain is expected for days so it should be OK.

If tomorrow I'm able to install the new plywood sections, lay down the felt, and put in the shingle starters and the first few shingles, it will be a good day.

[tommy]

hello all, shed update. I was hoping day one would include stripping the old shingles off the roof, taking out the rotten plywood, buying new plywood and installing it, and laying out the felt protective layer. But I was only able to strip the shingles and cut out the bad sections of plywood. It was a hard job. The shed currently has a skylight, but no rain is expected for days so it should be OK.

If tomorrow I'm able to install the new plywood sections, lay down the felt, and put in the shingle starters and the first few shingles, it will be a good day.

Godspeed

[Chris_H_2]

We aren’t required to do an owner vote on needed maintenance stuff.

but aren't you required to do a vote on special assessments?

[spike]

We aren’t required to do an owner vote on needed maintenance stuff.

but aren't you required to do a vote on special assessments?

Nope. It’s only a twelve unit building.

Also, nothing would ever get fixed. That’s part of the problem at this point, certain aspects of building maintenance have been neglected too long, so of course everything needs to be repaired at once (not really, this has been a several year endeavor, but people still act like it’s the board relentlessly asking for money).

[The Argonaut]

hello all, shed update. I was hoping day one would include stripping the old shingles off the roof, taking out the rotten plywood, buying new plywood and installing it, and laying out the felt protective layer. But I was only able to strip the shingles and cut out the bad sections of plywood. It was a hard job. The shed currently has a skylight, but no rain is expected for days so it should be OK.

If tomorrow I'm able to install the new plywood sections, lay down the felt, and put in the shingle starters and the first few shingles, it will be a good day.

Godspeed

Yesterday ended with me having replaced the rotten sections of plywood with new stuff. I had to expand a couple rafters (I nailed 2x4s alongside existing rafters, whatever this is called) and had to saw some patches into shape. It is not perfect but that is OK because it will hold. It's solid, if maybe ugly. My dad probably only has ten or fifteen years left and I have at least that much confidence in my work. I also fixed some busted pieces of the drip edge (the metal but at the edge), and rolled out the first bit of the felt underlayment protective layer.

Today I was able to get the rest of the felt down over the whole roof and the starter shingles and about half the shingles over half the roof. It is going well. I hit my pointer finger with the hammer twice, but I will live. And some nails went all the way through and you can see the points from inside the shed. You can't reach them so it's not a hazard but it's also not great craftsmanship. But, again, as long as this roof outlasts my dad I will consider it a success. The shingles are going down nicely.

Rain is expected late tomorrow afternoon so I am in a race with god. I will lose this race, at least in part because I need to buy more shingles. The cache from the garage is running out already. This is turning out to be like $400 of supplies. It'd be an easy job of I hadn't had to replace the plywood decking. Cutting that crap out and fitting new pieces in was the only difficult part. The rest is easy, just takes time.

Thanks for listening

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[The Argonaut]

I am having a good time, but my finger does hurt a little

[doug rr]

good job argo...proud of you..go grab a couple beers and make sure to tell your dad you keep mentioning that he will not be around soon