Raising the Roof

We live in Michigan, so winter is a thing. Usually, it's a thing we enjoy (Chris because he gets to go skiing, me because I get to curl up with the cat and drink hot cocoa), but it turns out that winter can be fairly inconvenient when you buy a house and really need to get some repairs made on the roof.

The good news is that some of the roof repairs were actually an indoor job. Some of the rafters had cracked over the years, and while the roof wasn't sagging yet, we didn't really want to give it a chance to start. Our inspector had suggested that the roof shouldn't get loaded up with snow without undergoing some repairs... so naturally, the day after we closed on the house, it started snowing.

Since the indoor part of the roof repair was the most structural part... and because it was windy and snowy and gross outside... we started in the attic. Remember that attic bonus room? That's where our work began, pretty much as soon as we took possession of the house.

Chris was able to screw the rafters together, and most of them drew together pretty nicely with just a little encouragement. It was still a lot of work (and a lot of standing on a ladder), but we were able to rest a bit easier about our roof situation.

Was that it? Of course not. Some of the rafters were really pretty sad, so there was some sistering up to be done. This may have been the hardest part, since the first time through, we failed a bit with the ratio of number of times you're supposed to measure versus cut.

Sisters!

We also added in some cross beams. There were a few in place, but they were just next to the chimney, so Chris added more throughout the attic.

See out the window at the back of the picture? It's snowing. Of course.

So that was a lot of roof work without actually going on the roof, but we (and by "we," I mean "Chris") weren't going to get off that easily. There was one small-ish hole in the corner of the roof that needed to be patched up, and some roof tiles were missing. I think we had at least two or three days when we planned to go up and work on it, but were grounded by snow/rain/wind.

Last weekend, we finally got a few clear hours. Since the hole was right near the corner, Chris was able to get at it with a ladder. I was fairly freaked out about that part ahead of time, but in the end, it wasn't as bad as it looked like it might be.

Patched!

The problem with this roof is that it's covered in asbestos tile. It's actually not the asbestos part that's the problem in this case -- it's the fact that, like any other kind of tile roof, you can't just get up there and start walking around on it because you'll crack the tiles. Fortunately, the tile issues were on the other part of the roof, where there are a porch (in the front) and a lean-to (in the back) that both have metal roofs. Those are ok to walk on, but get really slippery when wet, so the incoming snow was starting to be a concern. It wasn't coming down yet, though, so Chris bravely plowed ahead.

Our first chicken ladder!

This is how you get up on a roof you can't walk on... you build a ladder that hooks over the roof to distribute your weight and keep you from directly stepping on the tiles. And thus, the tiles got patched, just as the wind started picking up.

By the time we left for the day, the snow was coming down steadily and the ground was turning white, and by this time next week, there may be a few inches of snow up at the farm. At least we can rest easier knowing the roof has been shored up against it.