It's like being pelted with popcorn—the choices and decisions keep coming at us. But some popcorn is more significant than others. The house we are remodeling in Orinda had cement tile shingles, and though the shingles held a lifetime guarantee, we could not locate a company to honor that warranty. We think the shingles were at least 40 years old. We found a few spare tiles in the shed out back, but nowhere near enough to replace all the cracked tiles on the roof. Our general contractor told us that he found some signs of water damage while demolishing parts of the house's interior. We wanted to put off the expense of a new roof for a year or two, but the idea of new drywall and a paint job ruined by the first rain scared us into action.
Our first significant setback during this months-long remodeling process was a cracked and eroded foundation under the house's south side. We thought a four-inch dip in the floor might be something we could handle with a leveling compound! Months and thousands of dollars later, we have a pretty darn good foundation. We made decisions about kitchen cabinets and built-in shelves for the family room. We picked new engineered wood flooring for all the floors. We weighed the "luxury vinyl" flooring, the least expensive by about half, against new wood floors or engineered wood. The engineered product is all wood, with a veneer of oak and wood composite materials underneath. It is very durable. We plan on having a dog and don't want them to scratch the new floors. So we went with the middle choice: engineered wood.
We picked our lighting fixtures (LED, of course, and dark sky-approved outdoor lighting). The drywall was up, doors on, and things were looking up. So when we thought about getting a new roof sooner rather than later, we decided we could not afford not to get a new roof—after all, we had so much to protect underneath it.
A roof consists of an underlayment that has traditionally been paper-treated with tar, and roof shingles oriented so that they move water away from the house. Theoretically, you shouldn't worry about leaks when the underlayment is down. So you can wait over a long weekend before installing the shingles. But consider a one-inch-in-twenty-four-hour April rainstorm, then consider new framing around external walls and new drywall patches where water could get into the walls. We knew the rain was coming but put our faith in a new space-age material underlayment below sun-reflecting composite shingles. The subsequent leak and its aftermath made it feel like our future home was being deconstructed before our eyes. Fixing it put us a few weeks behind schedule.
We used a synthetic underlayment that was exposed to rain soon after the roofer installed it. We're not sure why it leaked. Our GC explained that some water may have pooled on roof sections during the rainstorm and leaked into the attic and down some walls. The building penetrations were not completely sealed, which may have been the source of the leaks.
A roof is supposed to act as a system. The underlayment and flashing keep liquid water from penetrating the roof deck. Shingles are applied on top of the underlayment to protect it from sun damage and penetration by objects carried by the wind. Attics should be ventilated at the eves and along the roof ridge lines. California and other places mandate "cool roofs" for new and replacement roofs. Cool roofs include shingles or other materials (like clay tiles) with a highly reflective surface that reflects radiant energy and keeps the surface from overheating, and sometimes "radiant barriers" that do the same thing from the attic ceiling. Shingles should have a low emissivity to keep heat from passing through the roof to the house interior. The thermal barrier will be applied to the roof deck if you extend a house's interior or "conditioned" space to include the attic or if there is no attic (i.e. a "vaulted roof/ceiling" design). Otherwise, as in the case of our remodeled house, the insulation is applied on the attic floor. Our leaks resulted in all the attic insulation being removed and replaced.
Our general contractor did not charge us for the remediation efforts. We assume it was worked out with the roofer, who would be liable for the leak damage. Our GC has proved their worth over and over again during this project. Here is another excellent example. Our supervisor came to check the house during the rainstorm on the weekend and immediately had other company members and a wife and girlfriend come out to the house to start damage control.
Sometimes it takes a minor disaster to show how much people care about the work they do on our behalf.
Photo by Michele Nikoloff.
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