Roofing The Shed

My extended Memorial Day weekend has come and gone and I am happy to see it go. I didn't get to rest, slack off or have any fun.

Saturday was errands, cleaning and ripping out weeds. Since I had the bright idea of putting a new roof on my shed I went out and took some measurements then went to Home Depot to get some supplies. It's a 14' x 10' shed with a Gambrel roof, the roof area is 14' x 14'.

Sunday was spent ripping off the old shingles and rotted plywood which, as it turns out, were all attached with a bajillion staples. With the shingles gone I could see that I needed to replace about triple what I originally thought. So, back to Home Depot I went. I get all the wood nailed on and am just getting started with the roofing felt when a thunderstorm arrives. So there I am on top of the shed in a torrential downpour trying to cover as much of the roof as I could. Mind you I am working directly beneath power lines (which would hit me in the back if I stood up wrong) in a thunderstorm holding a metal hammer tacker while lightning is flashing all over. Can you say Duh!? So wisdom prevailed and I took my soggy self inside. It was about dark anyway.

Monday was spent putting the shingles on. It was 87°F, sunny and humid. Perfect weather to be standing on a roof which is covered with asphalt impregnated black paper while handling black, asphalt impregnated roofing shingles. A gallon or two of water later and I had all the shingles on then had to clean up the mess I'd made. Ew. That took forever, by the time I was done loading up my truck it was about dark again.

Tuesday morning I went for a haircut then hauled all the roofing debris to the landfill, came home and trimmed the ends of the shingles then cut and nailed down the ridge cap pieces to finish off the peak of the roof. Then I apparently lost my sanity and decided to clean out the shed. What was I thinking? That, some garden debris and some trash and  I had another full truck to take to the landfill. When I got back home I had to mow my lawn. I'd been too busy with everything else to bother cutting it so it was way tall. I ended up cutting it twice. I cleaned up everything, crawled back into the house for dinner at 8:30pm and called it a night.

Now it's time to pat myself on the back. I've never done any roofing before so I was pretty clueless and learned as I went along. It came out looking surprisingly good, I guess I'll find out for sure how I did the next time it rains. Oh, somewhere along the line I also finished getting the pool open, it's good to go now. The water temperature is bearable, all the chemical levels are spot on and the water is crystal clear, but all I managed was one 15 minute dip. There's my weekend, I hope yours was more relaxing. Sometimes it's less work to just go to work.