This home, built in Lakeside, combines a great view with plenty of decking.

“We”, I puzzled? Nobody was with him. A [...]]]> He knocked at the door at supper time. It was like an old time movie. A man in a trench coat, hat pulled down over his eyes. He flashed a badge in a leather wallet. ”Animal Control Division” he said, ”Mind if we look around?”

“We”, I puzzled? Nobody was with him. A black van was parked at the curb. I was nervous. Animal Control?

The dog has her tags, and her shots. And the cat, did he need tags too? And what about the gold fish?

He was looking me right in the eye. My thoughts flashed from hostility to confusion and anxiety.

“No, I don’t mind, ”I finally said. I felt temporary relief, making a positive decision and being a cooperative citizen. Temporary, because he immediately pulled a hand-held radio from his coat pocket and spoke into it. ”Let’s go!”

The back door of the van burst open, and four men rushed out, wearing black boots and black flack vests with ANIMAL CONTROL printed across the back. Two of them grabbed a ladder while the other two stood guard, chrome steel leashes in their hands. They ran to the house, threw the ladder against the flat roof and within seconds had scrambled up the ladder and out of sight.

I was numb with shock. I could hear boot steps and shuffling on the roof. Then, the radio crackled. ”We got ‘em,” the voice from the roof said.

The man’s eyes never left my face. He put the radio back in his pocket, and pulled out a pair of hand cuffs. ”You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say …” he started reciting as he cuffed my wrists together.

“Wait, wait!” I yelled. ”You can’t do this to me. What did I do?”

I will never forget the word he spoke so casually, ”Alligators.”

Psst, Buddy, want a hot tip? Got a flat roof with hot tar roofing? Want to stay ahead of the law? Read on.

There are a lot of built-up hot-mop tar roofs around, on homes with low slope roof framing. Built-up, because several layers of light weight fiberglass sheets are cemented together with molten tar. Usually three layers of sheet felt are applied, with tar between. The bottom layer is nailed to the roof sheathing. Hot-mop, because the hot tar is spread around on the felt with a large mop.

Tar roofing is more waterproof than shingles, but is not guaranteed under standing water. The cheapest type of hot-mop is called flood coat. It is left with a layer of tar on top, exposed to the weather. This is a bad practice. A better roof is a cap sheet, where the tar is covered with a top layer of mineral-surfaced, rolled roofing. Also, gravel or volcanic rocks can be spread into the hot tar to protect it from the sun. Or, a reflective coating can be brushed on the exposed tar for protection.

Obviously, hot-mop is not a do-it-yourself project. It requires specialized equipment to melt the tar, and is dangerous. But maintenance of a hot-tar roof is critical to its long life, and this is where the homeowner comes in. You can buy a flood-coat roof job, and with a little work and material cost on your own, turn it into a better roof than a cap sheet.

Tar is a petroleum product. If you heat up heavy crude oil, the volatile hydrocarbons which make fuel oil, gasoline, jet fuel etc. evaporate off. Heat up a black, exposed hot-tar roof in the sun, and the same thing happens. The tar shrinks and cracks as it evaporates, like mud in a dried-up river bed. It’s called ”alligatoring”.

You may not get thrown in the slammer for an alligatored hot-tar roof, but you will get hit in the wallet. You save a few dollars with a exposed flood-coat tar roof, but pay in the long run. Unprotected flood-coat tar roofing will get you 10 to 15 years max. Cap sheet or flood coat with a maintained reflective coating will get you 20 years plus.

Spend more for a protective white mineral cap sheet. Or else, save on a flood-coat and allow it to weather for six months or so. This will etch the surface and remove surface oils. Then, you can paint on a layer of aluminum reflective coating, also known as mobile home coating. It works better than cap sheet. The silver color reflects better than white, and the roofing remains smooth, able to shed debris and resist moss growth. Wash the roof and repaint every five years or so when the coating starts to wear off, or whenever you paint your house.

If you already have a flood-coat tar roof, wash it down. Try TSP (trisodium phosphate) or Spic & Span detergent. After rinsing, use roof tape, a gauze-like reinforcing tape sold at lumber yards, and plastic roof cement, on large cracks and tears. Do not use rain patch, which has a solvent added to allow semi-adhesion on wet surfaces. Brush the cement into the surface with a stiff bristle brush to assure positive adhesion. Lay down a layer of tape over the cracks before troweling on a thicker top layer of cement. Then, brush on several layers of fiber-reinforced roof coating over worn or alligatored areas. Put on two coats at right angles to each other. Let newly coated areas sit exposed for several months. Then use a roller or brush to apply aluminum reflective coating over the entire roof.

There are fashion trends in the construction industry, just as elsewhere in modern society. An example is gravel top coats, where gravel or volcanic pumice is glued to the roof with a flood coat of tar. These were popular several decades ago. Straight out of California, and they probably work well down there. But up here on the Coast, with constant winter rain and trees everywhere, the gravel soon fills up with dirt, leaves, and needles, and eventually grows a fine crop of moss. The gravel washes into the gutters. And try and find a leak under a layer of gravel!

Another common feature on low-pitch roofs is the integral gutter. This is where the lower edge of the roof is curved back and up behind the fascia board (gutter board) to form a trough, with downspout outlets thru holes in the roof sheathing itself. There are no gutters on such a roof. This works fine for a while, and would work even better if the troughs were sloped to drain to the downspouts, or the troughs were made of copper or stainless steel flashing. But they seldom are, and water eventually collects in puddles, leaks start, and the sheathing rots. When we reroof one of these, we always cut off the trough and install real gutters.

Thanks for reading. Take care of your house. After all, a house is the largest investment most of us ever make.

Speaking of roofing, Western red cedar shakes are very popular. Everybody wishes they had a shake roof. [...]]]> This time of year, our local roofers would normally be roofing like crazy all day and sleeping soundly at night. With the wet weather we are having, the sound sleep part is harder to come by.

Speaking of roofing, Western red cedar shakes are very popular. Everybody wishes they had a shake roof. If they were cheaper, they would be the most popular roofing around. Shakes will certainly add value to your house and give it a homey, cottage look. But think about it, shakes are a pre-industrial roofing, not far removed from thatch and palm fronds. And, unfortunately, on the coast, they are the least durable, and one of the more expensive, of the roofing materials.

In the old days, shakes were hand split from old growth wood. Back then, even shakes made from Douglas Fir, which is a less naturally decay resistant wood, would last several decades. Today, however, shakes are machine split from second or third growth red cedar, then sawn diagonally to make them tapered. Modern cedar does not have the durability and rot resistance of tight-grain old growth. I work on a lot of 15 to 20 year old shake roofs which are in need of major repair or replacement.

Today’s shake roofs are laid up interwoven with 18″ strips of 30# asphalt felt, which act as a second roof below the shakes. Nailing down each shake, one at a time, takes a while. With the cost of certified #1 medium shakes, at well over $200 a square and up, then add the felt, the nails and the extra time to install, contractor installed shakes run over $350 and up a square (100 sq.ft.)for a 20 year or less life. Compare that to $175 and up for asphalt composition shingles with a 25 to 30 year life and up. Quite a difference.

Shakes need a good slope to drain properly; the higher the slope, the better they work and the longer they last. The “Red Cedar Shingle and Hand Split Shake Bureau” recommends a minimum slope of 4/12. But shakes are bumpy and irregular and do not lay flat. Shakes below 5/12 are a common cause of persistent leakage during high winds on the coast. In many locations, on the side of the roof facing south or west, 4/12 is too low, and there are leaks during high winds. We pulled felted shakes off a 4/12 roof two years ago to install some skylites. Several sections of the roof sheathing underneath the shakes were rot damaged, but the owner reported no leaks inside. The intermittent leakage was absorbed by the insulation below.

A big reason for wood shake’s lack of durability is the lack of proper maintenance. Contrary to popular belief, Red Cedar will rot, only slower than most other woods. Leaves and other debris become trapped in the gaps between the shakes, and against the exposed butts. This encourages the growth of moss and fungus. Water is absorbed by the debris, and run-off is slowed. The shakes take longer to dry out after rain. If you were a rot fungus, this would sound like heaven.

In addition, there is mechanical abrasion. Cedar is a soft wood. Just the wearing of rain water and wind over the years will erode holes in the shakes. It is normal to find a dozen or more shakes on an older roof with holes right thru the middle of the shake, worm through by rain.

To extend the life of your shake roof, keep it clean. Get rid of overhanging trees, a good idea to protect any roof. If you can walk the roof, clean it off every couple of years, scraping off the moss and debris build-up. Try a commercial moss remover, applied during the rainy season when the moss is active, then sweep off the dead moss in the summer when it dries out. It will not fall off by itself, and if left alone will trap additional debris and accelerate deterioration.

To repair cracks, wear holes and minor rot damage, buy a bundle of #2 red cedar shingles. #1′s are too expensive and better quality than you need. Cedar shingles are saw cut, 1/4″ thick at the butt, smooth faced and rectangular. Just the right thickness to shove up under any damaged shakes. They will usually stay put without nails, but you can face nail them, with galvanized nails, into place. The wood swells when wet and tightens against the nail, and it does not leak.

If you have a shake roof, and want to reroof, but not with shakes, listen up. Wood shingles and wood shakes are commonly installed over spaced sheathing, which is usually 1×6 boards with wide gaps between them. The wood shingles and shakes are stiff enough to span these gaps. The underside of the shingles, or the underlying felt, can be seen from inside the attic. This spacing allows the wood roofing to dry out after rain, and allows natural venting of attic moisture. Cedar shingles were the most common form of roofing in our area, well into the 1950′s. Many of these original wood shingle roofs are still around, but are now covered with one or more layers of composition shingles. Shake roofs cannot be recovered with composition like that, because the surface is too thick and irregular.

Modern asphalt composition shingles are installed over boards without gaps, or most commonly, on plywood. They must have a smooth, solid surface to support them. Venting is supplied by gable end vents, soffit and ridge vents or other venting systems. The shingles are waterproof, and little attic moisture escapes through them.

Wood roofing, either shakes or more expensive wood shingles, is very costly to install. Composition shingles are by far the most common roofing today. They last longer than modern wood roofing and cost a lot less. When wood roofing is stripped off and composition shingles are installed, the roof has to be resheathed with plywood to support the shingles. This usually doubles the cost of the job, and new venting has to be provided.

In the meantime, take care of your house. After all, a house is the largest investment most of us ever make.