Over-the garage bonus room gets a bath/kitchenette to make a cozy studio apartment.
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Imagine yourself,on a cold winters night,snuggled and secure in bed,as it rains cats and dogs outside. You can hear the muffled splashing and sloshing of the storm. Idly,your mind picks out a somewhat different sound. At the very edge of sleep,the image of a dripping faucet crosses your mind. “I’m not getting up for that”,you think,rolling over. But the sound comes back,your mind isn’t satisfied yet. You slowly concentrate on the sound,unsure why it bothers something deep in your subconscious. Suddenly,you are bolt upright in bed,the hair on your neck is tingling,eyes wide open,staring into the darkness,your breathing frozen. The sound…is coming…from inside this bedroom. No! No! It can’t be. Panic,Hopelessness,Despair wash over you. THE ROOF IS LEAKING! Relax. A sudden full blown roof leak is unlikely. But the fantasy above does illustrate something usually taken for granted. Virtually everything we own must be protected from the elements,or else it is soon destroyed,including our food,our toys and our personal selves. That roof above your head is your first and primary defense. A roof with no walls is still usable. Walls with no roof,forget it,especially on the Oregon Coast. So,let’s take a look at roofs,how they are put together,and how they leak. The most common roofing material in our area,and in the country as a whole,is composition asphalt shingles. They are composed of a fiberglass felt sheet,saturated with asphalt and coated on one side with colored mineral granules. The granules give the shingles their color,texture and weather ability. They are made in individual shingles one meter long,and are applied in a fish-scale fashion,each row partly overlapping the row below. In this way,there are two layers of shingles over any point on the roof. Any water flowing off an upper shingle flows down over the top of the shingle below and so on down the roof to the gutter. In classic Three-Tab shingles,the bottom half of each shingle is cut into three sections,making them look,when applied,like three separate shingles. The meter long shingle,however,is much easier to install than three separate shingles would be. In our area,a more expensive style of shingle is taking over in popularity. They are called dimensional,laminated or Architect 80 shingles,and are made to look like wood shingles or slate. They have a second layer of fiberglass base at the bottom,weather-exposed half of the shingle. The lower base layer is a solid sheet,but the extra upper layer is cut into a variegated pattern that looks from a distance like wood shakes or slate. Since the shingles are not cut into separate tabs and are two layers thick,they are much stiffer and wind resistant,hence their popularity on the coast. Shingles are also differentiated by length of warranty,such as 25,30 or 40 year dimensional. Higher the warranty,higher the price. Thus,you would specify a 25 year three tab or a 30 year laminate. Go down to the lumberyard and look at what is available locally. All comp shingles are installed over a layer of 15# or,better yet,30# asphalt felt underlayment,to provide a second line of defense in case the shingles start to leak. Right here,let’s settle a common debate among do-it-yourself (DIY) roofers. Notice on the upper face of composition shingles there is a horizontal line of exposed asphalt dabs or a strip. When the installed shingle heats up in the sun,this line melts and fuses with the bottom of the shingle above,preventing wind uplift. To prevent the shingles from sticking together while in the bundle,a strip of clear cellophane is stuck to the bottom of each shingle,directly over the self-sealing dabs of the shingle below. Of course,when the shingles are installed,they are offset horizontally,and the cellophane strip ends up far away from the line of exposed tar. Well,the cellophane is pressed tightly into the shingle,and it looks like a stripe of dark tar under the plastic. Some guys think a little too much about this cellophane strip,and get the idea that it has to come off so that the dark tar underneath will be exposed to seal down the shingles. First off,that cellophane is hard to get off. It takes longer to get that thing off than to install the shingle. Second,it is light as a feather,and blows around with the slightest breeze. They end up all over the neighborhood. Honest to goodness,it has been done. So,when you are re-roofing your house,and your neighbor saunters over with a mouth full of advise,let HIM peel off the cellophane if he thinks he knows better that you do. t will not hurt anything,but get a promise from him to clean up afterwards. Installing comp is well within the reach of the non-professional handy man. Most of the directions you need are printed on the wrapper. Comp shingles have been selling around $65 a square. A square is a standard roofing measurement,equal to 100 square feet (10’ x 10’). Roofing is bought in bundles,three bundles of three-tab to a square and three or four bundles of laminate. On top of that,add costs for felt,fasteners,flashings,vents and other related materials. Contractor-applied prices run around $150/$200 a square and up for laminated,depending on the slope and complexity of the roof,and other factors. Thanks for reading. Take care of your house. After all,a house is the largest investment most of us ever make.
At any given time,a well-established construction company has multiple jobs going in various stages of progress. This cannot be avoided. Construction is performed in stages,by multiple trades. During many stages,no one else can work in the building or in the immediate area of the specialty tradesman. The original construction crew must go elsewhere to keep busy. As a job progresses to completion,there is less and less work to do. Where a full crew was necessary at start-up and mid-way,now fewer hands are needed to do the remaining work. There is a realistic example of scheduling complications: We schedule your bathroom project well in advance. You make plans to stay at friends,who go out of their way to make arrangements for you. Mrs. Smith’s kitchen remodel is scheduled to end the week before your bathroom project starts,just in time. Early on,we discover termites and dry rot in Mrs. Smith’s walls. This adds a week to her job,which is going to run over into your time slot. We can’t just tell Mrs. Smith she will have to live with a torn-up kitchen until we finish your job. We can’t just tell you to wait. You have already made extensive arrangements for the work to start,so we have to deal with both projects at once,slowing down your schedule and Mrs. Smith’s,until we get her work completed. But wait,there’s more. This is winter. Last month we started a reroof job for a customer whose shingles had been blown off in a storm. It has been raining almost continuously since then and the roof,at great risk,has been under tarps. Just as we are starting your job,while finishing Mrs. Smith’s,the weather clears and the forecast is for a week or more of dry weather. We must get that roof done,having waited now a month for good weather. There might not be another opportunity for months,with the danger of another storm,ripped-off traps and leaks,just around the corner. But wait,there’s more. My lead carpenter comes down with the flu,and is off work for a week. Or perhaps the electrician has a family emergency and cannot get to your job for a week,stopping all further work. But wait,there’s even more. On a commercial job that we started before Mrs. Smiths,the plumber is just finishing the final water heater install,but forgets to check the drain valve,and floods the store. We have to take care of the emergency. This sounds like a skit from Comedy Central,but it isn’t. Things like these,and many others, happen in various combinations on a regular basis. You have just one delayed job,we have several at the same time. So please be patient. Expect a few delays in the scheduling,and understand that we go out of our way to minimize their impact.
Licensing by the Oregon Construction Contractors Board for contractors does not include any requirement for construction experience. There are no continuing education requirements at this time for residential contractors. 16 hours of video training in law and business practices,like bookkeeping,is all that is required. Some contractors are part time. Some are one-man operations,doing only a few jobs a year and therefore lacking broad experience. If you are having surgery,you want the highly experienced surgeon who does five operations a week,not the general practitioner who does five a year. Same with a builder. If you are spending 3k,30K or 300K,you want the most experienced builder you can afford. You will not get the best builder by hiring the cheapest builder. It costs a lot of time and money to bid construction contracts. The more complicated the project the more time it takes. Bidding time for a new house or complicated remodel is measured in days,not hours. Contractors must have a chance to win the bid,or else they will not waste their time bidding. If you ask for competitive references and choose accordingly,you will get an experienced builder. If you sit down and chat with your perspective builders and choose accordingly,you will get a communicative,interactive builder. If you only ask for competitive price bids,you will get a cheap builder,or maybe a cheap job by an experienced builder. When you ask for competitive price bids from several contractors on your home project,you are asking them for a low price. Naturally,if you do not specify exactly what you want for carpet,appliances,light fixtures and most other items,you will get inexpensive,low quality items. They do not want to bid high and loose the job and waste their time. If you think that just telling each bidder that you want “middle of the road” stuff will level the playing field,you are very wrong. If your project requires a building permit,then you will need building plans and a permit to do the work. You will eventually have to hire someone to draw those plans. Realistically,you need to do the plans up front,before the bidding. Along with the plans go a Specifications list,showing all of your item choices by manufacturer,model and color. With each bidder having these same set of instructions,they are all bidding the same things,“apples for apples.” You will know what product quality you are getting,no matter what bid you accept. This eliminates expensive surprises,bad feelings during the construction,and lawyers. Building your home is one of the most expensive investments you will make. Don’t treat it like buying a TV. | |||
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