HELP!
I’m doing a job finishing the exterior of an addition that a HO did himself. Trouble was he built the addition about 12″ lower (slabs) than the house. And, he bought 4/12 trusses to gable into a 6/12 roof. The trusses came with a standard 16″ overhang – trouble is the guy’s house has a 12″ overhang. He also for some reason built it so that one wall came square into the middle of a bay window.
Add all this up and he found he had a mess when it came to finishing out the fascia, soffit, etc. Not only that but the “soffit” and “fascia” he had put up had no subfascia behind it, no soffit joists, no ledger to attach the soffit joists to. And, two of the worst “valleys” you have ever laid eyes on.
Anyway, part of fixing all this has been tearing back shingles, cutting 4 inches off the eaves and truss tails, and closing the valleys – they were open and you could see up under the roof. Been that way a year, he lost interest.
The problem is I’m having a hard time getting some of the shingles to separate without ripping each other apart. Oddly enough the South facing shingles came apart fine, but the North side is killing me.
I’m “lifting” tabs with a stout, wide putty knife and having to tap along with a hammer.
Anyone know any tricks to separating these dang things without tearing them up? If I keep this up I’ll have to reroof the whole damn side.
What about a heat gun, mineral spirits, help, help, help, help?
Thanks.
MikeVB
Replies
So the short story is - he f***ed everything up and he wants you to work miracles????
Do you charge extra for miracles or just throw them in to show off?
;)
Get there early in rthe AM while things are still cool and use a flat bar to pop the old shingles loose, then slide a scrape of plastic or wax paper in uinder each. That will keep them loose until you are doing each space with anew shingle.
But odds are 50/50 that this job needs to be torn way back to get it right anyway - he deserves it.
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No on the mineral spirits, then you'll really have a mess! Cold weather will make a big difference. I use a Stanley flat bar. The heavy hi carbon hexagon one, #818. Just the right angle to keep from busting your knuckles and the wedge seems to work well both for lifting the shingles and pulling roofing nails.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Flooding the shingles with cold water from a hose is frequently helpful.
Got any blocks of ice handy?
Rip it, reroof it, let him pay.
Absolutely!Les Barrett Quality Construction
Can you entertain us with some pics!
You know Fein has a quality small fine sander that work miracles -- this sander has vibration beyond belief -- saying this as am not recommending you "sand the shingles apart" but Fein has an attachment that is like a short putty knife -- you could pry up the shingle as far as you can and then stick this in there and the tar adhesive will split with the Fein tool doing the work -- one of my window guys taught me this when he needed to remove caulk/glazing from sashes -- it was clean, neat, and effortless -- good luck - Dudley
"He also for some reason built it so that one wall came square into the middle of a bay window."
Ummm....does this mean 1/2 of his bay window looks into some other interior space and the other half looks outside. I gotta see a picture of this.
I hate these DIY jerks that give us other DIYs a bad name...hehe.
I hope you are getting paid well to undo this nonsense.
MERC.
Well I appreciate all the helpful advice. Got there early while it was "cool" - cool being a relative term here in S GA only 50 miles north of the Florida line.
Wow! What a difference two hours makes, and what a complete dumbass I felt like. I also run a wildlife consulting and nuisance trapping business. So, on the day I go to check some attic/squirrel jobs first, I get to the house and start tearing off shingles at 10 am. They, quite obviously are stuck and won't come apart with the pry bar or anything without tearing.
Look back at my time log from when I tore back the South side and I'd gotten there at 8 am.
I have a lot of before pics, and I'm going to take some after I get done (probably should go ahead and take a few during).
The customer's a great guy who goes to church with my family - I'd say us but I don't attend regularly and don't want to be a hypocrite or liar. I think he thought all I'd have to do is pick up where he left off and finish her out. I didn't want to hurt his feelings when looking at it, but I told him it was at least a 3-4 day job (I work alone), and that I'm notoriously slow.
"Well, don't worry about that, you never know what you might run into."
I'm thinking, "No, I gotta pretty damn good idea of the mess I gotta clean up here.
I got about 3.5 days into it now. Well, yesterday when he gets home I'm still re-shingling and trying to match back into his "valley." He said, 'Man this is starting to hurt my ego. You make me think I had it really screwed up since it's taking so long. But, I like the way you've matched it into the house.' I tried to kindly explain that there was a lot more work than meets the eye to get it looking like it did. He had nothing behind anything for the trimwork to frame to, gaps in the roof at the valleys, and on and on.
Anyway, I got the worst two sides done, and I have to go back and put on rake trim, and put in the soffits.
I'm no technophile - how do I go about posting photos once I'm done? I've got a 4 megapixel digital camera, but I don't know how to make sure each photo is not too large for posting.
MikeVB
P.S. By the way I'm getting enough work lined up that I'm going up on price 33% for T&M work. I'm working on that "He's very expensive, but does excellant work" rep.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=24441.1 is a link to a lot of info that many here find easy to use.
If the size of the jpeg pic is kept around 70kb it makes things easier for the dial-up posters.