*
Ryan, I had the same thing on my former one-room school. Stripped it to the skip sheathing, added 1/2″ ply, re-did the facia & crown, then laid dimentional shingles. Three big skylights on one side, three reverse gable dormers on the other.
Started stripping from the top to minimize crap falling into the attic (whole ‘nother project). Not fun, but on a 12/12 pitch, it slides off pretty good. Good luck with the project! There is no feeling quite like having a new roof. (Especially if the old one was leaking!)
Replies
*
Ryan, I had the same thing on my former one-room school. Stripped it to the skip sheathing, added 1/2" ply, re-did the facia & crown, then laid dimentional shingles. Three big skylights on one side, three reverse gable dormers on the other.
Started stripping from the top to minimize crap falling into the attic (whole 'nother project). Not fun, but on a 12/12 pitch, it slides off pretty good. Good luck with the project! There is no feeling quite like having a new roof. (Especially if the old one was leaking!)
*
Hey Ryan,
If you do run into a problem from too much debris falling into the attic, ie if you need to start from the bottom, you can take some 1x material and tack it in between the skip sheathing as you go. But generally you'd want to work top down as bearmon said. I just use a roof ripper and go sideways, rip off shingles and pound down stubborn nails rather than pull them. If you have a good location in one area for the debris to go, and decent pitch, you can angle a 2x6 (or larger) to form a sort of chute for the crap to slide along, saves a lot of picking up if you don't have a loader or some other mechanical means of receiving it.
If you're doing the work yourself and can't do a lot at one time, break the roof into sections, tear off, add plywood and felt, keep it weatherproof as you go.
I'm sure you already knew most of this though.
MD
*Here's two things you need: get one of those ugly Stanley wonder bars with the extra bend, a super wonderbar. The other thing is a garden fork with fiberglass handle. I've bought various rippers, but for cedar this fork is best-- right at the heel drill through all four tines and screw a chunk of 2x2 on the back for a fulcrum. Or a piece of tube if you got a welder.
*Like Lonecat i use the garden digging fork. Start at top corner work down,then switch to working sideways with exposed skip sheeting for toeboards.
*Ryan,What you need is a tear-off tool made by a company called AJC.( They also make a lot of other great roofing related tools) We call ours " shingle-eaters" The ones made by AJC cost about $35-40 and are so superior to everything else on the market you would not believe it.They are lightyears ahead of a pitchfork.I gaurantee this tool will save you its purchase price the first hour you use it.Have fun,Stephen
*All I've got for shingles is those flat blade shovel things with the teath cut into the blade. Lonecat, Joe D, are you actually talking about a pitch fork? It seems I'd bend or break the tines prying up cedar shingles.And Stephen, what's different about this AJC roofing spade?I'll be able to get a front end loader to dump the debris into. I'll also be able to tear off in one day and at least tarp everything because I'll never get the roof, step down hip addition, and four hip dormers sheathed the same day. Thanks, for the suggestions, my biggest concern are where to stand as I'm tearing off what I'm standing on and all the crap that's gonna end up in my attic.I'm actually doing this now because I'm considering turning my attic into an office and two bedrooms.
*Ryan,Stephen's not kidding about the shingle eater. I wouldn't attempt a roof tear off without one. I'm not sure of the manufacturer. Mine are yellow, 4 1/2 to 5' long, very stiff, and the end is angled such that there is minimum bending over for the operator. Jagged teeth at the end to pull out most of the roofing nails. On some tearoffs, I find less frustration by removing the asphalt shingles first and then use a straight claw hammer to remove the wood shingles. It depends on how easy they come up or the space between the perlins. If there is enough space there to get your hammer in, I normally just work along popping the cedar up. No matter how you take the old stuff off, the attic is going to be a mess. You'd be wise to cover it with a tarp or some poly to catch most of it.The roof framing on these old houses don't normally lay out very well for plywood. If you wanted your plywood to break on rafters, you'd end up cutting every sheet. I let the plywood fall where it wants and screw it down on the ends that don't break on rafters. This will help prevent the ends from popping up in the future.Good luck,Red dog
*Ryan,Like bearmon said, start stripping from the top and work down. There will be a lot to stand on. There is the top of each perlin, all the cedar shingle nails that stay in, and the next hump of material you're taking off. If the pitch is over a 10, put some boards & brackets on the leading edge of the roof you're working on. This is a safety valve and will also allow you collect a lot of what you're tearing off at the bottom of the roof. From there, you can toss the material where you want.I normally stand up some plywood against the house to protect it from falling debris and put a tarp on the ground to throw the stuff on.Red dog
*Ryan,I think the actual name is AJC "shing-go" It has many more teeth than its competitors(including Red Dogs).The part with the teeth is replaceable. It has a built in fulcrum.There is an optional skid plate you can get which bolts on the fulcrum which means the tool lasts for years of viscious use.You can get the tool with either a wood handle or a fiberglass handle. I believe the fiberglass handle is warranted as unbreakable. Ignore the tempting fiberglass handle and get the wood handle which works better.The fiberglass handle bends a little under load. Believe me,you don't want to waste any energy bending handles-----you want all your effort transmitted to the work.this is THE tool for the jobTry : AJC Hatchet Co.,1227 Norton Rd.,Hudson,Ohio 44236. 1-800-428-2438,Fax 216-650-1000They have this tool and many others designed to transform your dumbest laborers in to money making machines.good Luck,Stephen
*
Ryan, I tarped the attic floor and the ground. Placed garbage cans on the ground tarp. They caught a fair amount of the stuff coming off the roof, reducing the amount I had to pick up. Exposed skip sheathing is really easy to get around on. To strip, I used a wonder bar & claw hammer. Tedious, perhaps, but leaves it real clean for plywood.
*
doing any good ryan? raining here- well it was- got a window, too late to go back to work and too soon to go to bed. my inside stuff is all caught up for a change.
anyway- the potato fork is an actual implement, heavier than a pitch fork. the shingle ripper works pretty well for what you're doing-not the shovel type. you probably know that by now. the best method i've ever seen is what my dad did when i was 13- he sent me up with all the aforementioned tools then went to play golf.
since i'm caught up think i'll go play a few holes- i'd come help you but i can't remember where you liv...
*Hi Ryan,No not a pitch fork. A garden fork 4 times that are much sturdier than a pitch fork.joe d
*I went and looked at the last ripper I bought, (I don't use it cause it doesn't work near as good as my garden fork on cedar covered with composition. I wish it did cause its cool looking.) Anyway, its an AJC Shin-Go. Ryan-- if you'll promise to not vote for George W., you can have it.
*Thanks loancat. I'd love to make that offer but it looks like my only other choice is Gore.
*Come on Lonecat,tell the truth. How well did your garden fork pull the nails? How much extra time did you spend going back over the whole roof,inch by inch,pulling and pounding nails ?If you had used the Shingo properly,with new teeth,you get virtually all the nails on the first pass,including those pain in the butt"box nails",the cedar around here was installed with.just my opinion,Stephen
*YO Stephen: I respect your opinion on all issues, and agree with almost all. Two exceptions would be new trucks and that damn Shin- Go. Does yours have different teeth? On mine the notches are about 3/4 inch deep. And too much angle in the handle. On a 12-12 slope clinging to the ridge, it is impossible to force the tool far enough under the shingles to do much good. My old partner also rejected it. I used it once on a piece that was low slope asphalt on plywood and it worked fairly well. Unfortunately for me, the last few houses I've roofed were steep, with multiple layers of asphalt. Down here in the Ozarks they think nothing of 4 layers
*hey lonecat, we got one cummin up with 30 sq. of either 5 er 7 layers.. can't tell.. who cares anyways.but if u bring ur Shin-go to petefest, u can give it to me... i'll vote fer whoever u want...BTW, all these shingle rippers cum in differnt styles , we keep trying differnt brands..got some home-made flat shovels i bolted a piece of one inch pipe to to give leverage..i'm the only one will use it, must be pride of authorship...we also have long-handle & short handle rippers.. and we get into the same arguements about them as long handled and short handled banjos...just keep rippin, and snortin, trade off to exercise some differnt mussels,, and put enuff guys on to make lite werk...
*Lonecat,There are a few tricks to the tool.1) Use it sitting down on the roof,not standing.Much easier on the back.(I realize you probably were not standing on the 12/12)2)The angle is your friend if you use it right.Shove the teeth under the shingles till you reach the first nail. A quick shove down on the handdle pops out the first nail.Shove the eater in farther till you reach the next nail and pop it out.Keep sliding the eater around and poping out the nails you can reach. DO NOT take the eater out from under the shingles till you have a big chunk loosened and then shove that chunk off all at once.3)The basic motion with the tool is prying down nail by nail.Thats why the angle is your friend----it's all leverage.4) on a steep roof you want to come at it from the side,not from above.If you come at it from above,then yes the handles angle will be tough to work on a 12/12.Come at it from the side and work along the decking board.(that way the teeth will not catch on the skip sheeting)Some one else already described the pattern used.Tear off the first rack about 3 feet wide from ridge to gutter(the first rack is the toughest). Then just continue across the roof in 3 feet racks.5) I often shove my foot under a slab of loosened shingles to lift it higher and allow reaching further in with the eater and loosening an even bigger chunk.6) Even with the shing-go this whole thing is still a huge pain in the rear.The right levering action ,coming from the right direction makes all the difference.The whole motion is less like shoveling and more like jacking up a car.7)Seriously,you can get an un-believable amount of work out of one of these things.Good Luck,Stephen
*Ryan,I have a different kind of tip for you. I don't know where you live but down here in La. I always set off a few bug bombs the day before tearoff of cedar. I learned the hard way when a 6" wasp nest came up with a shingle. Remember to shut off pilot lights or the shingles may come up by themselves.KK
*Man, you are on to something. A good blast inside the house sure would loosen that stuff up. Would a concussion bomb in the attic blow the rock off the ceilings below?
*Lonecat,The densepack would protect against that.KK
*
It's time to replace the roof on my own house. I've got a layer of asphalt over cedar shingles. The shingles are on shingle lath nailed across 4x6 rafters.
Any suggestions on stripping all this off? I'm planning on leaving the lath (or adding new) and sheathing with plywood.