The ROOF! The ROOF! The roof is on FIRE!

Ah nah...no fire, to go with that 80's song, but we did get get our roof done.
Last week we had serious wind storms and power outages all over the city.
I was picking up shingles all over our property. I'm not sure if they are from our house or some other house. But the shingles on the south facing side were curling like Canucks in a Briery - HAAARD!

So we got our roof shingles replaced this week.
This was one job I wasn't going to be able to do. Mostly due to my fear of heights. I know who could have done it. ChrisR. Since he's got no fear of high places with his climbing and all. He will work for bottles of wine. But it must be complex or he will not even use it for cooking.

He will accept wine with a score of no less than 92 pts.

I could pay him in USD which is like 50c CAD now, but since he's in NJ and has little in the way handy skills. And I couldn't get Mike S (from SBC, because he's only in Ottawa, cuz he only does gov't people's houses).
After getting estimates from several roofing companies - I went for my third choice. Another Mike S. We know him through our day care lady friends. He's a civil engineer from the Ukraine. And being an engineer myself, plus he has done many houses in the High Park area, including our day care ladies and came highly recommended, was very experienced and his name was MikeS.

He gave me an estimate in Nov, and recommended that the work be done when it's above 15 deg C. Mostly because the shingles are more pliable and when the nail goes through, ie. it won't crack. Other roofing companies will do the work in any weather. The problem with having it done in cold weather, is that the shingles are as hard as shale. Put a nail through it, it may not break, but may crack where the nail penetrated. Over time water will find a way to that crack and you will eventually have water damage.

He said that is the difference maker, and he can guarantee that the roof will last more than 10 years. If not, he cannot guarantee it more than 2 years. And he doesn't want to come back to fix the roof in 2 years.

He's very meticulous. His face is weathered like leather. Obviously due to working outdoors. So he's not like those guys that comes to give you an estimate, but does none of the work. He was actually here doing it.

They were delayed by the spring rain.
Finally on Tues they started. It was instead raining shingles into the trailer in our driveway. By the end of the day they were 75% done on the roof. He even put a vent for our bathroom, when I get to that.

Today they started on the garage.
By 10:30am they had the old shingles removed. By 2:30pm they were 90% done.
I thought they'd be done in 3 days, but looks like they'll be finished in 2.
I didn't realize that our old shingles were green.
I thought they were grey. But I blame my Red-Green colour blindness to that. The new ones look great.


Click me for more photos.
Some of them are focused on the window screen. Dang it. So I went to my trusty DSLR.