Roofing in Dallas in the Fall.

The best part about fall is that it is not summer. Summer is a "beat down," as the kids say. We can do a better job this time of year but everything, and I mean everything, has a ying and a yang.
More expensive cars are nicer but more expensive. They last longer but are more costly to repair. In roofing it is always the case too even with the seasons. The day is shorter but our work day is longer. We don't chance scuffing the hot shingles but they also don't seal down as well ( another reason to hand nail: cooler temperature). The fiberglass shingles also won't lay down or settle as quickly so the roofer needs to set them in the sun for a while in order to relax them. But all of these issues are paled in consideration to the hombre nailing the shingles. I did it for years and I can tell you that in the fall the roofer is much more relaxed.
In the summer I used to think"there's a stack to cut in and it's going to slow me down. Hurry faster to make up for the lost time. It's getting hot. Oh no..." Once I told a helper to get busy because it was going to be really hot in 30 minutes. He moved a little slow for a minute then caught on fire. Not from the heat but from the realization that I was right. Our hands were moving like Steven Segal's, fast and deliberate. By the time we finished our chimney repair it was a blast furnace. In zombie like fashion we picked up the roof trash and went for our favorite beverages.
I asked him why he started to get after it so without a second warning and good ole Danny Dunn said "the temperature rose a few degrees in just a minute and I can do the math. A few degrees times 30 minutes could be 60 to ninety degree."
Exactamundo my friends. I have a joke I made up in Spanish: No hay cuatro estaciones aqui in tejas. Hay dos. The listener usually responds with "qual son?" I tell him "invierno y infierno." And they say "de la verdad."
The rhyming answer to we don't have four seasons in Texas, only two, is "winter and hell.' Not funny in English but in Spanish it is a riot.
Steep roofs? Better to do in the fall because they are very easy to scuff and if you remember my earlier forum (a roof blog by any other name is still a roof blog) scuffed shingles have been catastrophically destroyed. The exposure of the asphalt by grinding and shoving the granules to the side with a foot fall reveals organic material that our closest star eats for lunch. Asphalt is a sitting duck for photons and other subatomic cosmic rays. The pebbles protect the asphalt that stops the water. The good part is you get to choose the color of the pebbles from a predetermined selection. You can't get an exact color like paint and those who want one are unrealistic narcissists. It's like nuclear war and hand grenades: close is all you need. Both those weapons destroy roofing products.
Sometimes a roofer can't get off a steep roof to stop from damaging the shingles. I've read the shoe manufactures name from the imprint on the roof. I've seen the patterns from the bottoms of shoes smashed in the roof just like a bobcat's paw print in a dry riverbed.
If you are considering having your roof done this time of year think twice about letting the roofers use nail guns. The roofers call them "pistolas." That also means a woman's hips in Spanish. No joke. A bad translation would be to not let the roofers use woman hips to install the shingle nails. Bad idea also.
But because we'll have wind anytime, you need to be over diligent. Please read my previous rants about hand nailing by using the convenient search bar at the top of the page.
The next time I write about roofs in the fall I think it might be better to use the word autumn, considering what Google might think about "roof fall" as opposed to "roof autumn."
Have a glorious day and go Rangers.
For some reason I'm just not all worked up about the Dallas Cowboys.
Amici arrivaderci.
www.jonwrightroofing.com
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this next week Jon Wright roof Arlington.