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Thursday, February 17, 2011

How to Choose A Roof, Part One: Color

Women get it. They know how to choose and match. A well dressed man has a good woman dressing him. Face it, guys would put plaid on plaid, strips on stripes, polka dots on stripes...with no underwear. A side note, roofing uses a lot of dress making terms: selvage,  head lap, blocking out, and ouch.

The same principles that robing yourself well, as opposed to disrobing, apply to selecting a roof color. If you read robbing, rather than robing, then you were thinking of your last roofer.For example, if you have a white brick, don't use whiteroofing. If your brick is plaid, or as we say, variegated, try to stick with a less mottled roof pattern. Solid bricks colors lend themselves to wild and exotic color schemes for roofs.

Dark roofs tend to push roof lines down just like black shirts make short people look shorter. (I just made that up but dark roofs tend to make roofs look more shallow.) Conversely, lighter colors tend to make roofs look higher.

If you have a flat roof it doesn't matter what color it is unless you have a second story to look out of or a roof patio. White high emissivity roofs are the best herein the hell hole of the universe, and I'm referring to the heat.

Compliment your color of brick and paint or siding with colors like brown with tan or red with yellow. Personally I think brown paint is depressing.

In the countryside people can have brilliant colors because the homes are far apart but if you live fifteen feet from your neighbor, your red and green roofs might clash.

Loud siding like solid red or green, obviously chosen by the previous owner, can be toned down by adding a frosted red or green roof. You have to decide which to put on which and if you don't feel comfortable, ask the lady in your life. If you have no master, then find a temporary one to make the choice for you.

If you have a tile or standing seam roof you can go hog wild on color and people will forgive you. But not my dad. When he saw my high profile red steel tile and cream colored siding he said"you look like a Mexican." I told him I didn't but his grandchildren did and he laughed and never mentioned it again. When the deceased old hag down the street saw my icicle Christmas lights, she said my house looked like a taco stand. I went on a diet immediately. But not before giving her the evil eye.

Also available are Energy Star roofs in several colors. As Henry Ford said: you can get it in any color you want as long as it's white, er, black. He was not referring to roof color though.

Most manufacturers have a virtual remodeler that allows you select a roof after imputing a similar style home from dozens of examples, the brick color, and paint color. GAF even allows you to download  a picture of a home. We used to just take a Polaroid of a home, cut out the roof, and lay the picture over the color swatches.

The color of roof is much easier to select than the style. That requires a little architectural savvy.

As a fellow student in college so profoundly said: taste is a matter of taste.

Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

How To Select a Roofing Nail And Where to Put It.

The size and type of nail used is as important as anything in a roofing project. The wrong nail and everything is lost. Put the nail in the wrong spot and the roof goes bye bye.

The asphalt composition manufacturers have made matters simple with a nail line. On the wrappers are instructions that explain if four or six nails are needed, depending on the size and weight of the roofing, and for exceptions such as steep slopes, which can require more nails. Mansard roofs require more nails.

On the rake edges there should be two nails instead of one. Wind is the obvious reason but when the roofer trims his shingle there is a pull or stress on the piece that makes the tab want to pivot. This weakens the nail torque. Plus, did I mention wind. As in previous blogs I mentioned the use of professional starter shingles as opposed to the twenty year three tab put on upside down and backwards.
The nail should penetrate at least past the tapered part of the nail so that the fat part of the nail shaft should pass through the deck, not leaving the barb partially submerged, even though this is upside down.

Ridge nails should be longer than the field nails because they need to pass through more layers: the roofing itselt and the ridges beneath them Ridge is like a reroof or second layer. Decorative and enhanced ridges need even longer nails. Nails for ridge over vent ridge need to be even longer. Enhanced ridge over vent ridge need huge nails, up to three inches. Read the directions. Read, read, read...The info is there and the manufacturers have tested and tested their products and have seen what happens over time. Think of the roofer as the criminal and the manufacturer as the cops. The police have amassed data over time and school their people. Criminal become convicts because they committed crimes but the criminals that study crime books are going to make it longer. At least on Judgment Day our sins will be brought out. Plus the manufacturers have their deputies: the certified roofing contractor.That be me. We are at the top of the food chain.


Staples and pneumatic nails are allowed but I'd never allow them on my home, or yours either. Only stone coated steel roofs like Gerard and Decra may be applied with air nailers. Those nails should not be some cheap nail off the shelf at Lowes or Home Depot, but a long life nail tested in the salt mist or spray manner.
Again, long life roof and cheap nails make for a bad combination.

"Why did that convict roofer use $50.00 a box nails on our Gerard roof instead of $100.00 a box nails on our $35,000.00 roof? He only needed three boxes. I would have paid the difference. Now the whole roof is stained and about to fall off."

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.... didn't check the ethical/moral quotient on your roofer did you?

These thinner but stronger composition asphalt roofs are flimsy when warm and brittle when cold, with a texture that changes with expose to sunlight. Nail gun regulators, if the roofer has one at all, are not adjusted with every shingle. Plus, a roofing hatchet will only drive a nail flush because the hatchet is larger than the nail whereas the nail gun's driver blade is the same size as the nail head. Despite the bad reputation of the roofing staple gun, the conundrum is that the stapler is superior to the air driven nail gun. Enough said.

The nails today are cheap, made in China, and are so shiny that I believe the labeling of "galvanized nails" is a deceptive trade practice. There is an earlier post in this forum about Maze Nails, the last American nail manufacturer. Their nails look like the nails of my youth, gray. They claim to have seven times as much zinc on their nails but zero to whatever Maze has is an infinitesimal amount.

We've all seen the nails rust away before the service life of the roof is over. The teeth are fine but the gums have to go. The weakest link determines the strength of the chain. 

Slate roofs require copper or stainless steel nails. Period.
Lifetime roofs should use the Maze nail.
Exposed nails on stone coated steel roofs should be coated and have a rating in accordance with the salt mist test.

I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy...

Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Egyptian Webolution and Why the Evil Roofers Will Take Over

Right now the roof of the world is Egypt. Tile, concrete, and thatch are all I can find on the Internets, as W. used to say. He was right too. There seem to be several of them tied together. Otherwise Hosni could not have shut his down.  Facebook became Scmacshbook, My Space went otter space, and Twitter went twatter. He controlled information by stopping it rather than sending out misinformation. No news is googleless news. Now the people were pissed!

What happened in Egypt was a webolution from the ground up. We now face a new type of potential anarchy or a reinforced dictatorship as the oracles of infodata realize their omnipotence. The direction of this new world wide web of power is in the direction of the autocrat, as in the Great Firewall. By golly, they don't even collect the taxes. How is that for an "in your face" to the state.If the Aristocrats behind the browsers grow drunk with their newly realized political power, they could become the Oligarchs. How will we know if the data, the Facebook pages, and My Space spaces are organic or controlled by men or machines. Floods of falsity, mountains of lies, scientifically gathered info on the end user, the portal being, sponging whatever glop is splashed on his flat screen, now in 3D. And if you want, you can get the sputum in your pocket via 4G.

The fears of Terminators from Skynet from  or Colossus from The Forbidden Project, Tron, Doctor Strangelove's Doomsday Device, Hal the "I wouldn't do that if I were you Dave" killer red eyed classical music copumomonster, Proteus, The Matrix (pretty close), W.O.P.R.(pretty bad wasn't it), and Logan's Run decisions over procreation or death.

Give me procreation or give me death. For it is better to die your hair on your feet than live on your knees. For that is the question. Alas I knew him well.

So here we are trusting all we can read over and over until it becomes fact, including those fake reviews shamelessly put out by roofers like Eclat, Bill Sharp, and Vertical Roofing. Not a Shrek of truth. 

When researching your potential home improvement contractor, the dude that is going to determine the future stability of your home and maybe your marriage, do your due diligence. Search for other portals and do not let the Mubarack channel determine what you see and read.

Angie's list, Complaints Board, Boardhost, random snippets of viral cyber DNA floating out there waiting to enlighten you, anything but info from the mouthpiece of George Orwell's 1984, as in these two lovely quotes:
  • "If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happened-that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death."
    - George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 3
  • "And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"
My vote goes to the Lawnmower Man because he is up front about what he wants to do. Plus I love the new twist on the old evil laugh.

You voluntarily put that eyeball looking camera on your computer, didn't you? Why? Can't someone with more skills than yours turn it on against your will? How far are you willing to go to risk everything just to communicate now.

This is where we might go if the evil convict roofers get their way:


VICTORY <strong>**Spoiler Alert!**</strong> Image
"He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."


 Big Brother Roofing, founded 1984, just when the first of the Terminator movies was released. How about Skynet Roofing, or V Roofing, "we come in peace, always."

"They did a Gerard roof in one day and metal did save us a lot on energy..." even though the roof was put on in January(or was it put on at all) and the review was done in January, by a company that started in January 2010, eight years ago. Members of everything but never listed.

Look, listen, read, compare. You are alone out there and you have to sort it out. You can't stay in Tajir Square forever.


Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Mexican Electricity, The Red Sea, Dallas Roofs

The word "conundrum" is like music to my ears. Just love it. Can't explain, won't try. Why do you love your wife? Your kids you love, I know, because of a complex series of physical and physiological changes that have occurred because of the metabolic changes that have happen to you, the mom, or to the father, because of what has happened to the mom. The dad gets pregnant too. He should, at least, anyway. but as far as conundrums go, I love them.
Here's the best two this week:

Mexico infiltrates our grid with electricity. These guys, with chaos and reckless (why no "H" I do not know) abandon ruling the place, had to send us some electricity to keep things going. Well, what do you know? So much for first world.

Egypt:"Yeah! We have a military dictatorship again." The same people are ruling that they kicked out. Yeah! They've been in charge since 1952. Hosni "Fly Boy" Mu-Barak is gone only to leave the leader of the ruthless internal security forces in charge. Maybe their ideas of democracy are a little different. We are all Egyptian this week. Let's see what happens. We have no choice but to watch how the going plays out.

What does this have to do with roofing? A whole bunch. Prices my friend. when the oil giants figured a way to extract more fuels from the garbage they sold to the roofing manufactures, this trash called asphalt becomes black gold...Texas Tea...and the same Egyptians who controlled the Suez Canal, the place down the road from the Somali Yacht Club, might realize that the western world has cause a conundrum that is their own ass-fault.

Thus, when we had cold feet, we turn to Mexico for another import besides people: electricity. Hearken, I shout, for to be free and warm, and not live under the spell of a cold tyranny, we need Elektron and her little bro Foton. Not futon, but a balanced ph with solar panels upon well made roofs.

Do you know how close you came to being miserable like some of those other Texans who went for hours without electricity? Maybe you did? Maybe you heard "Daddy, I want to go to school." Rolling brown outs cured with Mexican electricity? Who'd a thunk it?

Both conundrums you can cure if you start your homework now. We're here for you. Better roofs and free electricity. You just need to invest in a little save the planet machinery, while you take a tax credit and a huge property value increase.

Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Friday, February 11, 2011

Hot Water and Furnace Flues on Roofs in Dallas

One of our customers has what she believes is a roof leak. The leak never occurred before. Now that winter has arrived, their is moisture and daylight around the furnace pipe.

As for why it never happened before, I can't say but the HVAC guys had to work on the double walled pipe when we did the roof because it kept coming apart. Maybe the pipe had come apart before and the spent gases where being eliminated in several places. Those guys say the pipes are fine but we know better.

The local municipal building official agrees with me that the double walled pipe should, by code, pass through the roof line for two feet past the nearest obstruction or roofing within four feet. As the roof has a 12/12 pitch, a twelve foot rise in twelve feet, the roofing four feet away is four feet higher. If the pipe is not near the ridge, adding two feet to the altitude of the furnace flue should mean that the piping terminates six feet above the point of exit.

The by-product of burning natural gas is water and heat, or water vapor, and carbon monoxide. Carbon mono-what! The fact that the pipe does not extend past the roof line but only into a vent means that the pipe does not have the proper type B gas cap on it also. But I am ashamed to admit, but only a little because I now know, that if the pipe angles too much or is too large, the water vapor might condense before it extracts itself out the top of the pipe.

This makes perfect sense but I never considered the math behind the pipe. I knew there was some but just like most people consider dentistry and exact science, I assumed that licensed HVAC people knew the simple rules. Now I must master the nuances of furnace and hot water boiler repairmen because they are effecting my business.

And they might kill my customers and leave me with a manslaughter charge or two to deal with. At 53 years of age I'm not ready to take on a life of crime. I'll leave that to the experts. My line of work is protecting your home and health. Read previous blogs.

The pipes in this scenario also fell easily when touched. How secure could they have been. When the pipes are perfectly vertical they sometimes have no strapping. They should. Something to keep the things that go bump in the night, in the attic, from knocking them loose and causing a lot of clanging and bashing from going on.

When the pipes are angled and are fit together with adjustable elbows, they should be strapped at each end. The seams of the joints should also be sealed with the silver HVAC tape that resists the high heat.

Once, when I was scaling a steep roof, I reached for a 3" double wall pipe, usually for a hot water heater because 5" and larger are for furnaces, and intended to only use it for a little help. Before I felt a thing I heard the hiss and searing of flesh somewhat reminiscent of an old locomotive engine. I knew what this meant for me in the upcoming weeks.

Skip the crying and go directly to yell. Do not collect $200.00. Burns get worse before they get better.

Back at the gas farm, the science of furnace flues has become clearer to me. I knew that chimneys had to be two feet higher than any part of the roof within ten feet of the chimney and I now know that gas flues need to be two feet higher than roofing or obstructions within four feet. That is the word of the Southlake inspector.
When asked if we could change the flashing and add a double walled extension to short pipes, he reluctantly said yes. you could tell he didn't want us there but he gave me special dispensation after listening to my chants.

If you missed it, the condensation usually reveals itself in colder and more humid environs. Next time we have those, run to the attic and see if you have attic drip. The headache you save might be your wife's, a carbon monoxide pain.

Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The First Course and Amount of Overhang on Composition Roofs

The last section of my index finger is the universal measurement of composition roofing overhang. I can back this up with the Universal Building Code, GAF, the NRCA, and the plethora of other roofing gurudom because my index finger is the perfect 3/4" length needed for perfection in asphalt roofing overhang.

The felt under the shingles needs to go over the metal edge on the downside eave and on the rakes, the part of the roof edge that goes up the sides, the felt needs to go under the metal edge. If you use a leak protector like GAF StormGuard and WeatherWatch, Certainteed WinterGuard, Grace Ice and Water, Owens Corning WeatrherLoc, Tamko Metal and Tile and MoistureGuard, or Tarco MS300, you need to install it in the same fashion as the felt.

The metal edging has stiffening beads or ribs on the topside that goes under the shingles that act to keep water wicking from water tension between the starter shingle and the metal edge. The face of the metal edge has no beading because the customers would scream there was.

The next part is the starter shingle. Most roofers use a twenty year shingle turned upside down and backwards rather than use the professional starter shingle that have come out in the last decade. This cheap shingle used even with high end roofing can result in the ladder, or whatever attacking force encounters the roof edge, breaking the first row of roofing. Thus water enters the overhang, the paint on the eave goes bad, the wood rots, and water can end up on the floor having passed down through the outside wall. Plus the roofer needs to offset the starter at least six inches to keep the water from penetrating the eaves.

The starter also helps prevent "blow off" as it has a stronger tensile strength and has additional self sealant near the bottom of the roof 's first row. The three tab starter also causes a bulge further up the roof because it laps too much, lining up the top of the starter and first row. On roofs less than a 6/12 pitch this can help lead to water infiltration.

The soffit is lower than the ceiling and any water that reaches the top of the soffit will not make it to the ceiling. But it can run down the inside of the wall and come out at the baseboard or work its way under the floor to lurk and create primordial soup long strand amino acids waiting for the electrical short from the water logged wall socket.

It's Alive.....

There is a metal edge called "D" style, which by the way is not shaped like a "D." Whoever he was he had a corrupt sense of humor. The manufacturer seems to think that the extra overhang of the "D" style, which is the same as my index finger, means you don't need to extend the shingle past the edge of the metal. I don't like it because the tightness of the shingle laying in the metal allows water to wick just like water between two pieces of glass. There are extra stiffening beads that act as wicking inhibitors and I've never seen it to be a problem but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Shake Roofs: We always left a one and a half two two inch over hang on wood roofs, which, by the way, do not use metal edge. At least that is the case hear in Dallas Texas because we don't, ad can't, put cedar over solid decking. The plywood would rot,. We use spaced sheathing, also called lathe. With both the thinner wood shingles, which lay together tightly, or the shakes, that are rough and loose and require a felt underlayment to keep the water out, we need a double course of wood shingles or tapersaw to keep the overhang dry. The shakes also use multiple layers of felt on the eave.

Tile, standing seam, and synthetic roofs use the 3/4 rule too but Gerard and Decra, the stone coated steel tiles and shakes, fit tightly over a fascia metal. This metal is rather wide, which adds protection to the eave that is lacking from having an overhang.

Today's lesson is that roofers are held responsible for the interior of the home in how their roofs function but rarely to property owners realize that the rotting wood and peeling paint on the exterior of their home is the result of poor roofing practices.

Then their is the old Jon Wright mantra of ventilation. Besides the high energy bills, house stink, sick kids, HVAC repairs, and radon gas, you can add the painter's and carpenter's bills to the list of costs that cheap roofer left you to pay.

Ask you roofer this: Does the felt go over or under the metal edge? There are two separate answers. They differ depending if it is the eave or rake and if he gives only answer one he is wrong. Maybe he knows a painter too? And maybe you know an attorney?


Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Education And Manual Labor, Not An Educational Blog About Roofs

My Twelve year old son, who decided that education is only for adults, asked me tonight if you could still be married and have a bachelors degree. He proved my point. Education is consummate with your age. If you don't get one you might end up working for me on those hot, I mean, cold Texas roofs. If you have a fine education, you'll hire my services, no doubt, because you can detect a learned and continual self educating roofer versus the ex-con type who already knows it all.

That brings me to the twenty year old slate roof I climbed yesterday. The roof was falling apart, already had been patched numerous times, had only one layer of 30 lb. felt for underlayment, had galvanized valleys, galvanized step flashing, and galvanized nails. With the humidity and rain we have hear, the massive mineral content of the slate has washed out and started a war with the galvanized metals and is winning.

But, hey, he has a slate roof. And his beautiful crown molding is rotting, his deck is rotting, the sheet rock is damaged, and there are pieces of slate everythere.

No doubt the work of the convict roofer, who might have been able to elude capture up to this point. If I can pry the name I'll expose him, and if any of you doubt it, just stick around for part II, "Convict Roofers From Hell, The Destruction."

So, do you need an education? Boys and girls, it never stops, and if you think it does or you've had enough, one day they'll come pull you out from your desk and deliver you to me for re-education services. first we'll go to the conditioning camp, then heat/cold tolerance. We lose about 80% on the long march but the whistling is great while we build the bridge.

During my four year sentence to post high school, I served my time in the gulag learning to quote Aristotle, Hobbes and Locke, Rousseau, Marx (Groucho,of course) and Monty Python. Even a little Robert Marley, who many of you who only know him as a musician named Bob. I sweated, suffered, and laid the groundwork for future precancerous cells only to emerge from my cocoon to be a moth, damit, but a good one at that. Yet in the last chapters of my life I do not suffer, I do not toil, but I send others to our own purgatory to suffer for you.

One of the advantages I have is I'm one of the few native English speakers, and my Spanish is much better than all but about six gringos I've ever met, that has actually bleed repeatedly on a roof and understand what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and how to get 'er done without running the horses into the ground.

If your having trouble explaining what an education means to your progeny, send them to me and they'll see that one summer can be an eternity. But be careful, they might like it like I did. The part they also need to remember is that our moving parts wear out and spares are not easy to come by. Roofing is grueling, hard labor, best done by young men under the supervision of physicists and mathematicians. Even an occasional philosopher or two might find their way in to the conversation also.

Roofs are up there, heavy, nailed down, dirty, moldy, stinky, hot or cold, and that is just the tear off part. The loading, nailing down, cleaning up, and the physical and mental challenges of never forgetting that a few feet away is a precipice or structurally insufficient part awaiting a foot or knee will always be part of the job.

Somebody buy the guy a coke. I bet there's not a dry eye in the house.
Go finish that bachelor's degree and get a wife... I mean life.

Happy Valentine's Day from you favorite roofer.
Felicidades en el día del Amor y la Amistad,
Avete un giorno felice San Valentino

And for our friends in Egypt who are struggling to have what we as Americans take for granted :

لديك الأحبة يوم سعيد
 Of course I used Google Translator.


Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Super Bowl Roofing and Valentine's Day Massacre

The amount of precipitation, of various kinds, has smacked Dallas around like stories from either The Books of Referations or X-O-dus, which  alike tell of the masses coming for a great event in our modern Sodom and Gomorrah, and catastrophes befalling the emissaries of the Cult of The Super Bowl.

"Great sheets of ice shall strike the non believers in the noggin after a week of cold wind, ice, and snow. The legions of the leagues shall pay out their gold to the gods of the arena and Jerry of the Jones shall take their souls in flight.They will knell in the Death Star and gaze into the jumbotron. Only the game's end shall free the people to the X-O-dus back to their families whence they came. The children will wheeze and cough and the walls will discolor. After the battle has concluded the sinners will return to their frozen and barren Yankee lands while we, the chosen ones, shall bask in the warm sun, free of their cursed lamentations of how bad Texas is." Thus spoke the commissioner.

What I'm trying to say is that while everyone is caught up in Super Bowl Fever, the cold water has been penetrating under their shingles and slime molds are beginning. If your roof is not ventilated correctly according to the "Soda Straw Theory," formerly known as "The Chimney Effect," The wetness of backed up water shall distort their plywood, mildew their felt and shingles, and spald their chimney bricks.

The respiratory aliments and allergies of their children, and even themselves, shall explode exponentially. This is some of the worst stuff that can happen to a roof if the roofer they used has no idea what The "300 Rule" is.

Now is the time to survey the attic for moisture, check your soffits for leaking, look in the closets, and see if the roof and gutters are free of debris. Don't forget to look behind the chimney and look for backing out nails.

Noteworthy is that sarcasm can carry a roofing blog only so far. Where are the questions? We had a good run as Dear Abernathy but the well seems to have run dry.

For all you Casanovas out their with reasonably happy relationships, don't forget to have your florist to send a pretty bouquet to wherever your mate's peers can survey them. The power lies not in the flora but in the gloating of the addressee over the lesser women who once considered themselves her equal. Now the ladies of the office or social club know a man is completely under her ether and like a good zombie follows her every whim. That is the temporary image she portrays. They shall beg her for her magic and advice and make her feel like superwoman for at least a half hour. Otherwise a new Saint Valentine's Day Massacre shall befall your reasonably happy relationship, and if the roof leaks too, your relationship might not survive. Then you'll have to part with lots of money that she already has access to and you'll have to wash your own clothes. Take it from a man who cooks and washes daily. She deserves it anyway because you just expect her to provide you with what she does and her only days of glory are Valentines, Mother's Day, her birthday, and your wedding day. The other 361 1/4 days you get the flowers and clean clothes.

I think those guys dressed in white with the padded van are here to put me in that weird jacket that makes it impossible to scratch your nose. I gotta go.


Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Friday, February 4, 2011

A Foot of Snow Will Bend A Low Sloped or Flat Roof.

Last year a very wet foot of snow fell on Dallas for the first time. At 32°F you have the wettest snow possible. Many people called us with sags and other problems. One adjuster told me he say no structural damage from the snow and I let out a roar of a laugh. "What about all the collapsed patios and carports?" He said that that was different. I asked "how?" He said those were different. Again I asked "How?' and he gave me the blank stare.

One guy told me he kept and I on his home and the sag over his cathedral ceiling was new. The insurance said no.

A new customer has a leak on his low sloped composition roof that began last year. First the roof leaked only in harder rains and after we tried to fix the tarred up skylight, it leaked in a sprinkle. We noticed that when observing the roof from the other side that the roof looked like it had a lake on it. When standing above the roof you could not see the lake.

The roof had sagged and parts of the roof had less than the minimum magic slope of 2/12, a fall of two feet every twelve feet. In fact the surface became a collection bowl toward the center.

The adjuster saw nothing broken but bought the slope of roof and the inside damage. There was no reason to buy this slope except for the fact it was bent and he didn't pay for the unbending, reframing that is, of the section. What a dizzz. He had the gall to argue with me about the minimum roofing slope claiming the statute was 3/12. I quoted the IRC, International Residential Code (the precursor for the UBC or Uniform Building Code), the NRCA, GAF, Certainteed.... he said we could agree to disagree. I told him "No. I am right and you are wrong." The gall bladder of him.

Some of these bent and sagging roofs are starting to show more stress but the insurance companies will continue to blame defective construction methods. Funny how these methods worked until we had the first foot of snow in this epoch, and it was as wet a snow as can be. Besides, as the snow slowly melted a pool formed behind the overhangs causing more weight than the foot of wet snow. Now a small lake maybe two or three inches deep of slush and water was added to the foot of snow.

If the structure bends, the framing will never go back to where the original plane was. The result will be somewhere between 1/3 and 2/3 spring back but if you are at the minimum, you no longer are. Leave this on the roof for a week and she'll never be the same.

On top of all this, on low slope roofs the weight is placed more on the rafters and joists themselves rather than the outside walls. The steep the roof the more the load is on the walls. The less the slope, the more weight is on the middle of the roof.


Let's see how much wet snow weighs.

From Answers.com:
Ken Hellevang, from the University of North Dakota says:

"The weight of snow varies greatly. Light fluffy snow may only weigh about seven pounds per cubic foot. More average snow may weigh 15 pounds per cubic foot and drifted compacted snow may weigh 20 pounds or more.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_cubic_foot_of_snow_weigh#ixzz1D10H8loQ

Or how about this answer from Answers.com:




That depends

It depends on how much you have!!
One shovelful of snow, for example, weighs less than the amount of snow on your driveway.
I suspect what you are really asking is not how much snow weighs but how much it weighs per cubit foot or cubic yard. Weight per unit volume is called density.
But even that is tricky with respect to snow. The density of snow varies greatly. Lightly packed powder weighs very little per cubic foot, whereas slushy, wet snow can weigh over 62 pounds per cubic foot -- about the density of water.

.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_snow_weigh#ixzz1D10fRMvO

And another:

A square foot of snow does not have a weight: the depth of the snow is needed to give the weight because weight relates to the volume of snow. Even if you know the depth of the snow, say a foot, giving a cubic foot of snow, there is a wide range of possible weights because snow can vary in density depending on whether it is lightly or densely packed.

The range of density of snow compared to the density of water can vary from 100:1 (for snow that is 100 times less dense or heavy than the equivalent volume of water) to 3:1.
A more common density might be around 12:1.

Water has a mass of 1kg/L so for a cubic meter (1000L) of snow, the mass could be anything in the range of 10kg to 333kg.
Keeping that in mind, a foot of snow would be about 6.75lb to 223.82lb.
The weight of snow can not be answered based on an area of a square foot of snow: the volume is required. It also depends on the kind of snow it is. Example- packing snow will have a different weight (because of its density) than other kinds of snow.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_square_foot_of_snow_weigh#ixzz1D11H9FVf



Are we sure that there is no possibility that this newly sagged roof, that didn't sag before the snow, could not have been damaged by the melting foot of very wet snow. If you add 620 lbs. of wet snow to the middle of the roof for every roof square, and the average roof is 35 squares, then you have 21,700 extra pounds on the roof with much of it going to the center. Any preexisting sag will now become an arroyo.

The roof I've been referring to has only 625 feet of surface area on a 2/12 pitch with no framing between the ridge and fascia. That's 3,875 lbs, almost an F-150 Ford pick up, and is if you add the melted pooling water under the snow. That is if you break it down by the foot because some areas give up weight to place it in the middle of the roof.

Remember the Metrodome!

Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Mumbarak Went Cheap On His Roof And He'll Dance For It

Saddam and Hosni both went cheap on their roofs and look where it got them. Saddam was executed and soon so will Hosni. Because he said he would quit after killing a few hundred more people for old times sake, he will be doing the Mussolini swing, a dance performed inverted from the end of a rope. This modern swing dance is credited with being the inspiration for hip hop dancing the world over.

Better roofs, capable of resisting whatever the local environment can throw at them, whether it be four inch hail stones or Stinger missiles, are available in every market. We use reinforced asphalt whereas the Egyptians use reinforced concrete. Sometimes we use leak protectors or better ventilation and they build theirs inside a mountain.

Despite the slight differences in techniques, the same testing logic prevails. So if you want to remain dictator of your home for more than a measly 30 years, we have a 50 year option that can keep you in control until the drool runs down your lip.

Just look how long the pyramids have lasted. They've lost track of the warranty a long time ago and their have been several property claims filed over the millennium too.

Today we have learned that all tyrants and kings, absolute rulers of their homes and homelands, should use a certified roofer with all the training and experience necessary to keep their abodes from falling into chaos.

Or they better go to Arthur Murray and practice.

Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Old Roofs And New Roofs In The Cold, a Rambling Blurt

Dallas seems to be defying the theory of Global Warming. Yes evolution is a theory. All are theories because the empirical proofs either has passed and only evidence remains or the theory has not been completed yet.

Dinosaurs in the past and warming in the future.

But it sure is cold, neither a proof nor disproof. Funny how the dictionary lists theory and hypothesis as antonyms for proof. They seem to be neutral and not opposite in meaning.

But it is cold and for the second year there is prolonged ice on the roofs in Dallas. Last year a foot of snow caused a lot of damage, even structural, but unless something was broken, the insurance companies denied every claim unless sued. It seems bending, bowing, and warping under weight was not covered.

Somebody needs to do something about them. A foot of wet snow can bend anything.

But it's cold and ice is on the roofs, again. Don't you think a little leak protector like Ice and Water,  WinterGuard, StormGuard, or WeatherWatch would have been a low cost investment to protect domestic tranquility?

Too late now buddy. You bought the slightly cheaper thing and now it can't do what it was supposed to do. You lost everything. Who was that preacher around 1900 who said the maxim of business is you can't get a lot for a little so if you decide to buy the cheaper thing, set some money aside to pay for what it can't do, and then you'll have enough to buy the better one?

Dallas Texas does more than get hot. Anyone outside today can blame those Packers and Steelers. They brought it with them to rub our collective noses in it. Let them live here for two years and they'll be wimpier than us, just like the other displaced Yankees who cry when it gets cold.  Don, one of our group, has decided to winter in Ecuador. He's from St. Louis and claims he's had his share of cold.

Is your roof ice dam proof? Remember, if the ice has melted on the body of your roof and not the overhang, the leak protector will help but you are improperly ventilated. You are not eliminated the warm humid air from your attic and it is melting the ice except on the overhangs. If you think a warm attic is a buffer, you are nuts. Once the heat is past your insulation it is gone and helping no one but your energy provider.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Prophesy: Flat Roofs Are Ripping Apart

ein bin berliner  Ein bin Egyptliner....Godspeed to those who want what we take for granted and all prayers that they don't get something worse.

The soothsayers, the oracles at Delphi, Carnac the Magnificent, Nostradamus, and all the greats cannot compete with me in my realm.

Do you hear that giant tearing sound? Much time has passed since it has been this cold in Dallas and Dallas flat roofs have something to say: rippppppp!

As roofs age they lose flexibility. Roofs made of small sections, like sloped comp or slate roofs, don't experience as great a thermal shock as those that are welded into one giant bathtub. As they naturally shrink the membranes pull themselves off the perimeter flashing, penetrations, and walls. Seams in the middle of the roof experience stresses as wind, ground movement, and temperature changes banter the membranes about. yet the normal extreme is hot. now it is cold. Deep Yankee cold. Zero is pretty cold by even northern standards even if it is not forty below.

The bricks are actually expanding if they are moisture laden, the ground is doing the Watusi, and the inside is hot and humid, in direct conflict with the dynamics going on on the outside. Slam a few doors and run the heck out of the heating system and keep the humidity high.

As I said:rrrriiiipppp.

Come thaw day, which might be Thor day, or Thursday as we descendants of the Vandal culture have corrupted it, the relaxation of roof frigidity will bring a massive influx of roof leaks.

I'm not kidding. Any old coal tar pitch roofs will have fifteen foot rips, EPDM roofs will separate here and there, PVC roofs will fracture, and TPO roofs will find their weaknesses. There will be no exceptions on all roofs over 15 years old of any large scale.

The sound my office will hear will hear the next big rain will be "ring, ring, ring..."

Didn't I recommend annual inspections? Did you listen?

Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)