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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Dew on the Roof

The morning dew appeared very eerie in the moonlight. The moisture wrinkled the roofing felt which cast a set of shadows in the long moonbeams. Passing clouds sometimes deprived all light except for the occasionally passing police car.  The roof was naked but only for her loose fitting wet black pajamas.

Soon the roofers would show up to hurriedly put down the shingles hoping to beat the scorching sun. Until then the calm was upon the roof. Running and dripping, the dew collected behind the wrinkles in the home's temporary covering, eventually reaching the edge and mostly falling to the ground.

The black felt had absorbed much of the moisture, weakening and distorting it until it was a menace. But the roofers, in their trucks, drinking their stimulator and hydrating themselves in order to steel  their bodies to the coming torturous day, were thinking only of shaving seconds from their race.

The dawn went crack and the hatchets went pound. The sound of fast footsteps and falling bundles destroyed the silence like a war. Yes, a war against the clock and sun. A battle fought daily by hard men hoping to suffer less than yesterday when the tools and material burned their hand through callouses so thick you might wonder how they can feel anything. Raise the sail and pull the anchor because the enemy approaches soon.

Sadly, despite all the efforts of these brave warriors, the roof will fail sooner than it should because the trapped moisture will blister the roofing and the wrinkles in the paper will give the wind a handle to rip off the face of the roof. They could have sliced the felt to  make it flat but then it is useless the next time wind or hail smashes the roof.

The roofer is but a machine doing whatever he can get away with. The devil sits on his shoulder all day saying "put in three nails instead of four. You'll go faster." He is a patient. He would whisper in my ear at moments of weakness, when the sun beat down on me like I was  in Hell itself. If not for a moral code and a boss who would have drawn and quartered me, this once a teenage roofer would have committed the sin of three nails.

I saw a roofer three nail a mansard. My dog hated that guy and now I know why. I made him go back and put in the forth nail and told him if I found just one missing he would not get paid. Due diligence followed.





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
    Follow jwrightroofing on Twitter

Saturday, August 20, 2011

The Roof Forum Itself

This site has been referred to as a news, informational, resource, comedic, rant, expose', and garbage site. Thank you all for your agreements and disagreements.

The fist posting was December 4, 2009 and in May, 2009 Google started tracking hits. Since May 2009 The Roof Forum has had over 40,000 hits. I have not monetized it and write strictly to either educate, inform, rant, or joke. We have received some business from the Forum and well as made the job more difficult for other roofers out there that don't know or don't try to follow the best practices. And believe you me, that in my 32 years as a roofing contractor the industry has always been in a sorry state. My God, how could anyone ever justify the usage of a term like "reusing the felt?" That just doesn't compute. Would you say "reuse the cigarette? Reuse the glass of milk? The gasoline? Thieving jerks or just don't know better?

Hopefully some people have learned from my experience because when you've done this as long as I have to tend to pick up some experience.

This is just a thank you for reading. I promise to try to be be more serious, funny, angry, and informative for the next 40,000 visitors. 


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
    Follow jwrightroofing on Twitter

Friday, August 5, 2011

Thinner and Lighter Everything in Roofing

Kids hate it when we geezers say "when I was a boy..." But more often than not what we spew is truth, as filtered through an aged brain with prejudices for the way it was. But I'm going to say it and I'm going to say it about all basic roofing commodities.

When I was a boy the lightest of the shingles, a fifteen year three tab, weighed more that current lifetime roofing. 240 lb square butts went down to 235's and eventually to less than 200. The 340 lb timberline has undulkated and danced between 320 down to less than 240 today. So do all the other laminates except for the wamma jammas. today.

But it's not just the shingles, which can be explained away with better technology. The metal edge used to be so strong you could twirl it like a girl twirling her baton in a marching band. Now you need to have three or four together and hold them with two hands.

30 lb. felt is now #30 and 15lb. is #15.

the nails used to be hot dipped galvanized and now the standard is a shiny electroplated nail made by political prisoners in the country that owns our debt. 

The galvanized valley is a joke. The step flashing will cut like paper and you won't know it until the wild dogs come after you. The 90 lb is not that at all. Metal stacks are not soldered but caulked. Lead can't even be close to 2.5 or 4 lb. as it once was.

From the felt, the roofing nail (ha ha they shot your roof on with a gun, ha ha), the accessories, and the roofing itself, we have seen a great disappearing act.

All aside, technology has improved the shingle from UV degradation, the sun's rays, the greatest shingle killer over time. But the short and fast roof assassins, wind and hail, have been granted a license to kill unless you take a few evasive maneuvers. The Birds of Prey are de-cloaking Captain.

Flat laying felt (costs more) helps keep wind from finding something to grab hold of. (darn preposition)
Starter shingles keep the first row from lifting off.
Hand nailing, well, a no brainer.
Heavier roofing is just heavier.
Class IV  impact resistant rated shingles that can take more of a beating before failure and save you some mula if you have Met Life or Metropolitan Insurance, State Farm, or USAA.

Thin shingle syndrome isn't going away. The answer to better quality is better products than the base line stuff that your roofer offers you to keep price down. That's why he is cheaper. That's why it'll cost you more in the long run to buy the cheaper products. Six or seven hundred dollars should fix the problem if you front load the roof. After the fact it will be many thousands of dollars.


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
    Follow jwrightroofing on Twitter