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Monday, January 21, 2013

Martin Luther King's Home and Roof

This is Martin Luther King's day. He stopped a lot of misery in his day and kept a lot away for us today. Occasionally in the history of man comes a man with right on his side and the patience to act on it. In this company I can count Mahatma Gandhi,  Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln. Today is the day we remember MLK. Few people are known by acronyms but if you have one, you are special: JFK, RFK, FDR, LBJ... no one says RMN for Nixon.

So I looked up his home and was startled to see a roof that used to be prevalent: asbestos tiles. These diamond shaped tiles laid flat, were nailed at the top and had an upside down brass hook in the face to keep them from blowing off. The asbestos was encapsulated in Portland cement, making it a transite asbestos containing roofing material, ACRM or just ACM. This makes the asbestos fibers tightly packed, which is hard to make friable. If you rough it up, cut it or crush it, the asbestos fibers become airborne. This is when the attorneys and doctors step in.

Left alone and free of algae the asbestos shingle would last a very long time.



When the asbestos was mixed with cement and a few other products it could be made into about any shape you wanted. See the ridge in the picture?

When I was in college I was tearing off one of these roofs after a hailstorm. I filled up a wheel barrow, turned it to go uphill, stepped back into a few of these plates lying on top of one another. boy was I glad there was a tree at the eave that i was crushed against by the runaway wheel barrow.
There is some beautiful workmanship in the clapboard siding ornamental railing and posts but the wood shingle stagger pattern is just great.

 Mastic Siding makes some vinyl products that look a lot like these and will last a very long time. But none of these products will last as long as MLK's ideas and dreams. 
I was going to see if my neighbors set out their trash and a number of them did, including the black folks across the street. I guessed the city might gather trash today but out of respect I didn't set it out. I admit that I was late in getting on the bandwagon for this great man but once on I am here forever. Without him I might lose some very good friends and employees.





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, January 4, 2013

What Else Does a Roofer Need to Know Besides Roofing

Everything and I'm going to prove it.

To be great in the roofing business a roofer also needs to know about any other part of the structure that the roof integrates with. Those building materials that are beneath, above, beside, and that pass through it effect the roof.

First, from below there is the decking, the framing, attic and foundation. Think I'm being extreme? What would you think if i counseled my client to go ahead and replace his roof right before he had his foundation repaired? anyone that did, I would say, either knows no better or is criminally immoral. The movement in a foundation is like a see saw, a teeter totter, because and inch under the house can fulcrum several on the roof. The decking either shoves together or separates. The framing comes loose. All havoc has reigned down on the home and it shows up worse on a roof.

Also the roofer needs to know the load bearing capabilities of the framing before he puts on a roof that is too heavy. More destruction to the framing, even the walls blowing out. Other times roofers need just to brace or level the roof

The attic, well if you've read three of my posts, you know what improper ventilation can do.

Once a customer wanted to tear off five layers of composition roofing off his home. I told him he needed to replace the deck, partially because it was riddled with nails, but in this case, to put on a heavier one with a heavier shingle. The house had settled comfortably under the geological layers of roofing and the doors and windows had probably been adjusted. More weighty decking and shingle would lighten the load still but without as much gravitational shock.

He didn't listen. He went cheap. He paid big time. The doors, windows and garage doors were dysfunctional and had to be rehung. The plaster cracked. The house was happier but the homeowner not.

Beside the roof are walls sometimes. If there is vinyl siding and the roofer flashes only behind this and not the wood underneath the vinyl or aluminum siding, the roof (wall) will leak. If the wall is decomposed repairs need to be performed for a water tight nexus. The roofer needs to work with either siding, masonry or wood. If the wall has windows above the roof the window might leak, but it will look like a roof leak. Bricks and stones need to be counterflashed sometimes into the mortar or stone itself.

The penetrations for the gas flues, the plumbing stacks, the chimney, bathroom fart fans and anything else that goes from below to above the roof can required that the roofer can do minor hot water heater and furnace adjustments. Improperly done and the house might burn down or make the occupants suffocate. Sometimes, depending on the new roof system, the sewer pipes need to be extended or moved. Even electrical and freon lines can be effected by careless roofing practices. Power fans and electric skylights can pose issues for the roofer.

If the siding or cornish work on the house have lead paint on them then the roofer needs to know painting and lead remediation.

The roofer needs to be aware of framing, structural loads, plumbing, HVAC, painting, electrical, carpentry, masonry, geometry, and, finally roofing. He needs to know how to build a house.

Now add OSHA, ventilation, and lead, he needs to be an EPA expert and a paramedic of sorts.

Some of these things he needs to work in association with other tradesmen on but if he doesn't have the basics down he won't know what he needs to do. He may not be able to fix the foundation but he needs to tell you when you need it done and when it needs to be done. Before he gets there. Then everything else might be even more messed up.



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