The Evolution of Roofing Felt

Merriam Webster describes felt as such:

 feel

¹felt

noun \ˈfelt\

Definition of FELT

1

a : a cloth made of wool and fur often mixed with natural or synthetic fibers through the action of heat, moisture, chemicals, and pressure

b : a firm woven cloth of wool or cotton heavily napped and shrunk

2

: an article made of felt

3

: a material resembling felt: as

a : a heavy paper of organic or asbestos fibers impregnated with asphalt and used in building construction

b : semirigid pressed fiber insulation used in building 

We will discuss 3a, of course.

Originally there was just 15 lb., 30 lb., and copper felt. They were made from pulp made from rags, newspaper, and even old dollar bills. At the GAF plant on Singleton Blvd. in Dallas, TX, there was once a network of government agents guarding a convoy of armored vehicles coming from Treasury to guard the old dollar bills about to be mushed into roofing felt. 15 lb. weighed about 15 lbs. per square and 30 lb. did as its moniker stated also. Copper felt was a flashing, that I've actually seen, used for flashing. Copper was laminated to the asphalt impregnated felt. Watching the felt and asphalt get it on has scarred me for life.

There are other old felts, like asbestos, that we won't talk about because the censors at the EPA are in the next room. By the way, it was replaced by fiberglass felt.

Some felts were used for built up roofs, known as BUR, because they are used in layers with an interply of asphalt, to build up layers. Later they were punctured full of holes so the fumes and vapor could escape. This felt has been long gone from my life but could still be in use in colder climes. Non-fiberglass felts work well where it is so cold the fiberglass felts shatter.

The problem with 30 lb. as an underlayment is that it can wrinkle, even after it has been installed, and it is also a vapor barrier. This will accelerate the demise of a less than perfectly ventilated attic as it is moisture, and not heat, that is the Great Satan of Roofing.

On low slope roofs two ply of 15 lb. is mandated because it eliminates the weakness of a two inch lap that one ply of 30 lb. has plus the wrinkle factor. Any wrinkles on a roof between a 2/12 and 4/12 is a cardinal sin. 30 lb. under composition can be an original sin if it is not ventilated buy the rules governing fluid dynamics and moisture migration. These be Bernoulli, not to be confused with the great Texan Burnelli, and Venturi. If you are lost here you're going to flunk the test at the end of the blog. So you better go back to the beginning and start taking notes.

Sometime back in the late 1980's the 15lb. became #15 and 30 lb. became #30. This was because they weren't what they used to be. They lost their tonnage and the lb. suffix became a "#" prefix.  Sorry Capitalist Pigs, of which I am a card carrying member.

So what's an ethical roofer to do? Fret? Cry? Stomp his feet until something better comes along? Assuredly we did and the roof god Techus provided us with an alternative to sin. Synthetics, something short of sin but in the same category. This is because there are some really bad ones and some okay ones and some really fantastic ones. You've got a complete cornucopia of synthetics and hybrids out there that could confuse even the most learned of roofing Philosophers and Sophists.

Some synthetics breath and others do not. Permeability, my friend, is the mother of roof penicillin. Whether it be in the movement of attic air or the containment of humidity in the undergarments of roofing, the issue is the same: moisture ruins organic and metallic materials.

The hybrids are asphaltic felts that lay flat like #15, ugh, but have the strength of #30.

Now, let's talk new construction versus re-roofing steep roofs. When roofers roof new homes they can use #15. They roll felt and lay roofing. They do not need to walk on the #15, and if they did they'd be mangled in some way or another. #15 will not support a person on a steep roof. When re-roofing a steep roof, the roofers must dry in the home rapidly to protect the contents and the finished product: sheetrock, paint, insulation, carpet, etc.

In the recent past all the way back to my ancient beginnings as a roofer, insurance companies paid for #30 on insurance claims pertaining to steep roofs. This protected the roofer from certain death. Now they cheap out and only pay for #30 if it is on the roof prior to replacement. I've told them that one day a roofer will break his neck and they will be included in the lawsuit. I hope some attorney comes across this and uses it in his filings.

There is so much more more to tell about felt but my felt pen is running dry.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

   

Roof Scams Anyone?

So the door to door roofing salesman has hit your porch wanting you to sign. Don't worry, the document you sign does not hold up unless he gets all people on the title to sign and he tells you about the right of rescission.

Byron Harris of WFAA, Channel 8 affiliate for ABC, did a nice piece on roof scams on July 29th called "Roof Repairs:Read and understand before you sign." My advice is to not sign anything. Don't let anyone on your roof or, for heaven's sake, in your home just because they say they're a roofer. All the more reason to run them off.

Do your homework. Make sure they are registered with the city and, if canvassing door to door, have their permit to do so. Cities vet people with background checks and issue permits to go door to door. Burglaries go up after storms and you might just have let Jack the Roof Ripper in your home.

Check references, insurance (you can have yourself named with a rider to make sure it is real and the insurance will mail you a current form), and check to see if the roofer is certified by the manufacturer that he is using. This increases the warranty from being a prorated material only coverage on product failure to up to 50 years 100% coverage on replacement costs with product defect.

But if the roofer doesn't follow the 300 Rule of Balanced Ventilation there is no warranty and your roof will fail, your insulation will compress, the paint will peel, your kids will cough, and the roof decking will weaken.

The BBB, Angie's List, and exhaustive searches on the internet can help protect you from this unregulated bunch of gypsies. And so can not giving any money down and not signing any paper you haven't read, like Byron Harris said. Otherwise he may be writing about you.

If the roofer is uninsured and floods your house, does not pay his material and labor bills, just puts the roof on badly so it looks like poo and leaks, steals your stuff, ruins your landscaping, lets your dog get out, causes your wife to kick you out, or is just a general weirdo, then it is your own arse-fault, er, asphalt. So c. y. a. because these roofs are important, cost a lot of money, and protect almost everything you own.

By the way, in the picture in the WFAA article, the roofer is laying GAF Timberline lifetime roofing incorrectly. The manual says the material must be staggered and not racked. This is a warranty violation. I guess he's not a certified Master Elite. Inspectapedia has a good article on GAF contractors.

CertainTeed has the same program for your protection.

Don't just run off a cliff, or your roof. Protect your home and your family.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

   

What Homeowners Expect From Roofers and What they Should Expect

Roofing contractors know that they should be on time for their appointments or call if something came up. If the roof job is sold, the roofing materials must be announced or cars get trapped in driveways and people get angry. A load of roofing materials can be as large as a small herd of cattle. The crew should come when the customer said they would and the job site should be clean and and the materials installed neatly. That's the minimum.

If your roofing contractor is not a professional roofer but is a professional businessman, he will accomplish these items. but if he is a professional roofing contractor too, he'll accomplish a lot more.

The "lot more" makes everything last longer: exterior and interior paint, insulation, the roofing materials themselves, the HVAC equipment, and the plywood decking. He also enhances your family's health with better air and less humidity and mold. Your utilities go down, your property values stay up, and you feel comfortable on the hottest of days.

How does he do it? The professional roofing company has an ongoing training program to instill and reinforce proper ventilation techniques, nailing patterns, roof style and color selection, increase adverse weather condition waterproofing (snow, ice, wind), and a material warranty from the manufacturer that actually serves as a form of roofing insurance.

Homeowners seldom select roofing material and most roofers just offer what the current product is. The choices available are mind boggling and the best matches are determined by more than house style. Pitch or degree of slope has an important effect on the style and color selection as well as performance.

Make sure your roofer has at least one certification from one of the big three roofing manufacturers: GAF, Certainteed, or Owens Corning. Then make sure he is not an entry level Boy Scout with a Tenderfoot ranking. You want the Eagle Scout. He'll save your life.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

What Do Dallas Roofers Want From the Upcoming Dallas Mayoral and City Council Elections

We, the Roofing Contractors of Dallas, in order to form a more perfect union, have several requests from our soon to be elected municipal office holders. So Angela Hunt, Dwaine Caraway, David Kunkle, Ron Natinsky, and all ya'll over in other cities and towns around Dallas and Fort Worth running for office please listen to this:


1)You want more revenue? Make it easy to get a building permit and pay for it on line like Irving and other cities. On insurance claims the insurance companies will reimburse us for the cost of a permit but not for the three or four hours it takes to drive downtown,deal with those slowpokes down at city hall, and drive back to the office. Nor do we get reimbursed for our gas or parking fees while we congest our roads and pollute our air.

2) Make roofers, and other home improvement contractors, post a bond with the city for clean up of abandoned job sites, road debris, repair to damaged roads and sewers by heavy trucks, and trash permits. We use roofing recyclers but not all roofing contractors are willing to go out of their way.

3) Have roofing companies working in Dallas place the city as a rider on their general liability insurance. If the contractor is uninsured he should not be permitted to be permitted.

4) The city should do criminal and civil background checks to make sure those purchasing permits are not a carpetbagging Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, or Henry Lee Lucas.

These four simple requests would offer some consumer protection that Texas refuses to do, increase revenue, free up the roads, keep the air cleaner, keep costs of road and sewer maintenance down, and lower crime.

So why does Dallas call the certificate it issues to contractors a Building License when the contractor doesn't have to know anything except how to sign his name to a check made payable to the City of Dallas?

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

The Job of A Roofing Contractor

My job as a roofing contractor has changed considerably since the roofing company began in 1979. What you saw was what you got, the owner installer, and I believed that because I put the roof on with my own loving hands that my clients received better roofing jobs on their homes.

On repairs I was mostly right but not always. My abilities had not grown to look for underlying causes like humidity, ground movement, and the dreaded bad ventilation design. But nobody knew ventilation like a handful of us know today. Bernoulli, Venturi, Torricelli, and the other fluid dynamic greats were responsible for those weird pipes some of your dorm mates had in their rooms for experimental reasons and now allow me to ventilate your attic properly.

Training the installers and sales staff constantly to keep up with the new technology and the relevant statistics that have been amassed by the manufacturers and trade organizations is part of my new regime as a roofing contractor. We just won a training excellence award from GAF Roofing Materials Corporation. We also won Angie's List Super Service Award for our category in our region because our customers felt comfortable that we knew what we were doing. Plus the installers need regular safety training to keep them from acting like the pilot who, as a passenger, refuses to put on his seat belt.

Training leads to certification, which requires more training, in order to offer the new massively improved manufacturer's warranties that only certified contractors may offer. We can eliminate the proration of the material and add a fifty year labor coverage to material coverage. On top of this we can also issue a twenty year leak coverage backed by the manufacturer.

Insurance is difficult to get and it requires a lot of shopping. The manufacturers also require that their roofing contractors have insurance or they'll be booted from the program. We also carry completed operations and product liability in case something goes wrong later. Huh? A nail in a gas line, allergic reaction to the products, electrical shorts, and an entire slew of roofing mishaps that only one's imagination can come up with until they do. Fact is really stranger than fiction when it comes to roofs. We minimize these possibilities with our attic inspections that very few roofers do.

The peace of mind that your roofing contractor will be there is always important because when things do go wrong, and they can, you'll want to know that an ethical company is there standing with you to protect your home.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Dress Like A Roof

Finally, we're going to dress the structure rather than roof it. So says the NRCA in this article about woven roof fabric.

We've always used dress makers terms like head lap, selvage, hem, seam and blocking out. Why not "do you want plaid or strips? A little Parisian poke-a-dot perhaps?


Jon's gone mad! No, read the article. They discuss how technical textiles for roofs have been used in Europe since the 1960's and as recently in South Africa for the stadiums used in the World Cup. They even refer to a roof as "the article" as in clothing.


The seams are either sewed, adhered with chemical crosslinking, vulcanization, solvents or heat.




The piece builds up to a technical cescendo with:
Another promising possibility for architectural textiles exists in the form of coatings with inorganic oxides such as silicon dioxide. Inorganic oxide layers can be transferred from the gas phase to textiles using a variety of vacuum technology processes. A possible alternative is also provided by sol-gel technology.


My gosh. Roofing isn't so easy anymore. (HEY! IT NEVER WAS! GO TO SCHOOL! ROOF SCHOOL)



I found the article fascinating. 


Can we dress up your place?

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Solving the Ponding Water Problem on Roofs That Aren't As Flat As They Should Be.

Traditionally we'd tear off the old roofing on replacement roofs on commercial buildings. Today, many try to get away from it due to logistics ,like nose bleed altitudes or lack of access due to NASCAR driving antics around the building with Venetian alleys. Regardless, the roofs need to drain.

A flat roof drains it it is completely flat but if it has a sag, well, here begins the process of weight causing more sagging and more sagging causing more weight. Did I mention that water is heavy when forced to accumulate?

If the building permits, we could put in a drain or two but sometimes when you drain the lake, it becomes four or five smaller but deadly ponds. More weight, more sag, more weight, now wait!

Tapered insulation is a common cure for saggy roof syndrome. Just plat the roof, the the puddles, their depth, and the high areas. Make a geological terrain plat, as in plateau or platform. Little circles, rivers, hills, enemy encampments, DEA Agents, and you have the beginnings of a new video game. Then send off your error free topographical map to the experts and they'll put together a puzzle, labeled ,sub-labeled, boxed, and not guaranteed. Garbage in and garbage out. Plus this terrain keeps sagging as the tectonic plates below heave and shove.

Now comes roof in a can. Yes we can. We'll spray leveling foam on the roof low areas prior to either replacing the roof or completing a roof restoration, a process that is often cheaper and better than replacement. Plus you don't have to amortize rejuvenation, just replacement.

Life just keeps getting simpler. Just be careful with that hose buddy because the race below hasn't finished and the wind is starting to blow. Can't to tell by the gaggle of attorneys gathering in the parking lot?

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

Trapped !

This morning we went over to a sky-rise in the Las Colinas area of Irving's north commercial district. When I got out of my truck, my wallet under the seat, since having gone to the gym early, and my keys on the seat, I noticed the wind was blowing. We were parked on an incline. My door went "clunk" or whatever you call it when a fairly new vehicle door closes tightly. My heart sank.

Yeah, I have Triple A Insurance and am a member of their auto club also. Luckily my phone had not been stolen at the Y like it had last week, because it was in my truck. But not now. The overpriced Blackberry that Cbeyond had ransomed me with was in my hand. (Here's the deal bub. You renew with us for three years on your bundle of services, phones, internet, web hosting, cell phones, and we'll sell you the phone at market price. Don't pay the protection money and you have to pay three times the street value of a new phone or only double the cost for a refurbished one.)

The internet was working, I found AAA's number and called them. I had no identification nor my member card but the operator's caller I. D. told her who I was. She said that when the tech showed up I could show him my I.D.

We went up on the roof and I laid out the repairs to the EPDM ballasted rubber roof. The guys knew to clean the roof surface with acetone and apply the butyl tape. We've repaired commercial flat roofs that the manufacturer told us only their product could be used to fix. I call this the "Cbeyond Effect." You know, lies. You know when a giant is stepping on you and you can hear your guts squishing out of your wallet. TPO, PVC, EPDM, and a full vocabulary of synthetic futuristic single ply roof systems that are supposed to last forever have been repaired by us with this simple but expensive tape and not just the manufacturer's defective product. In fact, the new stuff doesn't like cured or older stuff. The old stuff likes our stuff.

Locate the leak. Clean it properly as their is a particular rubbing pattern. Really. Apply tape.

No driving around finding all kinds of different cleaners, primers, tools, and repair adhesives for these acronyms. But the good old BUR still is best repaired by pookie and membrane. Cleaning still required. Locating still required. Wettness removal still required in most cases.

Today I just hope my company reaches the Triple A, AAA, rating, and not the C-left-Beyond rating that I'm going to give those lousy corrupt interneteers.

By the way, Triple A's computer called me several times to keep me informed of the rescue tech's progress and when he arrived he called me. I was told I had forty five minutes before I was extracted and had to line out the guys by then. I was a little upset when the wrecker from Premier Towing showed up early. I bet you wouldn't have been.

I peered over the edge of the building to see him parked next to me. I scrambled down and when I arrived he spent a total of 0.00005 seconds opening my truck. Boy was my wallet safe. Good thing Premier Towing has honest folk working for them. This guy could clean out a parking lot in minutes.If Mario Andriette had locked his keys in his race car, he would have wanted Premier Towing of North Texas on his team. I hope he stays on the Light Side.Funny how nobody remembers the Light Side, only Darth's Dark Side seems to still be incorporated, like C-you later-Beyond.

I'll keep my Triple A and use Premier Towing whenever I need a service. They called too after the ball had been handed off to them by Triple A. Premier called just before he showed up, when he got there, and afterward to see if I was okay. These two companies, working together, helped me keep my customers happy and my referrals coming in.

What kind of service do you want? Do you want a moral and ethical company providing you your services or Darth's IT Solutions. Always check the ethical pulse of a company before biting their apple.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

The Difference Between Roof Felt And Leak Barrier For Factory Certified Roofers

Roofing felt has different names. The vernacular is tar paper but this name will soon be obsolete. With all the new synthetic felts out today, like the recently released TigerPaw by GAF, the word felt is a misnomer. Here's what Dictionary.com has to say:

1)a nonwoven fabric of wool, fur, or hair, matted together by heat, moisture, and great pressure.

2)any article made of this material, as a hat.

3)any matted fabric or material, as a mat of asbestos fibers, rags, or old paper, used for insulation and in construction.

–adjective

4)pertaining to or made of felt.

–verb (used with object)

5)to make into felt;  mat or press together.

6)to cover with or as with felt.

–verb (used without object)

7)to become matted together.

 

Except for Opus Roof Blanket , and not the penguin,the new synthetics are not really mats of any kind. None have paper or rag in them. None have asphalt. 

So roofers need new terminology. So says Dave, the roofing guru hired by GAF to pump us up once a year. Dave says we shouldn't use roof jargon and instead should call it what the homeowners call stuff.

Out goes the word felt and in comes deck protector, either tar paper (it hurts me to say that) or synthetic.

Next comes leak protector. Many call it ice and water shield but this is a name brand of Grace Products, like Coke is used by us Texans for all sodas. Grace calls it an underlayment and want you to use it as such. Sure cove the entire deck with it. Then call the doctor because the fungus amongst us is about to reach Steve McQueen's Blob size. 

 

GAF makes StormGuard, Underroof 2, and WeatherWatch. Certainteed makes WinterGuard, and who cares what the evil manufacturers Atlas and Malarkey make. Tamko has removed itself from the game by not having a certification program and enhanced warranties but their products are fine. Owens Corning put the screws to me back in 1981 and I'm still sore from it. That's $6500.00 in 1981 dollars that this poor roofer made good to the customer out of his own pocket. I guess it was lost in their bankruptcy.  

A prudent and knowledgeable roofer will use leak protector around all roof penetrations: dormers, pipes, skylights, chimneys, and roof to wall. Deck protector, the sticky felt like product, may be used in valleys but it is not a substitute for valley metal. The guy that wrote that he likes closed valleys because you don't need expensive metal in the valleys should have his valleys stomped out. One little hole in the valley and you'll think King Kong is on the roof the next time it rains.

If you are going for an enhanced warranty you'll need to use deck protector on the eaves too. This helps prevent ice dam leaking but if you vent properly this should not be a problem.

Write this down and memorize it: It'll never snow a foot here in Texas.

These leak protectors and synthetic deck protectors, coupled with balanced ventilation, professional starter strips, and heavy high profile ridge, and not the 20 year three tab, enhance your roof from good to great. They make everything in the home last longer. 

Your factory certified roofer can now take the proration from your material warranty and add labor costs to the warranty, almost removing the word "limited" from the warranty. Now it becomes an NDL, No Dollar Limit, warranty for 50 years in most cases.

That is why you must use a factory certified roofing company, the higher the certification the better. In GAF's case, you have Certified, which means little, and Master Elite, the top of the food chain.

Read what this dude has to say about it here: InspectApedia.

Here's GAF's propoganda. That means click it granny..

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

How to Pick A Roof Style

In college a mate told me "taste is a matter of taste." This might be true for a shirt or shoe style but when you pick a roof, resale and architectural truths become determining forces. If you let the ex-con roofer pick your $15,000.00 roof and have decided that a well trained professional cannot do a better job, then just hang up now, because that's what you do when you terminate the Internet connection. Maybe you should let let your yard man or your waiter purvey your furniture for you too.

 But if you decide to make your home reach it's full potential, with cost in mind of course, then you might want to read the next few paragraphs. Otherwise buzz off and quit using electricity, unless you have renewable wind or solar.

The Frank Lloyd Wright homes to the Cap Cod with dormers have different needs. We've already discussed color and the old hag won, but today I shall come out on top. I'm King of the World Ma! Oops, Cagney died in that scene. Never saw the movie but I've seen that clip many times.

In the beginning, right after mud huts and log cabins, in New England, there was the Colonial or Early American style. Later the old Red Coat style called Tudor Style came into fashion. Here we go slate, slate slate. A wood look is okay, but slate or stone is best. Just think New England. So if you don't go real slate or TrueSlate, you can go with Certainteed's Symphony or the asphaltic Slateline, Country Mansion, Camelot, Grand Manor, Highland Slate, or Carriage House.The Capstone reminds one of cut stone, almost a slate.

If you have a lower slope, the face of the shingle becomes less important and the butt end becomes prominent. Here comes the heavy wood look like the Certainteed Presidential or GAF Sequoia. Both of these have big brothers that are really massive.

French Colonial is right their with a slate look but I believe tile looks bad here. Tile like Gerard or the less impressive Decra look good on French Colonial, Spanish, or even Ranch.

Ranch looks good with the wood look products right down to the good old Timberline, America's favorite roof. If you budget does not allow for the designer shingles, Timberline is a great second choice, but be sure to get the High Definition version and not the lame Natural Shadow. Think of it as a builder grade.

Most manufacturers have virtual remodelers on their websites that allow you to select a style of home close to yours and then modify the brick, paint, roof style and color. The better ones allow you to download a picture of your home, or any random home you want, and then manipulate it to your heart's content.

Remember that if you choose the wrong color and style, it may be up their for a long time. But other hot buttons exist like energy efficient high emissivity roofs and impact resistant roof that can help lower your premiums and even keep you from going through the reroof process after a hail storm.

Color trumps style but a cheap roof looks cheap. On many homes the roof makes the first impression and that is the one that lasts.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

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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:



"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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

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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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

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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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

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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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

http://jonwrightroofing.com/

Master Elite Roofer: (Scroll to the bottom)