Best Of
Re: Home Ownership And You!
So, the roof saga, I'll keep this short since I don't have any pictures.
So this started in June 2024. I started looking around for places that would finance me and I was figuring 35K since I needed to get two roofs repaired and replaced.
While I was doing that, I got a notice at the end of June that my homeowners policy was going to be dropped. They cited, literally, the ENTIRE list of reasons they use for doing so and basically said "It's one of these, so up yours, too bad, so sad, eff you very much! You have until August 24th to find new coverage and report it to us."
Wait, what? Report to you, the insurance company? Get real.
So I had all the insurance through that company and I got assigned to a new agent last year who I could not get to talk to me about anything for the past year. So I went and found new insurance, got a MASSIVE rate cut for better coverage too. So I moved EVERYTHING in one shot. When the old company asked for reasons for the cancellation, I read their BS statement about the level of risk that they were unwilling to assume. The next day, the agent who wouldn't talk to me for a year called me, furious about why I was leaving and if I had just called him he would have been able to help me out. I just laughed and hung up.
Anyway, it's now the week after the 4th of July and I have 5 different roofers I'm looking for quotes on.
One called me back right away, said he'd be out in a couple days and gave me an honest quote without crawling all over the house or flying drones or anything. Said it might change if we have a ton of repair work to do. Yep, fine, I'm expecting that
Another never called back.
A third gave me a super high estimate because he couldn't get a good view of the house from Google Maps....for real, not making that up. I told him I had a garage that needed a new roof too. He just tacked on $15K right then and there without questions or anything.
A fourth came, crawled all over everything for an hour, spent an hour trying to butter me up and then asked if I had any more quotes in the pipeline. I was honest and told him I have 4 more I was waiting on. So he threw out a number he thought was good and then I sent him on his merry way 2 hours later.
The 5th guy got my address and apparently parked across the street and flew a drone over the house and took pictures. Never even knocked on the door, never asked what was needing to be done, just came back with the highest quote for just the house and he did it via a text message. WTF?
Anyway, long story short, after 2 high pressure sales wonks, the no show and the non-contact shenanigans, I went with the first guy who ended up being the cheapest. Even after all the repairs.
New roof day, dumpster drops. A van shows up with all these Mexicans. They got to work at like 7am. Started tearing the old roof off and that was when we found an even older roof underneath. Dumpster 1 fills up in record time. It gets picked up and dumpster 2 gets dropped off. That's filled up by the end of the day and picked up the next morning. Dumpster 3 drops.
They get to the extension where the master bedroom is. Start pulling up shingles and both sides of the gable, the plywood is super soft and starts delaminating as soon as the nails are pulled. All the plywood on the extension is bad. Something like 8 sheets to repair it. They can't understand why. I know why. Captain Halfass vented the bathroom fan into the attic, not to the outside. That's moisture damage from Captain Halfass scrubbing his Halfass.
The other problem is where the extension gable meets the original roof? There is a 2 foot gap between the edge of the plywood and the valley on both sides of the valley across the entire stretch of the gable. The roof was held up with just tar paper and stapled shingles. You couldn't see the valley in the attic either because the original roof extended past the valley and obscured it.
The porch roof was the worst and the double layers of shingles had evidence of water runs everywhere. They replaced probably 85% of the plywood on the porch roof. We had the skylights pulled and covered up too and when they pulled those, one came up with the plywood that it was anchored to and the other one left it's flashing in place and separated completely from it. All because of the water damage from the double layer of shingles.
Thankfully no structure needed repairing. The garage roof had a couple holes punched in it from tree branches from Tree of Heaven that was behind it that we needed to get a harvester on a boom truck to reach over the garage and cut them down but it was straight forward.
Those dudes were here for 26 hours of work over 2 days fixing the Captain Halfassery. I felt so bad for them but they did a tremendous job! The original quotes ranged from $22.9K to $56.7K and we ended up going with the $22.9K quote because he was the only one who didn't jerk us around. We ended up needing $3700 in plywood and other lumber to repair water damage from Captain Halfassery and even at that, we were still in under the next closest quote by $900. For two roofs, too. 3800 square feet of roof. Even added ridge vents to code too. That was a deal I couldn't beat with a stick!
It is insane how hard it is to get anything done anymore, though and find help that isn't going to jerk you around and actually be honest about stuff.
The only issue we had in all of it was the miserable **** who picked up the 3rd dumpster scraped up the driveway because he drug it on to the truck instead of lifting it with the winch and track.
So this started in June 2024. I started looking around for places that would finance me and I was figuring 35K since I needed to get two roofs repaired and replaced.
While I was doing that, I got a notice at the end of June that my homeowners policy was going to be dropped. They cited, literally, the ENTIRE list of reasons they use for doing so and basically said "It's one of these, so up yours, too bad, so sad, eff you very much! You have until August 24th to find new coverage and report it to us."
Wait, what? Report to you, the insurance company? Get real.
So I had all the insurance through that company and I got assigned to a new agent last year who I could not get to talk to me about anything for the past year. So I went and found new insurance, got a MASSIVE rate cut for better coverage too. So I moved EVERYTHING in one shot. When the old company asked for reasons for the cancellation, I read their BS statement about the level of risk that they were unwilling to assume. The next day, the agent who wouldn't talk to me for a year called me, furious about why I was leaving and if I had just called him he would have been able to help me out. I just laughed and hung up.
Anyway, it's now the week after the 4th of July and I have 5 different roofers I'm looking for quotes on.
One called me back right away, said he'd be out in a couple days and gave me an honest quote without crawling all over the house or flying drones or anything. Said it might change if we have a ton of repair work to do. Yep, fine, I'm expecting that
Another never called back.
A third gave me a super high estimate because he couldn't get a good view of the house from Google Maps....for real, not making that up. I told him I had a garage that needed a new roof too. He just tacked on $15K right then and there without questions or anything.
A fourth came, crawled all over everything for an hour, spent an hour trying to butter me up and then asked if I had any more quotes in the pipeline. I was honest and told him I have 4 more I was waiting on. So he threw out a number he thought was good and then I sent him on his merry way 2 hours later.
The 5th guy got my address and apparently parked across the street and flew a drone over the house and took pictures. Never even knocked on the door, never asked what was needing to be done, just came back with the highest quote for just the house and he did it via a text message. WTF?
Anyway, long story short, after 2 high pressure sales wonks, the no show and the non-contact shenanigans, I went with the first guy who ended up being the cheapest. Even after all the repairs.
New roof day, dumpster drops. A van shows up with all these Mexicans. They got to work at like 7am. Started tearing the old roof off and that was when we found an even older roof underneath. Dumpster 1 fills up in record time. It gets picked up and dumpster 2 gets dropped off. That's filled up by the end of the day and picked up the next morning. Dumpster 3 drops.
They get to the extension where the master bedroom is. Start pulling up shingles and both sides of the gable, the plywood is super soft and starts delaminating as soon as the nails are pulled. All the plywood on the extension is bad. Something like 8 sheets to repair it. They can't understand why. I know why. Captain Halfass vented the bathroom fan into the attic, not to the outside. That's moisture damage from Captain Halfass scrubbing his Halfass.
The other problem is where the extension gable meets the original roof? There is a 2 foot gap between the edge of the plywood and the valley on both sides of the valley across the entire stretch of the gable. The roof was held up with just tar paper and stapled shingles. You couldn't see the valley in the attic either because the original roof extended past the valley and obscured it.
The porch roof was the worst and the double layers of shingles had evidence of water runs everywhere. They replaced probably 85% of the plywood on the porch roof. We had the skylights pulled and covered up too and when they pulled those, one came up with the plywood that it was anchored to and the other one left it's flashing in place and separated completely from it. All because of the water damage from the double layer of shingles.
Thankfully no structure needed repairing. The garage roof had a couple holes punched in it from tree branches from Tree of Heaven that was behind it that we needed to get a harvester on a boom truck to reach over the garage and cut them down but it was straight forward.
Those dudes were here for 26 hours of work over 2 days fixing the Captain Halfassery. I felt so bad for them but they did a tremendous job! The original quotes ranged from $22.9K to $56.7K and we ended up going with the $22.9K quote because he was the only one who didn't jerk us around. We ended up needing $3700 in plywood and other lumber to repair water damage from Captain Halfassery and even at that, we were still in under the next closest quote by $900. For two roofs, too. 3800 square feet of roof. Even added ridge vents to code too. That was a deal I couldn't beat with a stick!
It is insane how hard it is to get anything done anymore, though and find help that isn't going to jerk you around and actually be honest about stuff.
The only issue we had in all of it was the miserable **** who picked up the 3rd dumpster scraped up the driveway because he drug it on to the truck instead of lifting it with the winch and track.
Jstas
1 ·
Re: Post a picture.....any picture...part deux...
When car interiors had soul. Alvis and Facel Vega.
OleBoot
6 ·
Re: Post a picture.....any picture...part deux...
It's fairly easy to spot the little glitches in AI-generated images with a little practice. Someone kindly circled them in the following image to help you get started.
Re: Ferrari in Formula One...
mhardy6647
5 ·
Re: Post a picture.....any picture...part deux...
How you know you live in an Italian neighborhood.
tonyb
8 ·
Re: Not for the squeamish or weak constitution
Thank you all for the warm wishes and kind words.
To answer a few questions, @Upstatemax, My left knee when through four surgeries from 1981 to 2019, two torn meniscus tear removals, one ACL repair and finally a total knee replacement. The only bruising I got was from the TKR.
I had fluid removed from the left knee from the original tear on the left (1981), it was clear. This time, I had broken blood vessels which released a lot of blood, that's what you see in the syringe.
After my MRI for this right knee prior to surgery, I got a cortisone shot, felt great, less than two weeks after the shot, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Latina girls 15th birthday celebration. One of my GF's friends says, I think that mariachi dude is hot, so, being the social butterfly I am, I tell her, I got you.
I get it to go ask him to come to the table, get three steps and my right knee buckles, I feel tearing and man, the pain nearly took me to the floor. Like a trooper, I make it to the dude, limping like I'm I just got shot in the leg lol, find out the dudes married
@nooshinjohn, you're free to call me a moron and mean it this time
This whole experience has been a nightmare of pain but oxy and hydrocodone sure do help lol.
@BlueBirdMusic, please feel free to share with your friend and let her know it's not always as bad (the results) as this one was for me. I'm 64 (will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64) but still going strong. My lovely Ayesha is 48 and taking great care of me, can't cook worth a lick but I don't complain lol, I'm very grateful. We don't live together but she comes over and helps me with shopping, listens to music and watches movies with me, putzes around the house taking care of this and that, she's a God send.
I'm still waiting for my Forum member chefs to knock at my door with signature dishes
Seriously, I appreciate the responses, It's good to be noticed and great to be loved. To say you guys rock would be an understatement.
See ya'll around the forum
To answer a few questions, @Upstatemax, My left knee when through four surgeries from 1981 to 2019, two torn meniscus tear removals, one ACL repair and finally a total knee replacement. The only bruising I got was from the TKR.
I had fluid removed from the left knee from the original tear on the left (1981), it was clear. This time, I had broken blood vessels which released a lot of blood, that's what you see in the syringe.
After my MRI for this right knee prior to surgery, I got a cortisone shot, felt great, less than two weeks after the shot, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Latina girls 15th birthday celebration. One of my GF's friends says, I think that mariachi dude is hot, so, being the social butterfly I am, I tell her, I got you.
I get it to go ask him to come to the table, get three steps and my right knee buckles, I feel tearing and man, the pain nearly took me to the floor. Like a trooper, I make it to the dude, limping like I'm I just got shot in the leg lol, find out the dudes married
@nooshinjohn, you're free to call me a moron and mean it this time This whole experience has been a nightmare of pain but oxy and hydrocodone sure do help lol.
@BlueBirdMusic, please feel free to share with your friend and let her know it's not always as bad (the results) as this one was for me. I'm 64 (will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64) but still going strong. My lovely Ayesha is 48 and taking great care of me, can't cook worth a lick but I don't complain lol, I'm very grateful. We don't live together but she comes over and helps me with shopping, listens to music and watches movies with me, putzes around the house taking care of this and that, she's a God send.
I'm still waiting for my Forum member chefs to knock at my door with signature dishes
Seriously, I appreciate the responses, It's good to be noticed and great to be loved. To say you guys rock would be an understatement.
See ya'll around the forum
Geoff4rfc
6 ·
Re: Home Ownership And You!
You installing structural plates with decking screws or am I looking at this wrong 👀
Nvm I see you are using simspon sdw
Carry on!
No, I made sure to use the correct hardware. My dad had the stainless steel framing nails leftover from a deck he built a few years ago. The rest of the hardware was bought new. The structural connector plates are all Simpson Strong Tie Z-Max stuff and the SDWS fasteners was about $750 alone. With the hardware for the deck boards I had to repair and re-hanging the railings and the 2.25" stainless framing nails for the blocking, I was, like, $20 shy of a thousand bucks for just hardware alone. If I had to buy the 3.25" stainless framing nails, I would be $1500 in to it for hardware.
It makes a big difference because those Simspon fasteners will not just screw stuff together, they will clamp it down too so the glue joints on my "laminated" posts are all tight.
The old posts would ring like bells and vibrate the porch floor if you hit them.
The new posts...they go thud and that's it. No vibrating floors, no shimmying or ringing. Just thud. Even just smacking it to say "That ain't goin' no where!" is unreal with how solid they are.
Also, previously, you could see how the "beams" were off and not level. I checked everything with a 24 inch level and a 6 foot level and now every single "beam" is within a sixteenth of an inch of being true and every post is within a sixteenth of an inch of being true as well.
Jstas
1 ·
Re: Home Ownership And You!
What I figured out about the 4x6 based columns is that I could span the entire width of the "beam". But, when I pulled the flashing down and realized that the "beam" was a C-channel, the only thing holding the C from collapsing in on itself was the porch columns. To be able to pull the columns out and not have the column collapse...it was very difficult and a HUGE safety concern 'cause I had no idea how it would shift and that's a lot of roof to come down on my head. So I decided to cut the posts flush with the Sawzall and leave them in place and I would block them in with 2x6 blocking.
Then I cut the porch decking away and found that the deck framing was heavily lap-jointed into the 6x6's.
That's no big deal, the porch framing is 2x10's with 2x8 joists between the sections, kinda overbuilt but fine be me! But, remember when I said I knew why the porch supports didn't extend from the concrete footer all the way up to the roof? This is why. The porch deck was built by someone who knew what they were doing and they did an excellent job. The porch roof was built by someone who didn't really know and it was put on AFTER the porch was built. 'Cause I can't fathom that the guy who built the deck would have wanted to be anywhere near associated with the clusterf... Yeah, I digress.
So the only problem with the framing being lap jointed was, I got myself Simpson Strong Tie post joining brackets. I didn't see how any other kind of bracket would work here but it was going to be hard to secure the bracket to the framing because of how the holes were oriented.
The fix was to cut footer plates from 2x6's and nail them in with more stainless steel nails to the framing so they wouldn't shift around. Using a plumb bob hung from a nail, I found where the outside edge of the "beam" was and then measured the 8.5 inches back and cut the floor out so that when the new post was in, we knew where it had to sit so it wasn't sitting proud of the outside of the "beam" and was supporting the whole "beam" front to back and side to side.
Once those were secure, the post connection bracket was screwed down with more Simpson SDWS Framing Screws.
Then, the new post was cut to length and put in place and trued up
The bottom connector was screwed in to place on each side with the framing screws. Then at the top, I used more Simpson Strong Tie beam to post anchors on the front and back of the beam and they were secured with the Framing Screws as well.
We followed that process for each post. Brian helped me on day 1 and we were only able to get 4 done, figuring out the first one and getting set up took a couple hours but once we had it down, it took 45 minutes per post for the two of us working together. The next day I wanted to continue. Brian couldn't be around to help and the Beer and Pizza Brigade was no where to be found. So my 70-75 year old parents came to help me with the small stuff and holding things for me. I got 2 more posts done the next day. Then the next Saturday, Brian came back and we knocked out the last 4 in about 5 hours, the one corner post by the wide stairs needed some extra work.
The railings were a pain to remove because the posts we rotted and we I was trying not to destroy the vinyl by just prying them out so I could put them back up. I won't be able to do pretty work until Spring so I needed them in one piece to put back up so the town inspector and the insurance company didn't lose their **** on me.
In total about 22 hours of work from building the posts to installing and repairing everything. Had a hospital visit and injured my left foot to the point where I still can't walk due to the tendon injury but it's healing. It's done, though and the pretty work won't be anywhere near as heavy of a physical lift
It was none too soon too as this was the condition of the posts as we were taking them down. If I tossed a post on the lawn, it would explode in fractures at the finger joints. Even just laying them down gently they would crack and fail. That was what was holding up the porch for 20 some odd years and I really don't think they would have lasted through the winter.
That was, by far, the heaviest lift of any home improvement project I've ever done and I've done some real unhinged stuff to houses, sheds, garages and pools. Never a structural repair like that though.
I was told by a few professionals that they wouldn't want to take the job on and I was nuts for tackling it myself hence the reason I did it myself. I'm pretty sure I was over-quoted too as a way to say "I'm not doing this job" without saying "Sorry, bro, yer eff'ed!". Another friend who does custom houses called me up after he saw the pictures and said he wanted to come by. When he got here and looked at everything we did and listened to all the answers I gave him on his questions he said to me "Yo, you and your boy Brian want jobs?" I blew it off as just flattery and turned to go put the ladder we were using away. He grabs my shoulder and says "No, I'm serious. I have a crew of as many 20 guys at times and I'd fire them all for just 3 Brians and 3 Johns. If you ever need work, just call me. I'll have you on payroll and in charge of a team of chuckleheads before you hang up the phone. And! And the best part is, I've seen your finish work and you're better than anybody I can get to work right now! We'd have work for you. As much as you want, just call, dude." So that was kinda nice.
Then I cut the porch decking away and found that the deck framing was heavily lap-jointed into the 6x6's.
That's no big deal, the porch framing is 2x10's with 2x8 joists between the sections, kinda overbuilt but fine be me! But, remember when I said I knew why the porch supports didn't extend from the concrete footer all the way up to the roof? This is why. The porch deck was built by someone who knew what they were doing and they did an excellent job. The porch roof was built by someone who didn't really know and it was put on AFTER the porch was built. 'Cause I can't fathom that the guy who built the deck would have wanted to be anywhere near associated with the clusterf... Yeah, I digress.
So the only problem with the framing being lap jointed was, I got myself Simpson Strong Tie post joining brackets. I didn't see how any other kind of bracket would work here but it was going to be hard to secure the bracket to the framing because of how the holes were oriented.
The fix was to cut footer plates from 2x6's and nail them in with more stainless steel nails to the framing so they wouldn't shift around. Using a plumb bob hung from a nail, I found where the outside edge of the "beam" was and then measured the 8.5 inches back and cut the floor out so that when the new post was in, we knew where it had to sit so it wasn't sitting proud of the outside of the "beam" and was supporting the whole "beam" front to back and side to side.
Once those were secure, the post connection bracket was screwed down with more Simpson SDWS Framing Screws.
Then, the new post was cut to length and put in place and trued up
The bottom connector was screwed in to place on each side with the framing screws. Then at the top, I used more Simpson Strong Tie beam to post anchors on the front and back of the beam and they were secured with the Framing Screws as well.
We followed that process for each post. Brian helped me on day 1 and we were only able to get 4 done, figuring out the first one and getting set up took a couple hours but once we had it down, it took 45 minutes per post for the two of us working together. The next day I wanted to continue. Brian couldn't be around to help and the Beer and Pizza Brigade was no where to be found. So my 70-75 year old parents came to help me with the small stuff and holding things for me. I got 2 more posts done the next day. Then the next Saturday, Brian came back and we knocked out the last 4 in about 5 hours, the one corner post by the wide stairs needed some extra work.
The railings were a pain to remove because the posts we rotted and we I was trying not to destroy the vinyl by just prying them out so I could put them back up. I won't be able to do pretty work until Spring so I needed them in one piece to put back up so the town inspector and the insurance company didn't lose their **** on me.
In total about 22 hours of work from building the posts to installing and repairing everything. Had a hospital visit and injured my left foot to the point where I still can't walk due to the tendon injury but it's healing. It's done, though and the pretty work won't be anywhere near as heavy of a physical lift
It was none too soon too as this was the condition of the posts as we were taking them down. If I tossed a post on the lawn, it would explode in fractures at the finger joints. Even just laying them down gently they would crack and fail. That was what was holding up the porch for 20 some odd years and I really don't think they would have lasted through the winter.
That was, by far, the heaviest lift of any home improvement project I've ever done and I've done some real unhinged stuff to houses, sheds, garages and pools. Never a structural repair like that though.
I was told by a few professionals that they wouldn't want to take the job on and I was nuts for tackling it myself hence the reason I did it myself. I'm pretty sure I was over-quoted too as a way to say "I'm not doing this job" without saying "Sorry, bro, yer eff'ed!". Another friend who does custom houses called me up after he saw the pictures and said he wanted to come by. When he got here and looked at everything we did and listened to all the answers I gave him on his questions he said to me "Yo, you and your boy Brian want jobs?" I blew it off as just flattery and turned to go put the ladder we were using away. He grabs my shoulder and says "No, I'm serious. I have a crew of as many 20 guys at times and I'd fire them all for just 3 Brians and 3 Johns. If you ever need work, just call me. I'll have you on payroll and in charge of a team of chuckleheads before you hang up the phone. And! And the best part is, I've seen your finish work and you're better than anybody I can get to work right now! We'd have work for you. As much as you want, just call, dude." So that was kinda nice.
Jstas
2 ·