Alley Adobe: April 2019

Saturday, April 27, 2019

The Problem With DIY Videos

The phenomenon of shared information dates back as far as communication. But the problem is that the dawn of time involved humans who A) Had something to say. B) Had already determined the value of their information because there was no one to share it with for months or years.

Today is an era of instant information and that has several drawbacks, the chief one being that the information has not been tested and has no follow-up and has no spirit of scientific approach attached to it. The second big drawback is that everyone wants something that will increase their quality of life but there is no such thing and they already know it. Nicaraguan coffee country involves a mud house with mud walls and a cotton hammock and no light, Cows, fireflies, chickens, pigs, corn, beans, milk. Their quality of life was fucking fantastic. Nothing could improve their quality of life beside some medicine for fever. No DIY video would make any sense to them because it was all additional complications and effort to create something that would require more maintenance and resources. A poor person needs a truck, right? Well, give a poor person a truck and they will eventually sell it to pay for the gasoline. Then they are left with gasoline and no truck. No, humanity needs less, fewer, simpler things. You want a hot shower? You want air conditioning on your aircraft carrier? You want 3D movies with buttered popcorn and self-serve soda fountains and reclining chairs? These things are not designed to make you happy. I have seen the alternative and I've seen the path of materialism and I know the results. We're deluding ourselves with excessive inventions, complicating our lives with digital eco-spheres, digi-spheres, to maintain, investing time in virtual creations that increase our quality of life for about 20 seconds before the same dull discontent returns. DDIY should stand for Don't Do It Yourself. As in, Stop! Don't invent any more shit. We have invented some crazy crap and none of it helps anything we're only burying ourselves in our own waste and destroying defenseless nations for their resources to fuel our useless contraptions. Don't Do It Yourself. GBOLYDF. Get By On Less, You Discontented Fuck.

For more lecturing, read on.

Further Musings On This Subject Are Here...»

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Drip Edge Overlap

Here we have the south side of the house.* I count 4 layers of rolled roofing...and probably 2 layers of felt paper. The top layer of roofing has almost no adhesive bonding it to the layer underneath, but the top layer is in OK condition except for some blistering caused by the fact no adhesive was used and it wrinkled. Any issues with this roof are not because of old surface roofing.

The photo above shows the ridiculous method previously used of wrapping a piece of wood in the edge of the roofing and then nailing it to the fascia. I could tell how well that worked when the wood turned to dust as I broke it away. Now, to be fair, the roof was installed when Jesus was a Corporal, so hey, that's a long time. Nothing lasts forever but this method doesn't meet my high standards so I'm going in a different direction.

Here's what it looks like after I tore the old edge off.

I started thinking, which is bad enough, then I started watching DIY videos which is worse. I had a goal to work purely from instinct but my instinct is to look for example videos of how other people have done these kinds of repairs. Basically, no repair I'm attempting is the first of its kind, but all the repairs I'm doing are because someone failed in their attempt to repair it. Is the person who wrapped the asphalt paper in a circle around some wood waiting out there for me to call them? Probably they are long dead.

DIY projects invariably decay into a series of experiments that take a long time to get results back. So long, sometimes, that the person has sold the house and the new owner thinks the experiment was a bad attempt. Maybe, and maybe not. Maybe it was an experiment like the ones I'm doing.

The specific issue I'm dealing with is rolled asphalt roofing. This is sort of the same material as basic asphalt shingles, except it's a 3' x 35' shingle. Owens Corning has this PDF for my examination and enjoyment.

It is all right there in plain English (and Spanish) and even a diagram. There are no nails at the bottom of the roll near the eave. That's an interesting detail because all of the eaves that I'm repairing have nails in the edge. I think that's because there is no asphalt adhesive used. Ok, so that's the detail I'm puzzling about. Asphalt adhesive is the product to use to bond the top layer of roofing to a 9'' strip that has been nailed on the eave. In my specific house there were 4 layers of rolled roofing both adhered with cement and also nailed. So, the next person was thinking, what's the point in using adhesive to glue the 5th layer to the 4th layer. Maybe they have a point. A nail secured the roofing to the next lower layers. Now, some of the nails were actually too short to penetrate to the wood deck, but let's forgive them for that detail. They were attempting to fasten the top layer to the bottom layers and the bottom layers were secured to the deck, so in theory they were trying to do the right thing. And they saved a few bucks in the process by ignoring roofing asphalt.

Now, the big issue that I'm looking into is how to add a proper drip edge to the eave...that has never had a drip edge. Ideally, in a perfect world, I would get down to the wood deck and slip the drip edge underneath all those layers of rolled roofing and tar felt. But in this reality there are hundreds of nails and asphalt cement bonding this huge tar sandwich to the deck. What to do? Well, I slipped the drip edge into the one place it would go, under the top layer of roofing and the next layer under it. Then I nailed it down and smeared some asphalt adhesive under it too.

Here's a literary illustration of what I've done.

TOP LAYER ROOFING

----------------------------------

DRIP EDGE

..............................................

THICK LAYER OF 4 Layers of OLD ROOFING

==================================

Wood Decking

_________________________________________

Now, drip edge should be installed immediately over wood decking. And to do that I should tear up the mess that exists at the eaves of this roof. The extent of this project is not so vast that I don't have time to do it. I could probably demolish the entire roof in one day. But, what's the objective? The theory is that the drip edge should be the last line of defense for water that is running down the wood deck. But the deck in this case are horizontal boards with hundreds of holes in them and gaps between them. In short, no water is ever going to run down the wood from any leak and get to the drip edge. No, the water will run inside a gap or nail hole and drop onto the other roof under this roof. So, the drip edges I'm adding are purely for one purpose...to direct water running off the top layer of roofing away from the house wall. Any leaks or other problems will not involve this drip edge no matter where I put it. There are so many layers of roofing and it's all asphalted together that there's no way to 'do it right' because I could only break everything down and start from scratch, which I'm not going to do.

So, I'm back to doing the best I can to add a drip edge with the only goal of improving the water shedding at the eave. yes, water from a leak will theoretically go UNDER the drip edge if it makes it to the eave but I don't see how the water can possibly reach the eave if it's going over hundreds of holes and gaps in the wood deck. If you think about the wood deck of a roof you imagine a smooth, nearly water resistant surface. Well, that's before you nailed thousands of nails and staples in it. Yes, water will leak behind the roof surface eventually, but the videos of roof leaks rarely involve someone saying "See, if this drip edge had been properly installed under the felt paper then the water would not have been trapped at this point an inch above the drip edge. "

No, the leak immediately finds a way into the attic. The drip edge does one job: shed water from the top layer of roofing. Sure, install it directly onto the deck. Why not? But don't delude yourself that a leak under the roofing material and the underlayment to the deck and will run all the way past a hundred holes and gaps in the decking until it finally gets trapped at the point where the drip edge was nailed over the underlayment. I see that happening if an entire section of roofing material was torn off and water poured in from a hurricane directly onto the wood deck where it ran under torn roofing and tar paper. Sure. But a little leak that reaches the felt paper will go to the nearest nail or staple hole and go right through to the attic underneath the roof deck. The drip edge placement is best directly on the wood deck of the eave. But in my case when there are 4 layers of roofing material nailed to the roof, then the second best place is beneath the top layer of roofing.

This brings me to another issue I'm pondering: The prevailing wind rake.

The 'rake' is the part of the roof that is sloped.

here is the prevailing wind rake of my house. The abuse is evident.

here is the non-prevailing wind side of the house. This is the 'Lee' side of the house. It doesn't show as much abuse.

I got a better photo of the Lee side of the house so let's use that as an example. Imagine this were the windward side. Now, the same method of rolling the roofing material around a piece of wood and nailing it into the house was used here and it's all decayed and ruined so I'll be adding a drip edge around the entire house if everything goes well and I figure out a method. The experiment I want to try is to focus on the windward side of the house which is a rake. The leeward rake needs a drip edge but little water probably sheds from this side so it's not a huge priority. The winds here are strong and the windward side of the house gets a good burst of wind...when it rains the water pounds this one side of the house almost horizontally. Now, WHY would I follow the directions and install the drip edge under the rolled roofing and over the tar paper? Why do that? That will create an edge, that is nailed down and adhered with cement to the drip edge. Why not, on the prevailing wind side of the rake, staple and use cement to fix the tar paper to the wood deck. Then use adhesive to fix the roofing to the tar paper. THEN install the drip edge over everything and lay a good bead of cement under the drip edge before nailing it down good and tight. Yes, the surface of rolled roofing is not as flat as wood so there would be some rolling in the edge, but the layer of cement or butyl tape under the rake drip edge would seal those small imperfections. Then...when the wind blows water against the rake...the first and only thing it hits is indestructible galvanized drip edge. There is no lip of asphalt or tar paper or nails to loosen.

My visualization of this scenario has me hearing a voice of experience saying, "Oggy, a properly adhered underlayment with a concealed nail method...a 9'' strip of roofing material nailed over tar paper that has been cemented to a properly primed drip edge on the rake will create the same impenetrable seam that you are trying to create with a drip edge nailed over the entire edge...plus, any repairs to the roof will now involve removing the whole drip edge and risk damaging it...when you normally don't have to touch the drip edge to replace the roofing material since it is installed under the top layer."

I hear this voice of experience and answer: Ok, you think you're so smart. Why not DO BOTH? Huh? Why not cement the tar paper to the deck. Then nail the primed drip edge over the tar paper. Then nail the starter strip of roofing material to the drip edge using asphalt cement. THEN, once you have confirmed the asphalt sandwich you have created is solid, THEN add an additional drip edge that is shorter than the drip edge below it. Then you have triple protection on the windward rake! I'm not talking about doing some insane experiment around the entire roof. No, I'm focusing only on the windward rake that takes the most abuse. Why not use everything under the sun to keep water out of that area? Kind of like my plan to cover this roof with a metal roof. But this roof is already covering another roof. And this roof is made of 4 different layers of roofing. So, if the original roof includes 3 layers of roofing...and this roof includes 5 layers of roofing and I add one more layer of metal roofing...THEN THAT MAKES 9 (NINE) ROOFS over one house. Again, the problem with water infiltration are not the roof....the problem is the cracks in the stucco and the rakes and eaves allowing water to run under the roof along with the Vigas directing water back into the house.

here's another written illustration

_______________(top drip edge nailed to....

| Top Layer Asphalt Roofing

| cemented layer of felt

| felt cemented to primed drip edge

| _______________ (bottom primed drip edge nailed to....

| |

| | WOOD DECKING

It's possible someone might say, "Oggy, what you're describing won't look good." So I include this photo from my roof. Does this look like a place that is concerned with aesthetics? We have literally rusting metal roofs...decaying fences...a huge pile of arsenic laced, rust colored, lead rich soil surrounding the town. The alley is unpaved. Dogs run freely. This is a town for practical people. All that matters is keeping the rainwater out of the house. If you can do that then you have succeeded.

*I'm tempted to make a video showing how I approach this but that might trick some innocent viewer into thinking I am trying to train others. No, that is not what this blog is for. I'm only trying to record my process of DIY thought. Training is not done on videos. We aren't in the fucking Matrix where you click "Download" on a "How to be a roofer" file. No. In the real world it takes years to learn the finesse involved with each process, let alone the decades to learn the insane number of products one can use. Have you seen the caulking aisle in the hardware store? It's insane. Many ways to get the wrong item. It's like going to the store and accidentally buying "Low Fat" cream cheese...as though a person eating cream cheese is counting calories for fuck sake! Well, you go to the cereal aisle and accidentally get a frosted flake you didn't intend to buy....and you're going to eat it. I'm sure you will. Because it's all the same cereal. Well, you're fucked if you get the wrong caulking and still use it. This is just an example of the infinite combinations of the wrong material you can purchase that will cause a huge mess and make you look like an asshole. The difference between Cement and Adhesive is pretty significant although any innocent person would think they are the same thing. Cement patches holes when used with fabric....Adhesive binds two new surfaces. In short, don't think I'm training anyone about these topics. I'm a philosopher, not a roofer. The process and underlying principles are important because the roof and my flesh and blood are all going to be wearing a wood suit one day. The principles will remain.

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Weep Screed

I know I'm voyaging deep into unchartered territory when I start reading about weep screeds. Weep Screeds are basically a water shedding feature at the very bottom of stucco buildings. ( my house doesn't have one)

Speaking of new discoveries, I tore into the rotting wood roof trim and discovered the roof is not the roof. This adobe house has a parapet roof that the previous owners got tired of dealing with so they had someone build a roof on top of the roof.

Here's an example of authentic parapet walls on an adobe building. Probably similar to the original roof on my house.

I knew something was odd when I looked above the ceiling in a small rafter space when I was messing with the kitchen light source...and I felt I was not high enough to where the ridge is, but my head was 2 inches from the roof sheathing. Well, how is my head 2 inches from the roof sheathing but I'm not 11 feet above the ground? I had other problems on my agenda that day so the mystery remained until I tore into the wood trim.

Here is what a roof built on a roof looks like. Decaying old asphalt paper under a framework that holds up more sheathing and another roof. It looks like a normal attic crawlspace, but there is no access to this area from the inside of the building because this is looking at the top of the original roof.

The original parapet roof is low pitch. Maybe there is no ridge at all. I will find out when I take off that awful Masonite junk that is giving the illusion that it is siding, when it is really hiding the framework of another roof. There should be a vent somewhere in there but, you know, who could be bothered to cut a hole and put a vent?

The wind was blowing pretty hard today so I did not finish the new fascia and drip edge. But I got an idea of how I'm going to install it around the whole house. This eave is the most important because water runs onto stucco. The original wood vigas were ruined and also the source of water into the walls that caused water damage. I think. So, I used the widest fascia I could find (12'') and the widest drip edge I could find (4''). At worst, it gives the elements one more thing to destroy while I decide what to do about this roof. It's nice to buy a house that not one person knew had a false roof. Even if I had gotten an inspection, I doubt he would've torn off the fascia to figure out there was a false roof. And it wouldn't have made a difference.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Dirty Job

When most people take off the siding of their house or look under the stucco, this isn't what they see. I'm not even sure it's true adobe. It simply looks like dirt. There are no seams of adobe brick. I don't know what is holding this house up.

This crack annoys me. It's like The House of Usher. Whether Stucco repair can withstand the powerful elements remains to be seen.

From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red moon which now shone vividly through that once barely-discernible fissure of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zig-zag direction, to the base. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened --there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind --the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight --my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder --there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters --and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the "HOUSE OF BLEACHER."

Monday, April 15, 2019

Roof Trim Trainwreck

I thought this piece of wood was some kind of trim, but now I think it was only used to wrap the asphalt roofing around to create a crude 'drip edge'. I'd like to research when galvanized drip edge was invented because this method is the most half-assed I could imagine. This is how you build a dog house. The water still runs under the asphalt paper and onto the house. It doesn't drip off.

it's hard to see but the red painted asphalt roofing is curled around that piece of 1.5'' wood and nailed in place, like it's a crude loop in the paper intended to create a seal of the underside of the roof. but curling asphalt paper this much causes it to decay at the edge very quickly. It lasts a year or two but then it cracks at the top bend and then it acts as a gutter directing rain runoff into the very place it was intended to protect.

For $8 a homeowner can buy a 10 ft length of 4''x4'' galvanized drip edge, like I used on my garage. On the rake you install it under the asphalt roof and over the tar paper then nail it down. or whatever you prefer. Rain runs onto the drip edge and then kicks off the house. The drip edge never cracks, rusts in like 40 years and can be reused. A roof this small would cost under $100 to completely surround with 4''x 4'' galvanized drip edge. Or you could be really cheap and get 1.5'' x 1.5'' drip edge and do it all for $50. Why would someone save $50 or $100 and compromise the entire roof deck by creating a doomed drip edge with crappy asphalt roofing? It's a rental, is the answer.

As near as I can see this top layer (of three layers) of rolled asphalt mineral coated roof is not more than 5 years old, but they used no asphalt sealant at the laps and seams (that one black line in the mid ground is a post-install crack repair using plastic patch). A gallon costs $19, so I'm hoping they had a good time with that huge savings. The material itself doesn't leak but the wind blows the seams around. The only leaks are at the eave and corners where water rolls back under the loose roofing and down the old stucco and into cracks or behind window trim. The roof material isn't the problem.

What bothers me is that the method of curling hot asphalt roofing in a circle around a piece of wood and nailing it to the side of the house sounds way more complicated and time consuming and difficult that simply running the roofing to a pre-installed galvanized drip edge is, and then nailing or adhering the paper to the drip edge. I don't see how this method was faster or cheaper.

This is what 4'' x 4'' drip edge looks like after Oggy nailed it to the eave side of the garage.

Note the professional overlap of two different drip edge sizes. Also, note the insane low slope arch that forms the pitch of this odd roof. I figured, rain can't run off the rake unless it is blow by wind so it only needs a 1.5'' drip edge. Furthermore, the whole thing is an off grid shed...that I plan to demolish eventually.

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Workshop Roof

This is what the broker means when they write 'Fix-up"
30 years of neglect and indifference. A chicken coop would get more attention.

'Un-Salvageable' was a word that commonly came up when talking about this garage.

There is no part of this garage that is not rotten.

And to make matters worse, the roof is built into another roof. So it's like one huge roof with a low pitch valley in the middle. As bad a design as you can build. It's what you would do if you want to capture rainwater in your garage.

Still, Oggy tore all the old asphalt paper off. I knew that was step 1. Step 2 was tear off all the rotten clapboards, but I skipped that step.

I left the rotten clapboards because the rafters are not any better to screw into than the clapboards. I started to think that the clapboards are all that are holding the garage together. And they gave me a place to stand while putting the OSB decking on.

The guy at the hardware store asked, "What is that thing sticking out that keeps catching the boards." I said it's a stove.

This is a ten dollar saddle on a five dollar horse.

This lasted only a few hours before a gust of wind tore off the top layer of asphalt paper. note to self: do roofing on calm, windless days in the winter. But the motto lately is, "Make hay while the sun shines." my vacation is over. maybe I go broke fixing up a house but will it be any different than going broke trying to drive to Baffin Island?

deadly scorpions keep Oggy on his toes.

a glamour shot

Ramblings of Old Man

Here's some unformed thoughts as I approach the midway point of re-roofing a neglected garage. Again, do not take my advice on any kind of construction project. There is some reward in attempting this kind of home maintenance but the minutiae of modern products and the disparity of opinions makes for a painful entrance into trade work like carpentry and roofing and electrical. The specialized skills and finesse and tools are gained over decades, not by watching ten minute videos. But the same disparity in approach makes it easier to simply attempt it oneself. I could re-roof this garage 3 times wrong and one time right and still save money over paying a contractor to do it. So, the effort is barely within the realm of my muscles and back so why not attempt it? It's not a failure to call someone more experienced but paying someone else definitely doesn't mean you will get a good product well assembled. It only means you can blame someone else. Home maintenance was once straight forward, maybe not easy, but straight forward. Now it involves major research and experience. But there is a process to home repair and maybe that's what I'm aiming at. Find a problem, research the problem and possible solutions. Assemble tools and material and attempt a repair. It's all scientific method....theory and hypothesis and experiment.

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Breaker Panel Blues

The funny thing about seeing three circuits with a single Neutral returning from the house and 2 ground wires is that the house has zero grounded outlets or lights. So do those ground wires go to some magic land where magic lamps need magic grounds?
I was puzzled by the single red wire going to the first breaker. It's 110v so why is it red? I figured they ran out of black wire, but that's not the reason and the real reason is staring me in the face. What happened is that the electrician who moved the panel and upgraded to 100amps replaced the wires 'in kind' and the original wiring shared the three neutrals. Yes, all the neutrals (1 for each of the 3 branch circuits) go to one wire nut and then a single white neutral returns to the panel. That seems shady but it was actually approved of long ago. Why a modern day electrician is allowed to replicate this method is a mystery.

I've figured out some of the mysteries about this Main Load Center, but there must be others. Please advise.

The first puzzle was the red wire to a 110v branch circuit. Did they run out of Black? No, all 3 of the neutrals are in a wire nut in an exterior junction box. Only one neutral returns to the panel. The red wire is a 'warning' that there are shared neutrals. But I thought one could share neutrals only on opposite breakers due to split phase, but by sharing all 3 neutrals #1,#3,#5, doesn't that mean breaker #1 neutral could indeed be live because it's linked to #3 even though I turn off breaker #1 since they are both on the same phase?

I thought a modern electrician getting a permit to do a service upgrade to 100 amps would not be allowed by the inspector to omit AFCI breakers simply because the original breakers were not AFCI, but I'm wrong. I talked to the inspector and AFCI breakers were not required even though the house has no grounded equipment. Why? All the two prong outlets will need AFCI protection so what is the point of installing regular breakers in a house with no equipment ground? Those ground wires in the panel stop at an exterior junction box around the corner where all the cloth covered wires come together. The upgrade went no further than the wall.

What is with the bare ground wire directly to the neutral bar? That bare wire goes directly to an exposed water spigot in the lawn and then to the natural gas manifold. Doesn't that bare wire belong on the ground bus?

I'm curious if anything is 'good' about this load center work?

The house is part adobe late '30s build. All plaster walls...2 feet thick in some places. My plan is to rewire the entire house by taking the ceilings down since it appears all the branch junctions were made in hidden boxes in the ceiling.

But immediately I want to add the 2 neutrals so the branch circuits are independent. There is space in the EMT but they used THWN 12 solid and I can only find THHN locally. It's not exposed wire but the conduit is exposed before it enters the house. (Gives me an idea that the new entry point should be right behind the box and not through conduit around the corner.) I think 25 ft of THHN wire instead of THWN is the least of the problems here but others might disagree.