More progress on the roof painting.

I had to wait on the weather a bit this morning. The rain took its sweet time clearing out over night and things were pretty wet on the roof at 8 AM. It wasn't until 10 AM that the roof over the south side of the kitchen and the covered porch was dry enough for me to go up there and slather on a coat of aluminum.

Naturally, my knees started complaining immediately. I expected it from my left (that's the one I twisted two years ago while out in the woods hunting), but the right one was the loudest--and sorest--of the two. Still, I soldiered on knowing that I've got a reduced window of opportunity now that the forecast has changed for Saturday and Sunday.

BEFORE: South kitchen and porch roof.

AFTER: South kitchen and porch roof.

Three hours of up and down, down and up on the ladders and I had finished the kitchen and porch roof. I took an extended break for lunch and hoped my knees would forgive me enough to let me get a good chink of the living room roof done this afternoon.

BEFORE: East living room roof.

They didn't. I managed to get about 1/3 of the east side of the living room roof done in two and a half hours before I finally had to call it quits. This roof is a bit of a challenge to start with as the ground slopes from the main body of the house to the southern end of the living room on the left. The drop is only a couple of feet, but it's fairly steady meaning the climbing ladder's one leg is firmly planted on the ground while the other needs to be propped up two to four inches. I've got some 2 x 6 boards for that purpose but it's just one more thing that makes me nervous on the ladder. And with bum knees, it's bad enough.

PARTIALLY DONE: East living room roof.

Still to do: East living room roof.
(Plus, the west side of the living room roof (not shown) needs doin'.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get another Yuengling Lager and put some dinner in the microwave. Then it's an extra dose of pain killers and off to bed.

Painting progresses

Okay, about that "Up On The Roof'" falsehood: the Amish crew didn't show up with their paint brushes and ladders either (then again, it was Sunday) so I had to go back out and do it myself!

I managed to finish the upstairs bedroom (west side), the north side of the kitchen, AND the wood shed roof before 1:30 PM. I called it quits at that time because I could. Hey! I'm not only the work crew, I'm the boss, too! I can do what every I please when it pleases me. Got that? (Besides, IF it should rain this evening, I want the roof coating to have some time to cure before the water hits it. Weather.com says maybe. AccuHunch says possible. Both say it WILL most likely rain tomorrow afternoon. (75% chance according to the crew at AH.)

Here's today's progress:

First the upstairs bedroom on the west side. I got part of this yesterday but managed to reach the center panels today and finished it off.

A reminder of what it looked like before painting.

Before: West side of upstairs bedroom.

And here's what it looks like with a fresh coat.

After: West side of upstairs bedroom.

The north side of the kitchen roof and the wood shed roof were also on my list for today.

Here's those roofs before painting.

Before: North side of kitchen and wood shed.

And after.

After: North side of kitchen and wood shed.

The little maple sapling had to come down--again. The wood shed roof took just an hour to do after lunch. I could stand up and use the long handled brush on it. Not climbing or concern about slopes on that baby!

My day at the Bolt Hole

As I mentioned in the previous post, today was the day I was to get up on the roof and paint the rusty, rusty metal roof. (Or at least part of it.) And that's just what I did.

Like many an old home that has undergone periodical improvements, the Bolt Hole has a complex and troubling roof line. There are roofs for the kitchen, the upstairs bedroom, the living room, the kids' bedroom, the screened porch and the wood shed. Some may have ridge beams that run in the same direction--but they are NOT at the same elevation. Others have ridge beams that are perpendicular to their neighboring roof. Even these, however, do not meet at the same elevation. Finally, there are two (the woodshed and the screened porch) that slope in the same direction as their adjacent roof but at a different pitch and, in the case of the screened porch, at a different elevation.

Only the roof over the kids' bedroom will escape. I replaced that about 6 years ago and it's got a bright red roof now. So that leaves the living room roof (second newest but very rusty), the upstairs bedroom, the screened porch, kitchen and wood shed to paint.

The screened porch and the wood shed roofs are my favorites. They have pitches that are approximately 3:12 and 4:12. (That's the number of inches they rise over a horizontal foot.) They are nearly flat compared to the roofs that are closer to 10:12 or 12:12.

My favorite steep roof is the one over the east half of the upstairs bedroom. It's close to a 12:12 pitch but the eave is just two feet above the screened porch's 3:12 roof. Slip and slide on the bedroom section and I'd end up on the screened porch with an excellent chance of stopping. (The back half of the kitchen--also a 12:12 roof--ends up on the woodshed roof at the same elevation. This is the one that Mark used as a ski jump one winter. 'Nough said.)

So today, I thought I would do the east side of the upstairs bedroom, the screened porch, and the west side of the upstairs bedroom if time permitted.

Here's a picture showing what the east side of the upstairs bedroom looked like before I got to work. (the screened porch is just below the eave of the bedroom roof but, because of the angle, doesn't show up to well.)

Before: East side of upstairs bedroom & screened porch.

Notice the roof ladder hooked over the ridge on the lefts of the chimney. Very useful that IF the over hang at the eave end allows it to be used.

Here's those same roofs after they got painted.

After: East side of upstairs bedroom & screened porch.

Having finished the east side, I moved over to the west. Here's the north end of the west side of that bedroom roof. The kitchen roof on the right forms a T with the bedroom roof about half way up the slope. And, if you look carefully in the lower right, you can see the change in pitch between the kitchen roof and the wood shed roof.

Before: North end of west side of the upstairs bedroom,
the kitchen and wood shed roofs.

And after I quit for the day due to knee, back and muscle aches; dehydration (actually, THAT was not a problem--3 Gator Ades, and equal number of liter bottles of water and temperatures "only" in the upper 70s helped) and fatigue, here's what had been done on the west:

North end of the west side of the upstairs bedroom roof.

South end of the west side of the upstairs bedroom roof.

Access to the middle of this west side of the roof is hampered by the length of the roof ladder. It's too long and doesn't latch over the ridge when bumping into the kitchen roof. The problem is trying to walk that steep roof with a five gallon pail of aluminum, fiber impregnated, paint in one hand and the need for a sky hook on your mind.

******
Incidentally I've been saying "paint" when in fact this is more a roof coating--sort of like a silver colored tar with fibers mixed in. It will seal small cracks but can be applied with a masons brush or a roller. With the little ridges on the crimped roofing, I chose a hand held brush for most of my application. A few times, when things got a little too distant for comfort, I used a brush on a long handle to r-e-a-c-h out there and get the edges.

This coating is kinda weird in that it is a bronze-gold color in the can but as soon as it hits the roof and starts to dry/age/oxidize it turns a brilliant silver. During the day, I splashed so much on my pants and boots, I thought I was the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. As my knees, back and muscles started to ache I could have used an oil can. And as I continued to push myself, I could have used his heart.

Tomorrow I need to get those center panels and then the north side of the kitchen roof as well as the wood shed.

Finish Stripping 101

As the afternoon temperatures on Thursday climbed to 97 degrees at the Aerie (104 was the reading at the Elmira-corning Airport according to weather.com and AccuHunch), I "escaped" to the slightly cooler garage to strip the finish off a pair of old headboards and foot boards for twin beds that were once used by my sister and I as kids. The beds date to at least 1958 and have never been refinished. The wood appears to be maple. I once stripped the dresser and chest on chest that were part of this bedroom set and those pieces are sitting in the basement being used for storage.

When Terry and I were new home owners way back in 1973, I took it upon myself to strip the paint off our old home's solid wood panel doors. Each door was two-over-two; that is, had two square panels on the bottom and two larger rectangular panels on the top. Each panel was bevel edged and was surrounded by cove molding. And each door had a gazillion layers of paint on it. (The house was built around 1906 and this was the first time these doors were stripped.) THE product of choice for that task was something called Zip-Strip. It took me all summer and about eight gallons of stripper to clean the doors so I could repaint them. Zip-Strip worked but I could only get three coats of paint off at a time. It also was extremely volatile--and not in a good way--which is why I did all my work on a set of saw horses set up in the back yard. By the end of the summer the fumes from the Zip-Strip may have damaged some brain cells...or maybe it was all the beer I drank while toiling away in the hot afternoon sun. I figure the beer to Zip-Strip ration may have been 3:1, maybe even 4:1.

The bed pieces had only one coat of finish on them (varnish?) so I thought I'd give something else a try. I had read about an orange colored and odored product called Citristrip and found it on the shelf at Lowe's. The fact that the directions say it's safe to use indoors and makes no mention of using it in a well ventilated area intrigued me. Could it be that safe and un-obnoxious? It claims to work on varnish, paint, other finishes, and many, many coats, too. As a gel, it should cling to the work, no? So, even with a price of $18 for half a gallon, I thought, "Why not?"

Let me tell you something: Citristrip is Great Stuff!

I applied it as directed using a paint brush, waited 30 minutes and used a plastic scraper--also as directed--and watched the finish come right off. Little or no elbow grease needed. That simple. If I left the gel to sit for a longer time, it did dry somewhat, but it still scraped off easily--perhaps even more so as it didn't run. (The package says it will stay moist for up to 24 hours, but that must be with a much thicker application than I used.)

The only caveat on the use of the stuff is to NOT use in direct sunlight or when there's a stiff breeze blowing. They're worried about evaporation. I was concerned about the heat so the garage was the ideal place to be! (The basement would have been cooler, but the cats....) There was a slight orange citrus aroma that beat the tar out of the strong, head spinning vapors other strippers produce. (I did open the window and garage bay door when I popped the top on the mineral spirits--just to be safe.)

I finished up using a stainless steel scrubbing pad and some mineral spirits to get the last of the stripper and goo off the pieces. With a little light sanding with very fine grit paper, the pieces are now ready for a fresh coat of paint. Or, perhaps, even a staining.

Citristrip is biodegradable and easily washes off your hands with soap and water. Same for any spatters you may get on your clothes. Latex gloves or their ilk are recommended for when you're scraping, however. That residual paint and stain doesn't come off so easily.

My work was on a single layer of finish, if dealing with multiple layers, a thicker application and longer sitting time may be necessary.

My only problem with Citristrip is also a plus: It is so thick it's nearly impossible to get out of the plastic jug it is sold in! They should market it in squeeze tubes like toothpaste so you can get that last little bit out of the container! (Not that I have to worry about that for a while. The four pieces--both sides--only required a little over half the jug--call it a pint+ used. And just one beer.) This thickness is a plus if you were working on door or window moldings or anything that is vertical. Citristrip will stick around on those surfaces to do the job.

[Disclaimer: I am not now, nor have I ever been, an employee of W.M. Barr & Co., Inc., Memphis TN, manufactures of Citristrip. I have received nothing from them in making this endorsement of their marvelous product. However, should they wish to contact me....]