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.