Can't Hear Myself Think

Our roof is being replaced this week. It was damaged in a hailstorm last April (!). After going 'round and 'round with the insurance company, appraisers, inspectors, and roofing companies, we finally got everything straightened out and work commenced.

It's a metal roof - fairly common in this part of the country - and a little less than 10 years old. Still, roofing technology has advanced in that short time frame (roofing technology - go figure...). The old roof has a layer of 30# felt between the roof decking and the metal panels. This serves as a sound and insulation barrier, and also sops up any minor leaks. The current technique is to use a waterproof poly-something membrane in place of the felt. No problem with that - technology marches on, and all that good stuff.

The problem is that the insurance company mandates removal of the felt before laying down the new membrane. Doesn't make much sense to me or the roofers - just layer the membrane over the felt. If the membrane's truly waterproof, and is installed correctly, then we end up with two layers of protection between the metal roof and the decking. But nooooo... the insurance company wants the felt removed.

That adds a couple of days to the process (and makes it more expensive). It also adds a bunch of trash to the ground below. The felt is removed by using a shovel-like tool that scrapes the felt off the decking. The problem is that the felt is held down by metal discs about the size of a beer can top - many, many discs, all with a nail through their center.

As the shovel-like tool scrapes off the felt, it also pulls up the discs and nails, which drift merrily down to the ground. Our lawn and landscape beds are littered with hundreds - nay, thousands - of these discs and nails. Of course, they also litter the driveway as well.

Top that off with little pieces of metal with razor-sharp edges that are generated as the new metal panels are installed and cut to fit.

To be fair, at the end of each day the roofers go around and pick up most of the debris. They also make a few passes up and down the driveway with a large magnet on wheels to zap up stray nails and bits of metal. But after working all day in the hot Texas sun their focus is getting to the closest ice house and grabbing a cold beer, not on picking stuff up. Can't say as I blame them.

So after they leave I get the wife and kids, we form a line abreast, and have police call around the house and driveway. We find a fair amount of debris left behind. It must be working, because so far no one's gotten a flat tire, and none of the dogs have suffered a cut paw. I thought I was done with police calls when I mustered out of the Army.

And did I mention the noise? Scraping, banging, crashes as the old metal panels are removed and dropped off the roof (think of the old sound effect days, when a sheet of tin was rattled to simulate thunder). It starts around 8 a.m. and ends around 6 p.m.

You can't hear conversations on the phone, can't hear the TV, can't hear the wife (mixed blessing, that). And it drives the dogs crazy. They usually spend a lot of time outside, and get their kicks barking madly at strange noises and strange people, so this is pretty traumatic for both them and us.

As a result of all this, I 'volunteered' to take the dogs up to our weekend place at Lake Buchanan. I needed to do some work up here anyway, so this is a 'two birds one stone' kind of thing.

So the dogs and I are here, the wife and kids are there, and the reunion is planned for Friday night.

In the meantime, peace and quiet - blessed, blessed peace and quiet...