We Blew the Roof Off

Apparently I was extremely wrong when I said we were “done with everything and now we can relax” in regards to large house projects! Ugh! Well the joys of home ownership and the “summer of projects” has now continued into the fall. Today we had Power HRG out to replace the entire roof. We had not realized the roof required work until it was pointed out to us, as nothing was identified in the inspection. While I knew how hot the attic could get in October, I did not fully understand how hot or the consequences of that heat. The attic is getting so hot in the summer that it is drawing the sap from the beams at a rate faster than normal, causing excessive ambering. This has a lot to do with the poor ventilation which consists of about 5 can vents and soffit vents on the front of the house (there is no soffit vent on the back of the house). Additionally there are a number of cat eye patterns in the wood indicating moisture and micro fungi presence (which is an indicator of possible moisture getting through the shingles). We also have some shingles that show excessive wear and curling along the gutters and areas of water pooling indicated by algae build up (dark streaks in the coloring of the roof, this can lead to shingle delamination and possible water leaking through the shingle). For all of these reasons, once we learned about them, we have decided to replace the roof, which is currently about 8 years old according to documents left by the previous owner. The main issue being the excessive heat build up due to the lack of proper venting. As such we are hopeful that Power’s Power Vent in addition to a new ridge vent, will greatly help this. We are also hoping that the attic having better ventilation will also help with the cooling of the second floor in the summer in addition to the new HVAC system. Power “offers a 50-year warranty on the entire roof system, not just the shingles, and a lifetime labor warranty,” which, in addition to the Power Vents, are the main reasons we chose to go with them. Additionally they only use GAF products, all of their roofers are GAF Certified Roofers, and the company as a whole has achieved GAF Master-Elite status. All of these reasons make us feel confident that the roof will be quality and last for many years to come. At this point we have replaced the three major house components (Roof, Windows [House and Basement], and HVAC) in the first year of home ownership! On one hand this is great because everything should be covered for many years to come, on the other it has been an expensive first year! It’s still great to own our home though.