Roof Tile

Last few days have been a flurry of activity again.  Took a few days off from construction to actually do my job...  Nothing really got done on the house, but I did need to collect my thoughts and do some shopping (per my last post).

So, here it is.... At last, the long awaited Monterosso Blend....  We basically picked this tile a few years ago at a roadsize display between Austin and San Antonio.  We both like all tile, but this particular blend was chosen independently and almost instantly as we backed up and down the feeder that day...

Anyway, the colors are all over the place.  It depends on how the light is shining, shadows, sky color, background color, etc.  If you are looking up at the house, you see the edges of the tile and they look different yet.  Also the color varies if you can see the ridges, or the ridges and the valleys together.   We counted 7 colors originally off the pallets, but there are easily 5 different shades of each of those, as the color glaze is hand applied and then fired at the factory.  Each tile is different.... oranges, reds, browns, whites, blacks, plums, grey, etc. 

This was the view up the driveway Tuesday morning.  I think there were over 30 pallets of these things.  Heavy... uh, yes.  Note the blue sky and leaves coming in on the trees!

This they called a "crawler".  It was very heavy itself and chewed up the ground pretty good.  Things are still very wet here and if you get off the driveway, you will sink in pretty good.  They were able to get around the back of the house pretty well with this thing, but I informed them the front yard was off limits!  So they basically walked the tile up and over from the back to the front where needed.

OH, this thing had foam filled tires.  I can't imagine how many roofing nails this thing has crewed over...

Looking East over freshly stacked tile.  This is actually not a random event.  Each stack is carefully placed in with a specific quantity.  They drive nails so they don't slide off the roof. 

Now over the North and East.

This pic didn't come out very good, the camera made the sky white and washed everything out.  But the tile continues, and they have some down at this point.

Here again, looking up from the bottom you can see the tile edges so you see more of a terra cotta color. 

Another washed out picture of the front.

Look how closely they cut the tile down through the valley...  I am happy because you can't see the shiney valley flashing anymore.  The black straps were all over the place...  In fact, two entire pickup loads of trash just from the pallet wrappers and straps, not including the pallets themselves...

From the driveway. 

Looking west now

And the same part of the roof from about 5 pictures ago, but different angle, different light, looks nothing the same.

Glad to see the leaves back, and a peek at the house from the street.

Different light again from the driveway, and they had finished up a lot more tile at this point.

And the garage.  Check out the ruts the "crawler" made while trucking around in there.  This area has been wet from day 1.  I would love to figure out a way to make it drain, but if I do that I trap water off to the left, which is worse...  Crawler didn't seem to mind, and it stirred up the muck a little bit and smells a little like the first day of construction, when the dozers were chewing around in this stuff...

So, here is the process for the tile...

1.  Stress the structure to hold it.

2.  Put a permenant self sealing membrane under the tile

3.  Load the roof with tile.

4.  Start at the eve, with a birdstop (I should have taken a picture of this)

5.   Tile the field from bottom to ridge.

6.  Cut the ridges and valleys to meet as appropriate.

7.  Install the tile ridge caps (these are single barrel tiles...caps without the pans)

8.  Mortar everything in place at the caps.

9.  Give all your money to the roof contractor.

I should note too that we are out of order on a few things.   Normally, the plumber has made his vent penetrations and the HVAC guys have put in any vents.  Well, the plumber isn't here yet.  So the tile guys will come back and help with those penetrations later.  I am hoping for a bare minimum of vent penetrations... How, you ask...  (yes, I heard you ask that)...  Instead of using the traditional plumbing vent method of sticking a pipe out the roof, we are going to try to maximize the use of vent valves.  Which is an air entrance valve that allows air to enter into the plumbing vent system without allowing any to escape.  So, they can be used inside the structure and draw air down when needed, but don't allow gas to flow in the other direction.  We will still need a few vents though, so the plumbing can achieve a neutral pressure to the exterior.  But, every roof penetration is a potential for a problem, and they look like crap.

So, what was I doing while all this work took place????  The wood burning chimney.  The wood buring fireplace in the Living Room vents up into the chimney chase.  In a nutshell, the vent tubes come in pieces and have to be installed up through that space.  In my case, they were 4 feet long and about 15 inches in diameter.  There is an inner and outer lining, the inner being stainless steel, and the outer galvanized metal.  These pieces are supposed to click right together...  yea, right, with a bulldozer on top of them maybe...  I also had to cut a large piece of plywood to accomodate the transition from "sealed" attic to "non-sealed" chase.  There were all kinds of braces and such in there and this board ended up looking like a strange piece of jigsaw puzzle, and it had to fit into the chase at the 5/12 pitch of the roof.  Anyway, after several hours, I was able to get all this into place. 

The chimney looks pretty small from the ground, but it is actually about 8 feet tall when you stand beside it, and the openings are about 24 inches square.  In this picture I had just stuck the chimney cap inside to make sure it fits in there...  This entire assembly has to be covered in non-flammable material.  In my case, they will use real stucco inside and out of this whole thing, with a metal pan flashing where the flu pipe goes through the top of the chase.  The rest of the structure on top is made of cement board, so it is not flammable.  I think I will paint the chimney cap black...  With your permission...

Ok, that's it for now.  Sorry for the absense, and hope you check back often.

  Happy Easter!!