house repairs and marking territory

Trying to stop leaks on an old rotted house is an interesting process.  Figuring out where to start is also interesting in that I don’t really have much experience doing shingle roof repair.  I worked for a year doing tear-offs and replacement roofs on power plants and a Corning facility, but that did not prepare me to do flashing on chimneys or replace asphalt shingles.

It took me an entire day just to replace two sides of chimney flashing and repair the shingles that I had ripped up around it.  All the old flashing was just a pile of rust.  It was held together by layers of decaying silicone caulk and fragments of termite digested wood.  There was also a nice helping of orange spray sealant foam that served no purpose except to develop holes and hold water in those holes.

I had to use extra roofing tar just to fill in some of the brick joints.  I will mortar the rest of the chimney when I get a chance but just wanted to get the thing to stop leaking.

The other side was a horror show of four layers of shingles and a half dozen previous repair attempts.

This repair is anything but pretty but it is sealed and tight.

In new house news, we marked out the lines with our builder Malcolm Duff.

Hopefully the construction will start in a few weeks.