New roof aftermath - cleaning up the attic

[Dan_Musicant]

I just had 95 years worth of roofing materials removed and a new roof applied by a local roofing company. Overall, I think they did a good job although I'm not knowledgable. However I did do some homework.

The house had skip sheathing, which is 1x4's, with around 4-6 inches space between boards. The skip sheathing was covered by wood shingles and there were several layers of asphalt shingles over that.

If any one is contemplating a complete tearoff such as I just had done to my 2 story 1925 footer with attic, I can highly recommend one thing - that you put down plastic in your attic before they do the tear off. The tear off is the very first thing they do, so have the plastic down before they arrive. You can use thin stuff, probably the 1 mil sheeting they have at Home Depot, etc. After the first day they'd done one side of the house and fortunately the roofers handed me a roll of such sheeting and I put it down on the other side before they tore that off. That will simplify cleaning of 1/2 the attic, but the first half is going to be pure hell. I already removed eight 5-gallon buckets full of debris and I'm sure I couldn't have removed more than 1/3 of the bigger debris from that 1/2 of the attic space. I figure the entire attic is around 1200 square feet. The smaller stuff is going to be even tougher - the stuff that's still too big for my shop vac. Add to that the fact that it gets harder and harder to crawl into the areas close to the eaves and I can see that it will be murder trying to get the attic clean.

I do have gable vents in north and south dormers (4 in all, 14" x 24") that I can temporarily remove and shove debris out onto the roof, followed by sweeping the sloped roof and cleaning out the gutters and doing pickup on the ground. That may beat continual bucket transport from the attic, but even so it's going to be a very tough job if I want my attic to be clean.

Even the part where I have plastic down is going to be hard. After I roll up the plastic and get it out of there (may not be easy) there will be a LOT of stuff close to the eaves, where I couldn't reach the plastic. That will be very hard to reach because of the very limited space in there. I'll have to resort to poles with some protuberance (like a hoe) to pull debris to where I can reach it. That followed by vacuuming with 2 extensions, hopefully. It's going to be messy, dirty work.

If anyone knows of any methods I can employ that I haven't thought of, I'd appreciate hearing about them.

Dan

[No]

Hi Dan - Clean-up is the hardest part of a roofing job that involves a rear-off in my opinion. Make sure expectations are regarding clean-up are clear and agreed upon between you and your roofer.

The one method you haven't thought of for cleaning is to pay somone! Otherwise just get out and do it, pick-up stuff, shop vac, magnetic roller for nails in yard.

BTW - you did the right thing doing a complete tear-off.

[Bob]

a new roof

did a good job

homework.

4-6 inches

wood shingles

that.

just had done

recommend one thing -

tear off. The

plastic down

mil sheeting

done one side

of such

tore that off.

first half is

buckets full of

........

I used thicker plastic everywhere. Picked up the larger pieces, then rolled the plastic up and removed it. I only had a few small areas turned black with the debris. I'm sure glad I did it. The weight of the debris would surely reduce the insulation thickness otherwise. And it's a much better place to work than it would have been.

Bob

[Todd H.]

Assuming the roof is not of slats but instead of plywood sheeting.... is this sort of thing still a concern?

How does the debris get in in that case?

-- Todd H.

[Wayne Whitney]

The original sheathing is skip sheathing, and the roofing job involved tearing off all the roofing down to the skip sheathing and adding plywood sheathing.

Wayne (a friend of the OP)

[Dan_Musicant]

:Hi Dan - Clean-up is the hardest part of a roofing job that involves a :rear-off in my opinion. Make sure expectations are regarding clean-up :are clear and agreed upon between you and your roofer. : :The one method you haven't thought of for cleaning is to pay somone! :Otherwise just get out and do it, pick-up stuff, shop vac, magnetic :roller for nails in yard. : :BTW - you did the right thing doing a complete tear-off.

The roofer did have a paragraph early in the contract where they advised putting down plastic on "sensitive" parts of the attic or over areas of storage. I didn't think I had any "sensitive" parts, so I decided to ignore that and figured I would just clean it by hand. I wasn't in the least prepared for the extent of the debris. It's absolutely staggering. As a rough off the cuff estimate I'd say that the debris that fell into the attic space after tearoff of the entire roof would fill around fifty

5-gallon buckets (uncompressed)! And much of that I'm going to have to fetch somehow from the eaves, where there appears to be the highest concentration. I will have a hard time squeezing myself into the limited space where I can somehow reach that stuff even with some kind of pole device.

The contract said bluntly that there were no funds allocated for cleanup of the attic, IOW that cleanup of the attic was on me. I'd read that, and I accept responsibility. I only wish I'd known how bad the problem would be and I would have put plastic down in both parts of the attic. I feel very lucky that the crew chief was nice enough to supply me with plastic when he saw me cleaning up the first days mess in the northern half of the attic.

Actually I had thought of paying someone to do it. It's not something I have ever done, AFAIK - pay someone else to do a task that's onerous to me but I am capable of doing. I've always done my own taxes, cleaned up after myself in most circumstances, anyway.

Magnetic roller? Never heard of that before, but I suppose I should use one on my lawn before I try to mow it!

Complete tear off was really the only option. It may have been legally required in my circumstance, moreover that's the only way the dry rot could have been addressed, and it was a MAJOR concern. I'm no expert, but I think they did a pretty damn good job. The roof was wavy curvy warped and weird looking and now it's almost straight and true. You have to look pretty hard to detect imperfections.

[Dan_Musicant]

:"Bob" writes: :> I used thicker plastic everywhere. Picked up the larger :> pieces, then rolled the plastic up and removed it. I only :> had a few small areas turned black with the debris. I'm sure :> glad I did it. The weight of the debris would surely reduce :> the insulation thickness otherwise. And it's a much better :> place to work than it would have been. : : :Assuming the roof is not of slats but instead of plywood :sheeting.... is this sort of thing still a concern? : :How does the debris get in in that case?

I would think that if you don't have skip sheathing and they are only tearing down to plywood sheeting, you will have little if any debris falling into your attic. There may be some if you have any gaps in the sheeting. However, my skip sheathing was separated by wider spaces than the boards themselves. I suppose there was little that the workers could have done to prevent a very substantial portion of the material from falling into the attic spaces.

[Dan_Musicant]

:On 2005-11-08, Todd H. wrote: : :> Assuming the roof is not of slats but instead of plywood :> sheeting.... is this sort of thing still a concern? How does the :> debris get in in that case? : :The original sheathing is skip sheathing, and the roofing job involved :tearing off all the roofing down to the skip sheathing and adding :plywood sheathing. : :Wayne (a friend of the OP)

Yep, Wayne had a look at my attic yesterday, and the new roof and gutter/downspout system.

I'm determined to clean up the attic reasonably thoroughly, probably over a period of time. After all, there's only so much debris I can throw out in the weekly pickup.

Dan

[Todd H.]

Sorry for the confusion--I'm actually asking a new question.

I have a plywood sheathed roof that I'll have redone soon with a tear off and I wonder if I need to worry about this same issue.

-- Todd H.

[Andy Hill]

You'll get a small amount of debris. Not enough to worry about, IMHO.

[Bob]

I should use

The roofer should have done that. Mine did.

Bob

[Bob]

than

workers could

material from

They could have done a lot better, but the tear-off would have taken 4 times as long. Plastic and a little labor is a lot cheaper.

Bob

[Dan_Musicant]

:Wayne Whitney writes: :> On 2005-11-08, Todd H. wrote: :> :> > Assuming the roof is not of slats but instead of plywood :> > sheeting.... is this sort of thing still a concern? How does the :> > debris get in in that case? :> :> The original sheathing is skip sheathing, and the roofing job involved :> tearing off all the roofing down to the skip sheathing and adding :> plywood sheathing. : :Sorry for the confusion--I'm actually asking a new question. : :I have a plywood sheathed roof that I'll have redone soon with a tear :off and I wonder if I need to worry about this same issue.

Well, that's something you should definitely ask your roofer before they begin the job. Try to address every issue ahead of time so you know what to expect. If possible, specify what is what in the contract. In my case, there was much to do that was unknowable before the tearoff because of the obvious dry rot issues. That stuff was done on a time and materials basis with the rate for the time specified in the contract.

[Dan_Musicant]

Cool. I live about 2 blocks from my municipal tool lending library. I'll ask them if they have one. I'm finding nails all around the perimeter of the house and I'm sure there are a number of them on my lawn. It's a small lawn, around 20' x 10'.

Dan

[Dan_Musicant]

The tool lending library didn't have anything. What I did was put a big nail on the end of a long stick and a big strong magnet on the nail. Then I poked around the yard and picked up probably 100+ nails, etc.

[Maxine]

replying to Dan_Musicant, Maxine wrote: Hi Dan , I too had a complete tear off ..I only have a small part that is attic space and it is a hoarders dream. Why we save junk is beyond me. I am contemplating throwing out most of the stuff, but my question is, if I clean it myself, do I have to worry about asbestos?

[makolber]

I know the post is old but

I wanted to add the same thing for adding a wood floor on the first floor. The basement has many twig sized pieces of wood that broke off the ceiling when they nailed floor down. If I had known, I would have had the floor and things in the basement covered.

m ..

[trader_4]

No, roof shingles aren't a source of asbestos. If they were, protective measures would have to be taken during removal. But I would wear a mask when cleaning, just for the dust.