Shingles (not the disease) (Day 251 of 273)

We're waist deep into the shingle game, as you'll see from the photos. Its quite a production line, limited only by places to stand up the dipped shingles. (To save Steve Cooley the time, just let me say it: "I'll be dipped").

Nancy gets a couple hundred shingles off our little stack of 8,000, and dips them deep in the 5 gal can of Cabots stain (semi-solid, Pewter Grey). Then they go into paint roller pan covers (to drain), then get stood up against the walls, the stack, and anything else of a vertical nature in the garage. She'll dip til she drops.

After a day or two of drying (not entirely, just enough to handle them), I staple them up on the exterior. I'm using a Porter Cable narrow crown pnuematic stapler, currently my favorite power tool. I started with the garage, which is the closest part of the house to the road and most visible part of the house. After a little gerplutzing with string lines, I built a 8'-long ledger board that holds a row of shingles. I'm using a 6" exposure, mainly because its easier to keep track of the row heights (1/2 ft intervals). After a row is finished, I move the ledger board up 6" and do it all over again. Laid 200 shingles the first afternoon in 4 hours, then another 200 the next day in 3 hours. That's probably my most rapid rate of getting (them) laid. 200 shingles covered about 50 sq. ft, or 1/2 a square. So after two shots (7 hours) of shingling, I've laid one square (100 sq.ft) and have 19 to go. 6 hours per square x 19 squares, go figure (14.25 days). Then add some time to build and move scaffolding for the upper courses and some time to cut the angle for the gables. Looks like 3 weeks to go.

Perhaps its just a coincidence, but a 5/12 pitch (which is what the Richard Berg spec'd for the house) is 22.62°, which is pretty close to 22.5° which is a preset angle on my chop saw. Some things work out, no matter how much to try to screw them up.

Troy Ellis has about 1/2 of the Hardiboard laid and its looking good. Straight as an arrow, caulked tight, and uniform (7" exposure). He's at the point where he'll need to build scaffolding and hang board for the upper 3 ft.

Gotta go staple and dip. Doesn't get any better than this, or does it? That Catamaran in the Caribbean with Bahama Mamas (to drink) is going to feel pretty good—Crone, Creber and Knott.