reading yarrow’s thread on cedarshake re-roof situation got me thinking back. Use to do a lot of demo for house parts, salvaging for old lumber, looking for gems. An invaluable tool for me was the little 1 1/2 ton hydraulic floor jack, (kmart $20 kind of thing), used it all the time to pop lumber free etc. Now, in an exposed cedar shake roofing i.e. attic, it sure seems logical that someone should be able to start at the top and work down toward the eves and pop that skip sheathing off the 2x rafters and peel the cedar shakes and asphalt off all at once. Next re-roof I do of that nature I think I got to try it. Anyone out there ever done such a wild thing?
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sounds like a great idea, you must be about 15' tall, is your medical insurance paid up. cant wait to read the headlines," man punches holes in roof". no never did it,
Yeah! Who you got on the team to handle a chunk of material that big?
How are you going to protect the interior of the house from the elements through this process assuming it would work?
ya, have to be a total reno, kinda like the before and after photos on the original cover of George Nash's book 'Renovating Old Houses'. Sure sounds like a lot of skepticism out there for an idea, compared to the gut labor involved ripping off two layers of asphalt and a layer of shake the common way standing and bending on an incline off the ground. But hey, what do I know. I'm just a DIY.
I don't know how you would set up a hydraulic jack so you could push against anything. Unless maybe you set a 4X4 on the jack, and cut it off a bit as you moved down the roof? Your attic floor would have to be prety stout to take the pressure without cracking something below.
If you want to try tearing off the skip sheathing with the shingles, I'd suggest a different tool. My Uncle made something he called a "joist ripper" when we tore down a house for him. He took a square metal tube - roughly 2" square and about 7' long. On each side he welded a bent piece of metal so the thing looked sorta like a super heavy duty hockey stick. You set the thing on a floor joist, with the two "extensions" under the subfloor you're tearing up, and pry like a prybar. Worked like a charm.
Truss Designer Extraordinaire
gee boss, sure wish I had a drawing of that critter. Buddy runs a metal shop. gonna make some tools out of leaf springs this year. I'd make one of those hockey sticks too.
It isn't hard to visualize - Take the square tube and weld something on each side. Make them something that's turned upwards a bit (Like a hockey stick) so you don't have to bend as far to pop something loose. And make them something heavy enough to take the stress without bending or breaking.
What kind of tools are ya making out of leav springs? Are you a blacksmith or something?
Truss Designer Extraordinaire
Boss, sawone once, looked like a wrecking bar with a U-shaped claw at the business end
looked like a it was made that way originally not "homemade"
I think they called it an Oz bar
My Idea is lay metal straps giong up the roof before the shingles go on one over every rafter, over the ply.
Attach them all to two lengths of pipe at the ridge, one for each side.
then when its time to reroof just attach a T- handle to the pipe and peel the shingles off like opening a giant can of sardines!!
waddyou think?
Mr TLayers
Onions
Have
Layers,
Carpenters
Have
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it'll cost too much for the pipe.
cheap-cheap, the litle birdies are singinLayers
Onions
Have
Layers,
Carpenters
Have
Layers
I like the metal strap idea. But I'd probably hook the metal straps to my tractor and just tear the whole thing off in one shot.
More power, ya know...................(-:
Truss Designer Extraordinaire
Come to think of it, I was lent a tool once similar to the hockey stick except in addition to the upturned metal pry on each side, and the stem handle, he had welded small pieces of angle iron at the pry-stem intersection that would sit on top of and on each side of the joist to keep it from sliding around. It was a nice tool for popping floorboards.
Rez -
I think that what you're thinking about is exactly what I was thinking about. The one I used was also made for tearing up old flooring
BTW - You never did answer the question about what you were going to make out of the leaf springs.........
Truss Designer Extraordinaire
I don't know what rez had in mind, but a car spring that's just the right size works great for stripping cedar shakes and shingles off. You glide it between the shingle and the sheathing, concave side up, and it lifts and pops those babies right up. You don't have to pry much, just keep the momentum going and they fly up.
John Svenson, Builder, Remodeler, NE Ohio (Formerly posted as JRS)
Edited 4/18/2002 10:26:13 PM ET by Svenny
ya boss- john hit it there. I read in a thread quite a while back, somewhere, where leaf springs made good pry tools, scrapers, wedges. Thought I'd give it a try. We northeast ohio boys must have a good dose of yankee blood. That's all. Unless you're interested in hearing how I plan to earthquake proof my house by raiding the neighborhood junkyard of all its car springs.
Edited 4/18/2002 10:41:08 PM ET by rez
I can't remember where (may have been in a harbor freight catalog), but I saw a pnuematic shingle remover. Worked the same as a regular tear off tool other than the prying action muscle was provided by the air (basically a set of jaws opening up). Didn't look very heavy weight wise (couldn't tell from the picture how well it was built), but something like that might work from the inside. Get it wedged between the skip sheating and the rafter and pull the trigger. I'll see if I can find it again.