Are you handy?
 

Do you like fixing things? Do you have a list of Honey-Dos? Does the prospect of a new project bring a smile to your face? Is it because you'll have the chance to get a new tool for the job? Do you have more time than money?

Would you rather hire out your projects? Are you a menace and a danger to yourself and others when it comes to tools? Do you usually hit the wrong nail?

I'm handy. I know others here that are too, footfootfoot, busterb, and zippyt come to mind, and I am certain there are others. I recently came across this continuum:
On this scale, I am a solid 4.5, practically chewed to death by the bug. I *do* feel I can do a better job than average. Eventually. This has come up before in the Shade Tree Mechanic thread, and I treat the house the same way, basically.

My latest project is a new roof. I **HATE** working on ladders and on the roof. It's a long way down, and the sudden stop at the end and all that. I just hate it. But I'm a cheap bastard, and I do like working on stuff, and, well, the (remaining tatters of the) tarp on the roof just had to come down. The tarp served its purpose for the emergency coverage during the winter after our terrible windstorms, and although the roof wasn't leaking during our lovely July weather, it was time to make my move.

Being cheap, I opted for a re-roof instead of a tear off. The tear off, which it will need next time, would have meant a lot of additional expense in hauling the old roofs away, plus, since the original shake shingles were attached (in 1938) to what's called skip sheathing, I would also have to replace the decking with plywood or OSB. I was not ready for that level of involvement. In the course of researching this smaller scope project, I did find some nice answers and ideas about re-decking the roof one 4-foot wide swath across the rake at a time. That's much much more imaginable than stripping the whole thing off down to the bare rafters across the whole house and then decking it out. But I digress.

As I said, being cheap, I opted for roll roofing. I know this will be a short term temporary roof, say, five years or so. Plus, once you get going, you can really cover some territory with that stuff. So I went and bought enough for the south face of the roof, seven rolls. Plus two rolls of 15 pound roofing paper, five one pound boxes of two inch galvanized roofing nails (no five pound boxes in the two inch length), a big box of button nails for the roofing paper, a gallon of roofing asphalt cement and four one inch cheapo brushes--$250. I also hired my nephew for five hours, another $50.

On Sunday, we got all the materials home, then up on the roof. We tore off all the old tarp and battens, swept it very clean, rolled out the paper. We tacked the paper down with the button nails. That took all day. In the hot clear weather, the roof was so hot it was impossible to sit on or touch for more than a minute. By the end of the day, all the paper was installed and we returned to Earth with no injuries.

Monday, after work, I read about the next step. I had to cut nine inch strips from the roll, some fifty of them. Then the next three days after work I spent on the roof, nailing the strips to the edges of the roof. This represents a LOT of nailing. The instructions said to nail these strips to the roof with two rows of nails one inch in from the edges, four inches apart. I don't have a nailgun, this was all old skool hammertime, with the occasional holiday to the the nail on my left thumb. Ouch.

So last night, I finished the last strip and the whole perimeter is now "shingled" so to speak. This surface, very securely nailed to the roof, will be liberally coated with roofing cement, and the downstream edge of the strip of shingle. The upper edge is nailed to the roof, and it becomes the lower edge to be cemented to by the next higher course. The first strip of actual roofing material will be applied tonight. If I can get out of here, that is. More updates, and possibly a picture or two next time.

Very cool - I would put myself at a 3-ish. I am definitely into doing new things and love to see what others have done. Looking at their work inspires me.

All that work for 5 years?

Couldn't you design a roofing merit badge?

5 years at only $60/year. Not bad at all. Good job, BigV.

$60 and a hell of a lot of work he'll have to undo, then do over, when he's 5 years older. Doesn't sound efficient to me.

Obviously a lot of satisfaction goes along with the work for someone like BigV, though. Efficient? Maybe it is for him, what with the enjoyment factored into it. I couldn't say for sure, since I'd only be about a 1.2 on the scale.

Good job V. We have a roofer in the family, but since he's fallen off twice he doesn't often go up on roofs anymore... (broken pelvis smarts)
We need a new one ourselves. No re-roof here unfortunately, as jim has his heart set on copper (or at least metal) and we need new rafters on half the house. Not looking forward to that bill....

I'd rather work overtime to pay someone to do it. Then if the wife isn't happy with the finished product, it isn't my fault.

Hey V 5 years is great. Me, I might not be around then. What me worry?

I got a great deal of satisfaction ripping off the old roof and putting down a new one. But anyone who's done a roof, no matter how much satisfaction, doesn't look forward to doing it again... unless they're a sadist.

Roofing is not fun. Why do you think roofers will lie, cheat and kill, to get a job in the Union Hall?

We just recently laid out $$$$ for the roof. (Not only the roof, but we had to get a couple overgrown trees pruned back before we could do that, and then we discovered that the roof of the back porch had separated from the house.....)

Anyway, I'm very good at assembling pieces.

If I have to change the pieces... like, say, drill a hole in the wall... cut a piece of wood down to size... etc. ... it's usually trouble. Big trouble.

We tore up the carpet in our living room and dining room last year. It was really crappy, and we had essentially been waiting for the kids to grow past the stage of messing it up. (We now know this will never pass.) We suspected there were very nice hardwood floors under, and there were. But now I need to put in some molding down at the baseboard. Should be interesting....

Go for a nautical theme and put rope along the baseboard.

Or I could go with a junkyard theme and put rotted garbage along the baseboard. Believe me, Mrs. Dallas would find either option equally palatable! :D

My roof and I just might go to court. Before time runs out, for storm repairs. Boy it sucks.

Tell her Homeland security regulations require sand bags. By the way, if you're going to paint that molding, screwups and gaps can be filled with paintable butyl caulk.

@ Buster...That sucks, good luck.

Sandbags need to be accessorized with... oh, an M60 or an M1921 .30 cal, an M2 .50 cal looking suspiciously like overkill in the direction of world domination or something. ;)

Honestly, I'd put myself about a 1.9 to a rusty 2.2 tops, after doing some framing construction and drywall once upon a time. I do the monkey jobs under the car hood -- hose out, hose in, change and gap plugs -- that level.

For baseboard molding, get yourself a miter saw and its proper box. This special tool is designed to give accurate bevel cuts to fit molding into corners in a craftsmanlike way. It is very easy to use.

Good luck V. I'm of the do the roof once school. Steel is real and not that hard to work with.

I'm fairly handy for a chick. I can change my oil and brakes. I installed a hitch on my truck. I love power tools. All I want for Christmas is a tool belt.

I was thinking that, too. smurf. I'm very mechanically inclined. I wish I had an avenue for that.

When I was in Junior High we had to take Home-ec. Cooking I was Ok. Sewing...I hated it. Got my first D in my life. We took shop for 9 weeks and I got an A+.

I love fixing things, putting things together, taking things apart. But I know nothing about cars, sadly.

Shawnee - It took me getting ripped of one time by Pep Boys for me to get pissed enough that I started asking every mechanically inclined male I knew to teach me about cars and maintenance. I really don't know that much, but I know enough that I can pretty much diagnose what the problem is, and if I have to take it to get fixed, I know which items on the estimate are bullshit when the mechanic comes back with a list of 18 things wrong with my truck.

And I love to cook. I'm much better at that than the mechanics.

The thing that works out for us is we "trade" stuff out kind of like bartering I guess. Also, any piping/plumbing work or heat/air work - I get the guys at work to do it. They come in handy:) Basic stuff is not totally beyond my comprehension, but if it's more than I can handle, I'm not shy about asking for help.

I suck at asking for help. Even something as simple as changing the water cooler. They'll go "get one of the guys to do that" and I go "I can do it myself." It can be a good or bad thing, depending on the situation. Not just guy/girl things, either. If I ran out of gas I'd walk to the gas station before I'd ask a coworker to take me.

Well, except my dad helps me with a lot! :) I learn from him too. I've worked with him in his shop and it's tons of fun.

Lower necklines and shorter hem lines would put you in a position where you wouldn't have to ask, just choose which volunteer.

When I could do the work I was a 5.
I miss working more than you can imagine.
When we have people doing stuff I can't watch. I used to build rooms onto our home, plumbing and wiring, etc.
Did steel work, boat docks, sea-walls, and other jobs. Ranch work gives one a lot of experience.
I wanted the new synth roof that looks like sheet steel. Lasts a long time and I like the look.
That or ceramic tile.

Ok, some pictures. Once again, I finished in the rain last night, and it has been raining all day. And rain in the forecast for the weekend.

Starting on the ground:

Pic 01, stairway to heaven.

Pic 02, the belt to keep me from winding up there (or the other place).

The roof was in bad shape when the windstorm finished it off. Here's a small section of what is now under all that roofing paper. As you can see, the previously exposed section of the three tab shingles is gone. Don't you just love the cute little staples holding down the back part of the shingle?

Pic 01: A few remaining old crappy shingles.

Pic 02: Wider view of papered roof, southern exposure, looking west.

The procedure for this kind of roofing is to cut several sections, nine inches wide, and nail them to the edge of the roof, in the area that will be covered by the roll roofing. These small sections are very securely nailed to the roof. The instructions call for two rows of nails, one inch in from the edges, spaced four inches apart. I generously overlapped these edge strips. This is the surface that will receive the asphalt roofing cement.

Pic 01: East rake, looking north.

Pic 02: Detail of edge strip, along ridge. Plenty of nails. Hand nailed nails.

As I'm making my way around the edge of the roof, in addition to not falling off, I have to make sure I've covered all the territory. The long straight edges of the ridge and the drip edge and the rake were pretty easy, but the section around the chimney required some fiddling. Also complicating this section was a small valley.

Pic 01: East rake and chimney section, before valley reinforcement.

Pic 02: Same view after valley reinforcement.

The valley needs more reinforcement because it will carry much more water in a given area.

Pic 01: Detail of valley reinforcement.

On Sunday, I cleaned the roof thoroughly, and we got the paper nailed down. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after work, say, 6 pm to 9 pm each night, was spent cutting and nailing the edge strips. Thursday night, I got to actually cover some roof with the roll material. I measured it out so that it started on the west eave and extended across the valley to the east. This was about 26 feet. I unrolled a new roll on the grass, measured it and cut it. I rerolled it and carried it to the roof. After a false start as to which way to position the roll (it does have an up and down edge in addition to the obvious top and bottom surface), I decided to save myself the trouble of throwing it down, climbing down, reversing the roll direction, and carrying it back up again just so I could start at the eave edge. So, I took a guess, and started the roll at the valley and unrolled toward the western eave.

My guess was pretty good. I was short by two inches. Good guess, but that meant that I now had a fifty pound 3x26 foot sheet of flexible material I needed to push/pull two inches to the west. And ZERO inches to the south--DOWNHILL. After some fiddlefartin around, I got it in place. The upper selvage edge is now secure, but the lower edge is free floating. I haven't applied the cement yet. I am thinking about waiting to have all the strips in place before I apply any cement.

I will also measure more carefully for the next rolls as I move uphill. It's 14 feet from the top edge of that bottom roll to the ridge. I think I'll make that seven two foot exposures, with a generous one foot overlap. That means I need to go get two more rolls from the store though.

Forecast for the weekend: Rain.

Pic 01: Starting from the valley, guessing how far the roll will extend.

Pic 02: Pretty good guess, within 2". In this picture, it's all nailed down after being adjusted westward. I didn't take any pictures of the adjustment work. I'm just thankful to be alive. It was a handful.

Not actually pictures of the roof, but pictures of the roof. The weather that makes the scary dangerous rain does make for pretty skies and pretty sunsets.

Pic 01: Downtown Seattle.

Pic 02: Mount Ranier.

Sky!

Pic 01: Pretty rainbow.

Pic 02: Pretty cloud.

no. I am not handy. On your scale, I'd probably be a minus-5--total klutz.

And I've tried. Repeatedly. I can read and follow instructions, no problem, but I don't have that instinctive handiness that some people have.

But I'm crafty and creative, so I just go with my strengths and pay people to do what I can't or won't do.

Like clean. :)

Shit Shawnee - thats me.

At High School we had to take Cooking n Sewing. I'm a good cook and I like to cook....so an A there, but sewing.....big E.

Following year I swapped to Auto Prac, Sheet Metal and Woodwork. Back to my straight A's.

I'm pretty handy, I'd probably class myself as a 3-4.

I can weld, change spark plugs, brakes, have rebuilt a gearbox and helped my brothers do many changeover engines.

I can use a chainsaw, a router, a jigsaw etc

My mum is awesome, she has taught me all my home handy women skills.

I'm pretty geeky too, I just wired my house for wireless networking and my sound system now plays into all the rooms via wired speakers :)

My set top box has my arse kicked though...I think I will have to get a Antenna dude out to have a look see.

I SUCK at anything crafty....well.. I can and have done ceramics but can only seem to paint florally scenes though.

I'm trying to figure out why you nail down a shitload of pieces, along the straight edges, instead of using a 9 inch wide strip? It would be a hell of a lot easier to cut 9 inches off the end of a roll, plus no seams/joints.

now say that a bunch of times real fast!

Are you talking about the valley reinforcement? The overlapping pieces make it stronger, where the run-off is heaviest. The seams are okay, since they go downward with the water flow.

No, I'm talking about the edges. There is no reason that couldn't be a 9 inch wide strip.

I think I see what you're saying...except that trying to nail down a long strip like that would be a pain. You'd have to make sure it stays straight along the edge as you go. The asphalt will cover the seams of the pieces.

Not at all, nail one end straighten it out and nail the other end. Then just nail on down the line, piece of cake.

LOL bruce you can't do that, you have to make sure it's tight all the way down.

That's why he has to nail it down the line, two rows of nails, one inch in from the edges, spaced four inches apart. What the hell difference does it make if it's one piece.

It's easier to align if it's in smaller pieces!

C'mon, you build stuff--you know it's true.

No it is not. You can't tell me it's easier to align a dozen short pieces of anything than one long one. Without a chalk line or string line it's not going to be straight anyway. The strip going on top is one piece which will make any unevenness is the bottom course look like shit.

Okay, that's the problem--you're worried about the way it's going to look, which I can understand in your line of work. In the case of a roof, it has to be very functional and long-wearing, i.e. tight and sealed.

Handy?





http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o...SCF00033-1.jpg





Hitting a bound girl with it? noo.........




Wait what?...:apimp:

Well, it sure looks functional.

Crude should be a synonym for functional.

Wait, you use this to keep the squids in line?

A long piece of roll roofing is not like fabric, it's like a wide, thin board. It can roll and flex, and it can twist, but it can't change it's rectangular shape, unless it's very, very hot. Rolled out flat, it has to be straight... like the edge of the roof. The only way you can make it crooked, is to cut it up in a bunch of short pieces.

If the top layer (straight), and the bottom layer (not straight), don't match, being cemented it will seal out wind driven water and ice damns. But it will make a weaker edge that will deteriorate much faster.

The edges can be made to match, using care, with either method. But using a single piece is faster and easier.

R U SQUIDDIN'!!?? I know I'm Squiddin'! :apimp:

I seriously....groaned out loud....GOL I guess?

The pictures of my project would be much less interesting than BigV's, so I won't be posting any.

Over the weekend, I installed a bathroom vent fan in a small bathroom that had none before.

This meant:

1. Putting a new circuit breaker into an empty slot in the panel, running the romex to the 1st floor bathroom wall where I installed a GFCI receptacle and a switch (had to fish the wire for this part,) then running it back down into the basement and up the open wall where I'll be re-tiling a shower and into the open ceiling above that gutted shower. The fan will be GFCI protected.

2. Pulling out the ladder and cutting a hole in the second story exterior wall for the vent hood. Caulk around the hole, slide the hood in, and screw it tight.

3. Crawling around in the hot very cramped nasty eaves to get the flexible ductwork installed and nice and straight. This was a major pain, as a bunch of loose fill insulation had fallen down into the eaves from the attic and I didn't want to stir it up too much. I got a nasty cramp in one leg while I was all contorted trying to tighten up the clamp holding the duct to the hood.

4. Install the fan between the ceiling joists, connect the ductwork to the fan. This actually took a fair amount of time as I had to shim the joists to account for the new drywall ceiling I'll need to install.

5. Wire up the fan to the romex I installed earlier.

6. Try to act all nonchalant when the damn thing worked on the first test.

7. Clean up.

I am crafty, but not handy, unless you count being able to substitute a bunch of linked paperclips for the ball chain that's in the toilet tank ...

Sure, you guys install roofs and air vents and crap, but I creatively reattached Barbie's legs while retaining functionality.

I used to make Transformers out of Legos. The three-way kind, IE plane/tank/robot.

I had a ton of house parts, so I made Transformers that became houses. Sucks to be them.

I also made little Gobot-types out of paper, and I still have a couple of them.


As for the original question, I've put a soap tray back into the shower wall after I knocked it out, but I'm leery of anything major. I'm not sure what percentage of that leery is laziness, though.

Watch out they rust pretty quickly - been there done that.

How did you do that??!

Rubber bands, a little dexterity, and a lot of patience.