That Was Fun.....

Big windstorm this afternoon, I'll bet we had sustained winds of 60 mph and gusts of 100.  Strongest I can remember since Thanksgiving '83.  We lost power for about three hours.  One of the smaller trees in the front yard snapped off at the ground and came down on our metal roof, bounced off, and landed on our fence with a mighty whump.  It was 30 foot tall and 12" diameter.

I was sleeping (or trying to) in the bedroom directly below where it fell.

The noise was awe-inspiring.

As far as I can tell from the ground (I'm not going up on a ladder until the winds die down) the roof is undamaged.  The tree pulled down the entire gutter and fascia board the length of that side of the house, but the roof itself looks okay.  I hope.

Got a good look at the roof Sunday and it's basically okay. The metal roof has panels which snap together along raised edges -- all of those edges were squashed flat.

But I managed to raise most of them back to about where they used to be, with a hammer. Some of the edges are pretty scraped up and the metal is mangled a bit, but nothing unweatherworthy. We were very very lucky.

A big lumberjack-looking dude came from Craigslist and cut up & hauled away the tree. We filled eight bins with branches along with 680 pounds of trunk & debris & hauled it to the transfer station. Then filled up all eight bins again for next week's regularly-scheduled yard waste pickup.

That sounds like too much fun. Glad you didn't have any serious damage.
We don't have any trees close enough to fall on the house, but I do have to drag a limb or two out of the driveway now and then. Several years ago, the guy at the end of the drive had a tree come down and block access to my house (except on foot, in the rain).

The only roof damage we have had in this house was from the earthquake in 2003. Not significant damage, but hard to find.

We have a cedar just off the back deck, maybe 12 feet from the house.  It has a five-foot diameter trunk and is maybe 80-100 feet tall.

Our soil is about 16-18" deep.  Underneath that is a hardpan clay through which nothing grows.  All of the trees in this neighborhood have wide flat root balls.

Therefore, I always worry about the cedar in the wind.

When god decides to get me, he knows how.

Remember the old story "For the want of a nail..."?

I was reminded of it today, when I tried to repair the gutters along that side of the house.

1. Our local Home Depot doesn't carry the same brand of plastic gutters anymore
   
2. Lowes carries the brand, but only in white (white???)
   
3. Bought the replacement hangers and downspouts I needed, and spray painted them brown
   
4. Every single one of the plastic gutter hangers along that side had been snapped off by the tree
   
5. The hangers are about 4 feet apart from each other, meaning I cannot reach any two of them from my ladder (they're 26 feet off the ground)
   
6. So I carried my big 120 pound heavy duty ladder from hanger to hanger, collapsing it after each one because I cannot move the ladder if it's extended
   
7. The clips were put on before the metal roof was put on -- I wanted the roofing company to remove my gutters for installation of the roof but the foreman didn't get the instruction, and by the time I got home from work the roof was 2/3 done -- so consequently most of the screws were up underneath the flashing
   
8. After I got all the broken hangers down I tried to remove what was left of the shattered fascia board (that the hangers screwed into).  Parts of it were intact but about half of it split lengthwise and fell down with the tree
   
9. Unfortunately, the fascia board is nailed in
   
10. And the flashing for the metal roof goes over the top of that
    
11. And the metal roof goes over the flashing, so
    
12. The broken fascia board wouldn't budge an inch.  I hammered it with all my might (26 feet up) and the hammer just bounced.
    

So, it looks as though in order to repair my gutters, I'll have to remove the metal roof on that side of the house.  Oy vei.

Well, as long as you're having fun...

NoCoPilot wrote:

The broken fascia board wouldn't budge an inch.  I hammered it with all my might (26 feet up) and the hammer just bounced.

Yeah. You pretty much have to pull the nails out.

If it had been screwed in place I could've removed the screws. But since it's nailed, I have to HAMMER it (from behind, smartass) to dislodge the nails enough to grab the heads with a hammer.

But apparently the top nail is way up under the flashing, it's little head isn't even visible.

I'm screwed.

90% of the fascia that came off was one busted-up board (the other 10% was splintered irretrievably).

I decided to nail that piece (about 11 feet long and 8" wide) back in place. Most of the damage is covered by the gutter, which I screwed back onto what was left of the fascia board.

From the ground you can see there's some wood missing on the fascia, but you'd never notice it unless somebody pointed it out (I mean, it *is* 26 feet up). And the gutter should be 100% operational so who cares.

Done and done.

Days of rain here.
The other night I came home to two feet of water in the yard and garage. My roses got soaked, it was wild. The city is going to have to do something about the drainage here.