We’re raising the roof! Literally. But first we needed to level that roof. We made a timelapse video to capture it. And we’ve never appreciated having a roof over our heads more.
What took around three hours to demolish we’ve condensed here into three minutes. It was a pretty smooth process! Huge thanks to Steve, Will, Joe J, Mika, Joey, James and the guys for volunteering their night to help.
Roof Demo
The contractor we hired was 100% on board with us doing the demo ourselves and happy to come in afterward to frame. He even offered his lift to borrow to us if we needed, since it was right down the street. Mike gave us about a one-week notice when there was a break in the weather to get everything prepped for his crew, so we rallied the troops and got to work.
Here’s the aftermath. We basically lopped the top right off. Our friend Steve led the charge with a battery-powered sawzall and cut each roof truss off, one at a time, handing them down.
I’ve also heard a chainsaw will do the trick.
Here’s a nice shot to the inside. We actually left it all open like this the first night since the weather was nice. I kept waking up in a panic because I thought I heard rain.
Extra Credit Siding Demo
Aside from the roof, we had some siding to take off in order to sister more supportive beams in to the bottom of the house.
The insulation here was dry, so that was a good thing to find.
See the sistered 2×4’s? The city gave us the OK to close this back up now.
We did find some rot and water damage on our siding by the deck, however. TONS of carpenter ants that we had to spray. Apparently the drip edge piece wasn’t installed correctly here, so Joe set out to replace that while we had the siding off.
Here’s what our old backer board beneath the siding looks like. Vintage!
Oh yes, there’s more.
Big thanks to Joe J who helped us out on the siding removal project for a few days.
Most of this below the deck is still in good shape. Had some pieces to replace, but you can see where everything has been supported now. And the city came out to inspect and let us close it back up. Big thanks to Joe’s parents for helping with this part too.
We ended up taking out and replacing this walkout sliding door since it was never set properly.
We took out this window too, but luckily it was salvageable.
So weird seeing my poor pretty basement exposed like this.
We were able to tarp it up of course. Mike the contractor was generous to borrow us the world’s largest tarp.
The Joes are sweeping it off after a heavy rainfall.
Bonus Interior Demo
Oh yes, more demo inside the house too.
Joe had to rip out a ton of electrical, and pretty much our whole laundry room ceiling.
Some ceiling duct work in the basement due to a small discrepancy in our blueprints.
And you already witnessed my fireplace mantle get demo’d. 🙁 Moral of the story, there’s always more work to be uncovered. Replacing sheetrock is inconvenient, but not the end of the world and not terribly expensive.
Speaking of sheetrock, I did have it all tested for asbestos if you were curious. Our house was built right around the cutoff, so it’s a good idea to check if your home is from 1977 or earlier. I went to a place in Anoka MN called Techtron Engineering. It’s $25 per sample, and I brought in four samples of my popcorn ceiling from different rooms in the house, totaling $100. Got results within 48 hours and it’s supposed to be much more accurate than kits you mail in. I’d highly recommend for peace of mind if you’re remodeling.
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