October 24 - Up on the Rooftop

The Lonely Chronicler -
Monday evening I made it out to the building site. The sun sets so early these days that daylight pictures are hard to come by for a guy that is a bit slow getting started. So I must be content with taking pictures in the dark. To make matters worse, the work is all happening on the roof and I am allergic to ladders. So there I am, alone on the ground while the workers scamper about topside spreading tar paper and nailing shingles. So I wandered about, aiming the camera at the sky and into the artificial lights illuminating the roof for the shinglers.

Now I know precious little about construction, but I have played with photography a bit. I am amazed by the capability of today's cameras. I own a camera on which it is impossible to make a phone call. In spite of this shortcoming, it still rather amazes me. I know there are better low light cameras on the market but I really like the size of my camera. And besides that, I already own it and am too cheap frugal to spend money on an upgrade. Now, about taking the pictures.
It would not have been possible to take these pictures in the film camera days. The camera sensor is more sensitive than film was in those days. Also, the camera has electronic stabilization that allows me to take hand held pictures at 1/15th of a second, which is really slow, and only some of the pictures are blurred beyond recognition.

The roof is steep and the workers are always leaning into the roof. I imagine it gives the feet and ankles a good workout. Pictured here are Brian, Tim (I think) and Dan working on the entryway roof.

Note the color of the sky in the pictures. For a time after sundown, the sky is blue. As it gets later, the sky turns to purple and gets progressively darker. When it is totally dark, the sky is black. You can tell the timing of the pictures by the color of the sky.

It is hard to get the workers to cooperate with the photographer. They wander about totally oblivious to the needs and desires of the photographer. They seem to think it is more important to get the roof done than to look pretty in the pictures. There is some progress. You can see the bare plywood area shrinking.

Sometimes the guys are spread out

making for a poor grouping and an uninteresting photo.

At other times they are better behaved and they are clustered together and closer to where I stand. Then I get a photo in which you can identify at least some of the folks. Tom, in profile, and Markus are identifiable. Nate is standing with his back turned and I think Sam is semi-kneeling, but I really do not recognize him in this view.

Photographing in the dark with one, or in this case three essentially non-overlapping light sources, yields dramatic light with harsh, well defined shadows. With the dominant light source directly behind someone, you get an interesting halo effect, which may be the only way to get a halo on Tom, or any other mortal for that matter.

With the computer comes the ability to merge multiple photos to make a panorama. Three images are joined in the above photo.

Roof and Shingle Facts - 

The south half of the roof is nearing completion. Only a narrow strip near the peak remains without shingles.

 On the north side of the building, Bob and Kevin get a start, but as of Thursday, only a start.

Shingling the roof is a big job. How big? I got some numbers from Sam.
There are enough shingles to cover 156 square. Square what, I ask. Well, a square is a standard measure in the roofing business. One square is 100 square feet. So, 156 times 100 equals 15,600 square feet of roof to be covered. To convert that to shingles, consider that it takes 3 bundles of shingles for each square. There are 22 shingles per bundle. Therefore, 66 shingles are needed to cover one square. 156 times 66 equals 10,296 shingles to cover said roof. Now, each shingle requires 5 nails, which means it takes a lot of nails, a lot of hammer strokes or nail shots to put on the roof. Like I noted previously, shingling a roof is a big job and it takes a long time. 

First Half of Roof Complete -
Sam sent a picture to me at 8:07 on October 27 with the following:
"FYI. Last shingle of the 1st side was nailed 27 seconds ago"

October 22 - Shingling and Shingling

Blogging Remotely -

I was out of town for a long weekend checking up on relatives in far off Michigan and was not able to be on site to see and record the work that transpired. The most noteworthy thing about my absence may be that there was less lunch consumed Saturday noon time. I was not on hand to take pictures and see the action for myself, but Eric sent some pictures and I have my imagination to fill in the action. So what you get is an accurate report of what I might have seen had I been there. This arrangement makes me think of two guys in a horse suit with Eric being the head with the eyes and me being, well, whatever would be trailing behind the head.
Paul (I think) is getting into position to apply roofing and Eric, a mere shadow of the person I remember, is the figure on the right. I would not have taken a picture like this. Not that it is not a worthy blog photo but because I would not be on the roof without being enclosed in the lift cage.

Shingles Are Happening -

Roofing shingles are small. Each one only covers a few square inches and then they are lapped so the new one covers a good chunk of the one on the previous row. The roof is big, seemingly acres of bare plywood.

To cover the whole roof takes many shingles and even more nails. Each nail is pounded or shot in with the nail gun. I am reminded of the response from a son when he was a little tyke. Mom asked him why he had not picked up all the toys as he was asked. His reply, "Because it's a big job and it takes too long."
Shingling a big roof is a big job and takes a long time.

I am impressed with this picture. To see our little mobile fork lift extend himself in this way to deliver shingles to the roof is certainly an uplifting experience. Up and up the arm (nose? trunk?) goes, reaching further and further up into the blue. That arm just goes on and on, all the way to the very peak of the building. I do not want to be a doubter about his abilities, but I did not see it in him.

Oh the street lights. The brightly glowing illumination devices that allow toil and shingling to go on deep into the night. These noble street lights, formerly earthbound and downcast have now attained an elevated position. No longer do they stand in the dirt and dust of the earth. They have attained a loftier position in the construction society, having been raised both by the estimation of the workers and by the lifts. With the new constant voltage stream delivered by our friendly neighborhood power company, the illumination is consistently bright, not dimming with the use of a saw or a shortage of gasoline. Ah these fine street lights - no longer are they the dim bulbs of the construction site.
The Break Room -
The dear old break room, the plastic covered, PVC pipe structured break room has now completed its designated mission in life. I photographed its last moments a week ago as it lay on its back, with limbs all akimbo, as if afflicted with rigor mortis. Though it resisted the inevitable mightily, it nevertheless succumbed to the onslaught. It served faithfully and well, but was not quite up to the stresses imposed by man and weather, even with copious applications of duct tape.



Now, a sturdier break room exists, one with concrete reinforced walls, smooth floor and shingle covered plywood roof. While it still lacks facilities for keeping out high wind, rain will not hinder its use. It is a right impressive break room, complete with wooden table and guest chairs. No doubt it is also suitable for sophisticated Saturday lunches.

How Long, How Long?
I heard that Sam reported the roof is three eighths complete. A report of this nature is encouraging. It gives people a sense of progress and a feel that there is an eventual end towards which we now labor.

Someone asked Bob a week ago if the project is ahead, behind or on schedule. He said simply, "Right on schedule." I was reminded of a statement from a guy I worked with years ago. He was a software guy and a highly skilled technician. He groaned about management continually asking him for project updates and questions about when the project will be finished. What is the schedule, they demanded. He would wistfully smile and with eyes looking skyward reply,"The schedule exists. We mortals make guesses about it, but we really do not know what it is. We just struggle along and over the course of the project, the schedule is revealed."

October 13 & 15 - Finally Some New Stuff

Finishing the Top of the Firewall -
I was pretty sure that no more words would be spent on rocking the firewall, but Thursday night presented some of the best acrobatics since the trusses went up and earned Loren the Peak Performer award for the evening.

With each picture being worth approximately 1,000 words, I am well overspent for this post already.

Power -

We have electricity now coming from the local neighborhood power company and are no longer reliant on gas powered generators or long cords coming from neighbor Pete's house. With the startup of electrical service comes the all important meter. I was impressed that after several hours, with saws in frequent use. the meter was still showing zero. Maybe the first few days are free. Or maybe as a church we get free power. Or maybe I do not have a clue about reading meters.

 Phillip Loukusa is the licensed electrician who connected all the stuff up. I plugged in the fancy truss mounted chandeliers to make sure that the electrons were indeed flowing.

Bob quickly shut down the generator and connected the cords to the brand new outlets.

One perhaps unforeseen consequence of having real power the return to work after lunch signal is now missing. With the generators running all morning, the lunch break was wonderfully quiet. After lunch, the generator would start up and the workers knew some eager beaver had spoiled the mid day respite and signaled time to return to work. Now with real power, it may be up to Sam's booming voice to reanimate the crew.










Speaking of lunch, Brian demonstrated his culinary skills by grilling hamburgers for the crew. He was ably assisted by his family that came to enjoy some dad time and scramble atop the piles of roofing shingles. I was invited to come see their 'city', and once there was allowed to take a picture while they posed with their creation.

Cara (did I get the name right?) was not too enthused about scaling the shingle stacks but she was there helping dad with the food service and cleanup. I have now seen Brian scaling trusses, pouring concrete in walls, preparing for HVAC installation and now flipping burgers. But with the name Brian, can he truly be a Jack of all trades? So confusing.












Volunteers from MLLC -

Kristoff (Kristoph?) and Justin Anderson from the Minneapolis congregation came out to spend their Saturday up on the roof top. Thank you very much, guys, your efforts are greatly appreciated. The brothers are shown along with Justin Tolkkinen in the photo below.

So, there they were, three young men up on the roof securing the sheeting. Justin, Kristoff and Justin. Sounded more like a law firm than a group of nail benders to me. But the collars definitely were not white.

The south half of the roof is fully sheeted, including the front entryway. Sam and Glen had to hustle getting the eaves boxed in to keep ahead of the speedy sheeting nailers. 

The engineer specified that the plywood sheets nailed over the entryway trusses have a nail every two and one half inches around the edge of every sheet and four inches apart in the field, that is into the trusses underlying the center of the sheets. Some were speculating that the engineer owns stock in the nail manufacturing industry. Well, like the large concrete footings that help gravity keep the roof down, the fastener specification relates to keeping the plywood from blowing away in a high wind.

Starting the Shingling -

While the work was progressing into the afternoon. Bill picked up a case of shingles. No medical attention was required.

Up on the rooftop Kevin and Bob attached a metal thingy to the roof. Kevin then took up his turn at church cleaning, sweeping away the dirt that had collected under the 2x4 cleat they had just removed.

Here Bob with his tape measure and Kevin with his broom look like they may be beginning a most unusual joust, but no it is just work as usual. 

Ken lends a hand helping to roll out the first layer of roofing material.

















Add a few shingles and behold, a finished patch of roof. Now, just repeat this process approximately four or five thousand times and the roof is finished.

October 10 - Work Continues After Sundown

First Roof Sheeting Over the Firewall -
While the firewall is not yet near completion, the top part of the south half has been double rocked on both sides, allowing for hangers to be attached to the wall, which in turn allows rafters to be put in place, which finally allows for red fire-resistant plywood roof sheeting to be nailed down. But, alas, when the tar paper is rolled out and the shingles are nailed down, you will not be able to tell where the red sheets start and the ordinary, black-lined, glued together wood chip truss covers end. So take a good look now.








On the inside, rafter hangers complete with rafters are hanging on to the double rocked firewall. We are standing with the firewall on our left, looking up to where we formerly could see sky and, on occasion overflying sandhill cranes, and now seeing rafters and plywood. The angle on the firewall is readily displayed by the length of the rafters growing longer as they near the bottom of the photo.
Sheeting the roof is progress. Although, I must admit I did enjoy seeing the birds fly over the empty trusses.
Rocking Continues -
Meanwhile, on the north half of the wall, the workers continue to hang Sheetrock. Now that I am accustomed to capitalizing the S because it is a copyrighted name, I am wondering if we are using really-o, truly-o Sheetrock or just some "me-too" generic, no name brand of drywall sheets. I do not want to promote Sheetrock (without compensation) if we are using brand X.
I sent this inquiry to the boss -
"Are we using Sheetrock or some no name generic drywall sheets?"
The boss replied -
"The invoice says 'SHTROCK' so looks like we saved some money on vowels, anyway"
So now, you are as well informed as the chronicler. Not trusting my typing skills, I will just use drywall.

On the sanctuary side of the wall, Dave and Aare soar into action on a quidditch machine. A piece of drywall is resting on two boards sticking out from the lift basket.

After reaching the desired height, the drywall is nailed in place and  the tape measures fly into action to size up the next piece.


On the hall side of the wall, where there is more hassle with the nearby truss, more fussing is required.
The wall is also filled with insulation, per the specs from the engineers, so the rockers on this side are adding the insulation before hanging the drywall sheets.

Loren, Phil, and Bill ride the lift and raise the drywall piece into place, while Dan and Ed remain earthbound, awaiting the next measurement so they can cut the next piece.

I have previously noted the short useful life span of some construction steps. With the return of the lifts, Ken's rope, pulley and tow strap lie in a rueful heap, their mission complete. It is possible that some future drywall job will require this low tech manner of elevating, but for now the lifts prevail. Pushing a joystick around is deemed superior to pulling on a rope.

Adding Roof Sheeting After Dark -

Brent, Troy and Bob apply roof sheeting on the trusses over the front entryway of the church. With daylight still lingering, this job remains much the same as it has been previously done.

However, now that October is here and sunset is about 6:30, a couple of work hours remain after the sun vanishes. So the headlights are
turned on.

When I was growing up, headlights were only applied to automobiles. Handy little personal illumination devices were used by miners working underground and originally used candles, but with the improvements to batteries and the more recent advent of LED lights, it seems like everybody these days comes equipped with his own headlight. Very handy devices. I may have to buy one just to be included in the conversations on the job site.
Here Brent cuts a length of 2x4 for a nailing backer, using both a battery powered saw and personal headlight. Certainly more convenient than a candle and handsaw.

People wearing headlights wandering around on roofs after dark do present interesting photo opportunities.

So, once presented with the opportunities, I took advantage.

One final shot as I head out for the night. The roofers toiling on high while the rockers work inside. Soon the firewall will be completed and the rest of the roof sheeting will be nailed on. I can hardly wait for something new to write about.