Roof RepairsFollow

Over the weekend, I decided to embark on some small roof repairs. Well, not the actual roof, but the support beams that protrude past the edge of the house to hold up the roof. These beams had been neglected for some time now and 2 of them needed to be trimmed to remove the rotted portion where the rain had found it's way in. So with ladder and tools in toe, I began the deed. Each of the protruding beams were capped with a layer of sheet metal, followed by a painted aluminium cap. I could see why there had been some rotting as near the end of the beams, the nails were no longer sealed as the caulking had crumbled and allowed water to get in. Once the caps were removed I proceeded to saw off about a foot of the beams to rid them of all the rot. I'm glad to say that this went well, without incident. After cleaning the wood up, I then applied a good layer of waterproof brown paint to the sides, ends and bottom of each beam, leaving the tops clear for sealant application.

Unfortunately, I did not have any tar or any appropriate caulking to finish the job. Yesterday, after leaving the office I made a trip down to the hardward store and started looking through the caulking and sealant shelf to see what might do the job correctly, when a customer service lady person comes over and askes me if I could use a hand. I said certianly! I proceeded to explain that I needed some roof-tar-like sealant and that I figured that I needed some black caulk. Now I wasn't sure if I needed the latex (soft) or acrylic (hard) black caulk, I just figured that black was the key since it was up high. She mentioned that soft caulk could not be painted, so I'd need hard caulk. I was in luck! They had hard brown caulk! It would do the job nicely. The unfortunate part was that the price was missing from that particular item so I took it up to the cash to get a price check since I was done shopping anyway. With a smug look on my face I told the checkout girl; "The customer service girl couldn't tell me how much it was to buy this hard brown caulk. <pause> She also mentioned that it will do just as good a job as the hard black caulk. Do you agree?."




edit:sp

Edited, Sep 13th 2006 at 2:12pm EDT by Elderon

This was real life... I can provide pictures of the roof job, the tar and the tube of caulk. (and a pic of the reciept for the caulk dated yersterday.)

So ha!

Edited, Sep 13th 2006 at 10:18am EDT by Elderon

Back in my retail garden center days, we sold trees and would deliver. If the customer already had the hole dug, we'd set it in the hole for them free of charge (these were big trees so it was a good deal for the customer).

Anyway, without trying, more than once I'd hand the customer a couple marking flags and tell them to write the tree names on them because "You don't want us to accidentally plant the maple in your ash hole."

Ahhhh... fun with horticulture.

Having maple in your ash hole would be a sticky situation.