Sunday, February 8, 2009

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Roof

After Gustav, the entire city of Baton Rouge, it seems, has been replacing its roofs. This does interesting thing to a community. Fly into the city, and you'll see a crazy quilt of blue that doesn't have an equal hue, unless you count the skies in Colorado, of course. But even this western girl doesn't wish to see more of that color. Not now. At any rate, this past week, we joined our fellow roof replacement enthusiasts and watched (and listened!) as a brand new roof went up. We are so relieved that the job is finished and the work is good. Along the way, I have been intrigued at the kinds of conversations that have taken our city over. "You are getting architectural shingles, aren't you? They're the only way to go," my good friend tells me. "What's that?" I ask. That was a few months ago, and was only the beginning of my roofing education. Then we learned the difference between thunderstorm gray, Oxford gray and Colonial gray. Then we heard about the roofing nails. "Watch out for those," one of my husband's co-workers told him. "They walk around with a big magnet, but they can't get them all." This is confirmed, as I picked up two while talking to my neighbor a few hours ago. And then, the final, most scary admonition of all. "After the job is done, put a blanket under your attic door and open it. You will be amazed at the debris that falls out." We have yet to build up enough courage to take this step.

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