Asbestos Siding Replacement – Sista Girl with Skills

August 1, 2020

You Can Never Know To Many Carpenters

Lyle brought in a carpenter, Jay, to reinstall the crown he removed from the dormers. That poor man started at 8 am and toiled in the heat of my roof for 8 hours and was only able to get two and a half of the four dormers restored. He actually tore a hole in the seat of his pants, most likely due to the extreme heat and sliding on the asphalt shingles, while doing the work. Why did it take that long to install 10 pieces of moulding? He had to carry all 16 pieces to the roof and measure each location to find out which piece went where. He had a jigsaw puzzle on his hands. This all could have been avoided if Lyle had just taken the time to keep the pieces of each dormer together.

He planned to finish the following day, but I commandeered him to help me with replacing the crown moulding on the rear of the house. I had done all the prep work, taking down old, clearling debris that was in the crevice, and removing top row of siding the day before as I had Tom all lined up to help.

Unfortunately Tom wasn’t feeling well and his radar called for rain all day, so he wanted to wait for another day. When the skies cleared, around noon, I called Jay to see if he could help as I really didn’t want to put it off another day. Like with Tom, I was able to learn some things by working with Jay. The 16′ length boards prevented him from being able to work by himself. We started with the right side and the first task was sticking a 5″ wide strip of R20 insulation in the open crevice. When I took the moulding down I could feel the air conditioning from inside the house. We worked four hours and we were on course to finish the entire project that day until Jay, unfortunately cut the last board short by about 2″. I had to go to Hyde Park Lumber the next morning and buy another 8′ board. Jay left, but I kept working to install the top row of siding tiles. The next day was my Big Chop day, so I didn’t work at all. Jay returned in the morning as promised and finished the project, which included finishing the last 8′ of siding and caulking. Unfortunately that took him 6 hours and the heat of the day had been reached, so he did not return to the roof to finish installing the dormer crown.

Jay is working with another painter that is known for restoring the grand houses in Northside, so he didn’t return for a few days to finish the dormers. I think he thought and I know I thought he’d make quick work of it since he only had the four pieces on the right front and the two front pieces of the rear large dormer. Think again. I don’t know what elaborate ladder system Lyle had rigged to get the pieces down, but it wasn’t in place for Jay to put the pieces back up. The left side was accessible with an extension ladder, but the rear portico didn’t allow ladder access to the right. He could reach the lower portions of each piece from the roof, but could not reach the peaks at the top. I wish a third person was around to take pictures. I ended up using my workout bench and a stick while leaning out the top portion of the window to push up on the piece of crown while Jay laid on the very top and used his battery powered nail gun to attach the board. He got everything back in place and even caulked, but as with the scaffolding collapse I feel Lyle dodged another preventable bullet. I’m growing increasingly weary of this situation.

Even though Lyle has yet to finish scraping all the areas he started 40+ days ago he’s started applying primer

July 20, 2020

It Will Not Win A Third Time

My roof has gotten the best of me twice. I’m no spring chicken. I know falling off my roof will lead to an injury of some type and it could be serious or even fatal. I walked on, cleared debris, repaired, cleaned out gutters from the roof of my old house all the time because its pitch made it possible. The pitch of my house now is steep! I can get to the gutter level, but not much further. Once I did make it to the top, but it took every once of arm strength doing the crab crawl to do it. Once there I got scared and slid back down without even attempting the task.

I wish I had pictures, but I didn’t see what was going to transpire coming. Thursday Lyle set up a very elaborate ladder system, again, to allow him to finish scraping paint from the large rear dormer. There was one broken asbestos tile on the left side, so I asked him to take it down, since he was working in that area, I’d cut a new one and give it to him to reinstall. That seemed like perfect teamwork since he was already on the roof and I can easily cut the tile saving him the ups and downs. Early on he said he’d replace the broken tiles, but I had already done most of it just trying to be supportive as clearly he needs help. I’ve replaced cases of this tile, so when I handed him the new piece I tried to talk him through the process including letting him know I may need to give him the drill to make a hole. We (my father and I) discovered that the new replacement fiber cement boards sometimes extended higher than the hole already in the asbestos tile, if it overlapped. We learned the hard way; we broke the new tile trying to nail through it.

Lyle wanted to attach the tile with screws and I said no, so he said then you come up here and do it. Oh no he didn’t, I am not the female you challenge like that. I promptly climbed up his ladder and put in the nails. The piece was the last piece on that side, so with my reach I never had to climb on the roof. When I asked him to take down the piece I didn’t have my work clothes on, so by the time I got back outside he had not only removed that piece, but three broken tiles from the opposite side and four broken tiles from the other rear dormer. The other locations would require me getting on the roof, so I asked him if he was going to have a problem nailing them. He showed hesitancy and reluctance, so I said forget it, I’ll do it myself. I need to figure out how to work on the roof, anyway. I really wanted him to finish scraping, so we can finally get to the paint. Since he was all set up on the large dormer I decided to work on the other.

Lyle has a ladder that he leans on the gutter that allows him to easily maneuver the pitch around the dormers. It has an odd design. Early on he told me they don’t make ladders like that anymore, so I asked can a regular ladder (A-frame) work. He said no, so I went in my basement and made what I hoped would work out of a pallet. No pictures of it on the roof, but I carried it upstairs, put it out of the window onto the gutter and then went back outside to cut the tiles. When Lyle saw my makeshift ladder he immediately said that’s not going to work its going to kick-back and fall. He stopped working on the large dormer and brought over his ladder. Now people that know me, know at this point I’m annoyed and there is no way I will use his ladder. I told him to take it back, if I fall I fall, I got this. Instead of taking it back he starts scraping the paint from that dormer.

Of course I turn my sights on the large dormer, it’s closer to the gutter than the other three. It seemed to me that if I could reach the gutter I could plant my feet in it and with my height just lean on the roof to replace those three tiles. I went and got the Gorilla Ladder I bought and used when I replaced the tiles on the side of the house (see end of Exceeding Expectations post). My previous two attempts to get on the roof I did from the front porch using my 8′ A frame ladder. I never tried it from the back because I had an old, dicey extension ladder and I was scared it would shift left or right when I took the step onto the roof. I’ve actually given it to Lyle who seems real comfortable on it. I was able to set it up right against the rear portico, so I only had to worry about it shifting to the right. Both ends of that ladder extend out wide and it never shifted, not even when I took the first step up onto the gutter. Just as I thought, I could reach those tiles by just leaning on the roof. Replacing them was a piece of cake and I had to go up and down a few times with no issues.

By the time I finished, Lyle had finished the left side of the small dormer and had moved to the right where he pushed my makeshift ladder to the end of the gutter and placed his ladder where I’d plan to work. I used my Gorilla Ladder to retrieve it. Doing so allowed me to get a close up look at how Lyle’s ladder was hitting the gutter and I thought a regular A-frame ladder could do that. I didn’t want to work on the same dormer as Lyle, so I decided to work on replacing some more tiles on the rear of the house, which is how I discovered the rotten crown moulding Fusion Roofing caulked and concealed. Lyle left Thursday leaving his ladder set up on the smaller dormer, but sadly took his elaborate system from the larger dormer down without finishing it. So little was left and if he had just focused on that while I focused on the tile it would be done. That night after he left I got my 4′ A-frame ladder and placed it on the gutter from the bathroom window on the opposite side of his. I felt certain it would work, so I left it there. Friday he took his down.

Saturday I psyched myself out. I thought perhaps I shouldn’t tackle this at home while alone, so I cut the grass and went to Vineyard Church evening service, the first since Covid-19 hit. Sunday I went for it. I didn’t have the luxury of the portico on one side for support, but I didn’t need it. That wide stance of the Gorilla ladder made it very stable. The first time up I carried my shop vac to vacuum up the paint chips Lyle left. I had to go up and down several times to get all the tiles cut and replaced. I couple of the holes needed drilling, so I had to retrieve my drill. I was so comfortable getting up and down that I even took up my pump sprayer with the insecticide and sprayed the areas exposed by Lyle’s removal of the crown moulding. Good thing as on the right side a couple of bees flew out. On the right side I did manage to put a couple of cracks in two of the new tiles by hammering the nail too tight. If it were the lower part of the house I may have taken it out and done it over, but for the roof I decided to mix up a small batch of 2-part Epoxy and brush it over the crack. Once it gets paint you’ll never know.

I now know I can use this method with longer A-frame ladders if I need to get even higher on the roof. Now let me share this word of caution. The ONLY reason this method works is because I have box gutters on my house. Box gutters are structural parts of the house. This would NOT work with modern house gutters, you’d rip the nails right out and crash to the ground. You’ve been warned.

With that great sense of accomplishment I decided to lend Lyle a hand. Friday he finally put primer on a few of the lower windows and some of the moulding he had taken down. I’ll elaborate more on that in the next post, but before putting the primer on the moulding he treated the pieces with PC-Petrifier Wood Hardener. I decided to treat the remaining pieces for him, which I’m glad I decided to do as I found pieces with cracks that needed to be glued. The instructions read a lot like the LiquidWood product I used on the window sills. You’re supposed to drill 1/8″ holes, which get filled with some epoxy they promote. I did take it one step further than Lyle by applying the product to the front and back of the pieces. Doing the back meant scrubbing the burn soot off first. Although not as severe as the window sills, the backs were more dried out than the fronts and had dryness cracks throughout. I felt they were enough to justify not drilling the holes.

The clouds opened up just as I was cleaning up, so I stuck the pieces in my she shed, since I knew they weren’t close to being dry. Hopefully he’ll appreciate the help.

July 17, 2020

Fusion Roofing + Restoration – Shysters

I have removed the original post regarding the work performed by Fusion Roofing on my box gutters as I can no longer stand by my original assessment of their work. My latest discovery of their improper, short-cut, intentional conceal, workmanship has now reared its head a third time and this latest discovery will probably set me back at least $500 and possibly delay the painting of my house.

The restoration of my box gutters was the first major expense of my restoration. They didn’t exist in most areas. Ricky raccoon and his family had free reign access to my house for shelter. All the quotes came in over $10,000. I paid Fusion over $15,000.

My house before the gutters were repaired

Since this was one of the first projects to take place at my house, very early into my General Contracting role, I had no complaints with their work. You don’t know, what you don’t know and I wasn’t onsite all the time to see everything that was done. The house looked good after they were finished.

The first instance of their inferior work was discovered by a Dan Shepard who was doing some roof work for me in March 2018. He discovered that Fusion had failed to nail down the three rows of shingles they laid while restoring the gutters. The owner, Kevin Helman, found that hard to believe when I called him to report it, but he did come out, investigated, and confirmed Dan’s findings. Dan’s crew member had done some of the repair, but Kevin did finish it. Strike one.

The second instance was discovered November 2019 and I talked about it in the post A Blessing in Disguise. On fluke I discovered a huge gap in the crown moulding. They did a poorly executed mitered corner cut and instead of re-cutting it they filled the huge gap with caulk, which fell out over time. Again they came out and made the repair. Randy, the crew leader was very apologetic for the poor workmanship, which he said must have happened when he wasn’t onsite. I took that in stride and was grateful for the helping hand they gave with the vent caps, which help me get over the final plumbing inspection. Nevertheless, this was Strike Two.

The final strike I discovered last night while trying to replace more of the asbestos tile at the roof line. When I went to scrape the paint away from the tile being replaced about 8″ of the bottom of the crown moulding broke off. The piece was literally held with paint and caulk. The underside of the broken piece was charred wood, that section was part of the fire. With that piece off I noticed a lot of play in the piece, so I began to polk around it with my tool and it went straight through the board. It was rotten. At that point I knew it would need to be replaced so I began looking for the screws to remove it. In the approximate 5′ length, Fusion had only used two screws that actually attached to something and they were both located with 8″ of each other at the end of the board. One 8″ from end the the other at the end to screw the miters together. A third was actually screwed into the original blown-in installation, so basically attached to nothing. Caulk and paint was holding the piece in place.

Lyle Homes is still scraping paint from the second floor dormers (started June 9), but if his crew person that worked on first floor windows had started with the first floor crown, this would have been discovered weeks ago. Since I discovered it my first call was to Tom Milfeld, my go to guy. I wasn’t going to bother calling Fusion and just fix it. I got up this morning and took the piece to Hyde Park lumber who said they didn’t have that profile. I knew Fusion had replaced crown in November, so I called them to find out where they got it from and they said Hyde Park. I have two sections of crown on the house and the repair they did was on upper section. The lower crown is 5 5/8″ wide; the closes they have is 5 1/4″. I will have no choice but to replace the entire rear of my house as a custom milled 5′ section would be triple the cost of the in-stock 48′ I’ll need.

Kevin asked that I send him pictures of the section in question. He said his work did not include the crown attached to the house, which this is. I pointed out that it is also attached to the soffit that they did replace and even if it wasn’t part of their bid (I feel it was) they still deliberately covered over decayed wood vs. giving me an option to allow them to repair it. My original bid from them was $10,875 and it said “Replace any damaged wood as needed at an additional charge per foot, price chart listed above”. One of their references warned me to get everything in writing as they will only do what is listed, so before they started work I had another conversation with Coy Baker, which led to me agreeing to pay another $4,833 for this scope of services: Remove all wood from box gutters, including, fall, fascia, crown, cap, and soffit boards, from entire house; Replace all wood on box gutters including rater tails, fall boards, fascia boards, crown molding, and plywood soffit boards; Properly pitch new gutters to ensure proper flow (I asked for this as someone warned me this could be an issue if not done properly); and All exposed wood will be caulked at the joints and all exposed wood will be primed. This extra money was specifically to address “wood as needed at an additional charge per foot” as Coy said given the condition it was all going to need to be replaced anyway and this additional amount would cover it.

Kevin felt I was being argumentative and hung up on me as I interrupted him while he was onsite at another job. I didn’t force him to answer his phone. Kevin is the owner of the company, but he didn’t do the work. I wanted to speak with Randy, since twice before Randy confirmed the work was done improperly and he fixed it. Based on the hang up I have no confidence anything will be done, so I’ve moved forward with ordering 48′ of new primed crown moulding and I’ve lined up Tom to help me get it installed. Since the new crown will be almost a 1/2″ shorter than the original I know all the asbestos tiles along the top edge of the house will need to be replaced. It was installed after the house was built and butts up against the crown. There will now be an approx 1/2″ gap. That has to be ordered from Home Depot and will take at least a week. Putting it up first, so the crown can sit on top of it is the proper fix. The only positive is, like with all the 1st floor windows, this will be one more area Lyle won’t have to deal with. The crown is already primed, so when Tom and I are done he can just paint.

Of course I fear when I start removing the remainder of the crown that I’m going to uncover even more of Fusion’s poor workmanship. Now that I know what to look for I can see other areas around the house that they filled with caulk to hide a poor cut or seam. I’m almost tempted to dig the caulk out of these areas and fill them with the WoodEpox, since I know that works so well. Every soffit seam is separating now.

Even if I let the seams go, the two ends of the gutters on the rear where I will need to replace the crown is troubling and I fear the soffits themselves will need to be replaced. I truly don’t understand the need to splice in such a small section, which is what they did on the right side of house. They caulked to hide, but as with all the other sections of the house that caulk is failing and splice is exposed. The soffit is just cheap plywood. They could have cut another piece and learned from the mistake. On the left side, they didn’t splice, but filled a huge gap with caulk. It hasn’t failed like the piece did in the front which led to the November repair, but it may give way when I remove the crown. I’ll run it by Tom, but I think the best answer is to just run that crown to the end of the gutter instead of stopping where it is now. That won’t match the front of the house, but hell the crown isn’t going to match either. Fingers crossed Lyle won’t find rot on the front when he starts that prep.

Left side. Huge caulk fill next to house and another on outside edge.

June 27, 2020June 27, 2020

Exceeding My Expectations, So Far

Some contractors may find me difficult to work for. I know too much and can do too much for myself. I set a high bar of excellence for myself, so in turn I expect a contractor to do the work at an even higher level of perfection. After all I’m just an advanced DIYer/Sista Girl with Skills, a contractor should be a trained professional and able to do a project faster and better. Lyle Benjamin of Lyle’s Homes started the prep to paint my house on June 9th, approximately two weeks earlier than originally projected. I viewed that as a great thing, but it was a rocky start. On day one he came and left, leaving a worker who worked on the first floor windows when I thought we had agreed I’d handle them while he focused on the second level. My mind instantly flashed back to my drywall crew. Could I have possibly made another bad choice, did my project get subcontracted again? I shared my drywall nightmare story with Lyle and told him I know I’m difficult, but he’s got to make me feel comfortable with what he’s doing. He has.

Lyle’s Homes is the first major contractor I selected without having a referral. Believe it or not, he reached out to me via Match.com. I had a bout of temporary insanity and signed up in search of a significant other and in my profile I said if you want to learn about me find my blog venusdiyworld (Match does let you insert websites in your profile). Lyle found it and reached out to me offering his painting services by pointing me to his Thumbtack page. No romance was ever formed, but he got my attention when he used another “R” word, Restoration. With his second bid I truly felt he understood what I wanted to accomplish and it was at a price I could afford. In hindsight the problems in week one were avoidable if I had told him I was not ready for his earlier start date. All the projects I planned to tackle (replacing trim on first floor windows and rebuilding rear portico) would have been complete by end of month leaving a clear understanding on what he needed to focus on. I’m still mastering my General Contractor skills.

Lyle’s bid included this wording: Prep: Wash house to remove dirt , grease and loose and peeling paint. Remove paint to bare wood on all widow frames/casings using a heat gun and or chemical removal agents and sanding. Hard scrape and feather sand additional wood trim and fascia to remove loose and peeling paint. This described what I thought was needed before any new paint was applied to my house. He’s doing this to levels that are far exceeding what I thought was possible. As I stated in an earlier post the three windows on my neighbors side that he cleaned entirely are much smoother than my windows were, so much so that I went back and used a higher grit (80 and 120) to try and reach the smooth as a baby’s butt level that his windows are.

The work he has accomplished on the second floor dormers and side crown moulding has blown my mind. He actually removed the crown from the dormers and had another worker scrape it on the ground. Doing that revealed that bees or hornets were making a home through the gaps that had formed over the years. Before rehanging he will treat them would a wood hardener, which should stop them from decaying further and he said he will be able to close those gaps. He’s also willing to spray the opening with some insecticide I have in a pump sprayer.

With the first floor conflict Lyle did agree to adjust his price, but with the high level of detail he is performing, I’ve now agreed to purchase the Sherwin Williams Duration that will be the final coats. Paint was included in his bid and he projected needing 30 gallons of primer and paint combined. If Lyle paints as well as he preps my house is going to be absolutely GORGEOUS, a true showcase home for the community of Camp Washington. In addition to buying the paint I’m also still tackling some projects, so that he can stay focused on the 2nd floor and also because I can’t see him completing this project in three weeks as projected (rain is starting to be a factor now). There are more broken tiles, so even though he said he would do that I took that on since I had already done some with the rear portico.

There were two pieces that didn’t get replaced when myself, my father, and my cousin Cameron were tackling this project two years ago. They are near the rear gutter on the Stock Street side of my house. We attempted, but the angle my father told me to cut was wrong. We didn’t have any angle finder tools and my father was using math calculations based on measurements he told me to find. It was my last piece of tile and I’m standing on ladder being yelled at about not giving him the right measurements. I left the piece, un-nailed, resting on the gutter until now. My skills have definitely improved.

The one on top is the original with wrong angle

I’m tackling the plinths and window sills next.

June 25, 2020June 25, 2020

Rear Portico Makeover – Scraping The Headboard

The portico over the rear door was as caked up with paint as the window mouldings, maybe more. The inside top and sides were just slats of bead board. I decided to replace the old bead board with new. The ceiling was spongee and in really rough condition. I remembered when installing the light fixture thinking it really should be replaced, so now is the time. Removing the bead board was a piece of cake. A crow bar and hammer did the trick. Removing the ceiling and sides revealed a glimpse at what the house looked like when it was originally built. The original, unpainted, flawless condition cedar shingles siding were revealed. Seeing that really makes me wonder what condition the house was in before they added the asbestos shingles.

I decided to build the ceiling first. I didn’t even need to cut those boards. They were 48″ long, so I had Hyde Park Lumber cut 8, 8′ boards in half for me. That saved wear and tear on my miter saw. Before installing them I used my carbide scrapper to remove the paint from any surface that would touch the new wood. I used the grinder a bit also, but unlike the windows and the door I was concerned with damaging the original corbels, so I used it sparingly.

Before tackling the sides I removed the remaining paint using my heat gun and a 5-in-1 scraper. It took me about three hours to get all the paint off.

I used my angle finder to determine the slope, 30 degrees, and with that I was off to the races. I set up a jig on my miter saw to cut the point (dental teeth) at the end of each board. Basically I cut the needed angle off a 2×4 and used that to set the angle of the saw each time I needed to make those cuts. I put a piece of tape on the back support plate, to mark where I needed to place the 2×4 and I used the miter saw clamp to hold it in place. With it secured I just had to butt my bead board against it, cut, flip the wood, and cut again. Originally there was a strip of crown moulding that went around the top edge of the sides and front. I found a very similar profile at Lowes, plastic, but for the life of me I could not figure out the right angle, so I settled for a flat piece of old pine scrap wood I had in my basement.

In removing the old side bead board I managed to break the asbestos tile on each side. No big deal to replace, but when I put my ladder up to get measurements I noticed two large holes in the tiles above the door. The wood of the house was completely exposed, so I decided to replace them also. I couldn’t get the damaged pieces out without sacrificing the two narrow strips at the top. Thankfully those could be cut from one piece of the replacement tile. It was extremely hot that day and the shingles where hot. I tried my best to minimize how much I touched them. My cuts for the side pieces where spot on! I actually reused the damaged shingle from the top to replace the broken pieces on the right side of door. I only needed two narrow pieces and I hated wasting a full sheet of the new. I was hoping I’d only need one case to repair any needed areas around the house. Yes I did wear a respirator mask while cutting them.

At this point I told Lyle, the painter, to just consider me to be part of his staff. He’ll still need to sand the corbels, but I saved him at least a day of work by tackling that project. I actually had fun. This degree of woodwork is in my wheelhouse. Speaking of woodwork projects it is back to the drawing board on my headboard project.

I got the trim pieces stained, coated, and attached. My cousin Zachary came over to help me carry the three pieces upstairs. I wanted to apply one more coat of Danish oil to the front panel before getting him to help me carry it upstairs, but I put the three pieces together and placed them where they’d reside in the room. I thought I took a picture of the top and sides assembled in my bedroom, but I didn’t and I’ve already gotten Zachman (my nickname for Zachary) to help me carry it back downstairs. It’s too big/bulky for the location. All I really wanted was the top shelf. Scotti from the WoodShop expanded that idea to include the side shelves, which seemed like a great use of the dead space being created by the top shelf. However, in addition to looking bulky when I had my mattress elevated at the top to allow me to sit up in bed, I can’t reach the top or side shelves. Elevated I’m about a foot away from the headboard; something I had not anticipated.

Fortunately I have two more pieces of the oak boards. In my minds eye my new design will be 100% better as it will eliminate the Aspen wood side boxes altogether. What I haven’t grappled with is how to deconstruct the top box. The bottom shelve is just screwed in place, but the top is glued and screwed and the screws have already been concealed with dowel rods, see post All I Needed Was The Right Jig. Actually let me rephrase that. I know exactly how to deconstruct the top box, the question is do I have the guts to do it. I got a lot of practice with straight edge cutting with a circular saw during my shed project. I need that same mastery of skills to manifest again. Stay tuned. I’d really love to have the headboard completed in conjunction with the house painting completion.

July 23, 2018July 23, 2018

Dynamic Duo Tackles the Outside

My house is covered in faded yellow asbestos shingles. Under those are the original cedar shingles, forest green. Because I watch way to much #RehabAddict with @NicoleCurtis I briefly had plans to remove the asbestos to expose the cedar and have it painted. I quickly got pass that plan after the box gutters were restored. It totally changed how the house looked and the asbestos shingles actually looked good, to me. All I needed to do was replace the missing and broken, about 50 shingles.

As everyone should know asbestos is a health hazard and those shingles are no longer available, but GAF makes an excellent solution for replacing asbestos siding, WeatherSide Profile Shingles, that I was able to purchase from Home Depot. With drywall sanding underway inside, now was the perfect time to tackle this project. Plus I’m on a countdown clock with my father’s help as he returns home in less than a week. Months ago I reached out to Ohio’s EPA and learned that a single family dwelling is unregulated, which means the “dreaded expensive abatement company”, frequently shown on every HGTV, DIY show was not necessary as I could remove the shingles myself. I will need to take them to an approved landfill, Rumpke, but I’ve made that haul twice and it’s no big deal.

As with the gutters the house had to get uglier first, so the first couple of days my cousin Cameron and my father tackled taking down the broken shingles, putting up shims (old pieces of the lathe I saved), and felt paper. They used a small chisel to gently loosen the existing nails and then nail puller pliers to remove the broken asbestos shingles.

Fighting rain for two days the three of us managed to get the new shingles in place. This was probably the easiest, first time, project I’ve tackled at the house.

We broke a few, new and old, on the learning curve, so I’ll need to order another case of shingles or try to find someplace that sells them by the piece. I only need about 5 more, 18 come in a case, to finish some spots near the gutters. Once complete I hope to have the house painted by RhinoShield by the end of year. The house will transforms to Sea Serpent blue and the trim Incredible White. These are the house colors from HGTV’s 2017 Urban Oasis Giveaway, it was my favorite of all the Urban Giveaway homes, thus far. I will not be adding the pink door however, instead it will be They call it Mellow yellow, homage to the faded yellow that has stood for probably 60 years.

RhinoShield is a coating, not paint, that has a 25 year product warranty against cracking, chipping, and peeling. I have gotten a quote to have the house painted and was pleasantly surprised when RhinoShield came in similar to the paint quote. I asked them for three references, preferably asbestos homes, and all owners raved over their work.
Plus it turned out that my favorite painted house in the neighborhood was done with RhinoShield too.

If any of my followers has a connection with RhinoShield corporate and could work out a product donation for me, I’d be much obliged!