Way back in February I mentioned our plan for some improvements on the house in the upcoming months. It went roughly like this… we wanted to add some more insulation to the attic, but needed to put a new roof on first since there were a few small leaks that would ruin the insulation. Some of the roof’s issues were associated with the chimney, so we wanted to get rid of the chimney before putting on the new roof. And of course, we couldn’t get rid of the chimney while the furnace still used it, so nothing was moving until we replaced the furnace.

During one of the warmer weekends in March, we pulled the old furnace out and replaced it with a new high-efficiency LP unit. As typical with most advances in technology, the new unit was much smaller than the old one.

The old oil furnace (brown) sitting next to the new LP furnace (gray).

With the new furnace in place the chimney could be removed and the new roof installed. The crew we hired showed up on Wednesday morning and got to work. Since they do this on a daily basis and have all of the equipment to install the new roof quickly and safely it wasn’t something I wanted to mess around with.

The basket on the lift can be raised up to the gutters.

The three man crew had steel on two sides of the roof before lunch. It would have easily been a one day project, but we’re also having them replace the siding on the two dormers. We want everything above the gutters water tight.

The old shingles are on the left, the new steel is on the right.

We decided to go with a steel roof. There’s a lot of differing opinions on steel roofing for residential use out there, but we thought the look would work – especially with the square-corrugated metal we used – it’s unique compared to the standard agricultural steel that used heavily in the area.

The chimney used to be on this ridge.

The above picture shows there’s no sign of the old chimney. You might have also noticed that the PVC pipe that’s now sticking out has a cap on it – that’s not typically how it’s done. The pipe’s there as a place holder and is capped to keep rain water out because it is just sticking through into the attic. As we remodel the house and update the plumbing the new “stink pipe” will come out in that spot. (It currently comes out the side of the house.) I figured it would be easier to have the required boot installed with the roof instead of trying to cut it in later. Now when we’re plumbing we won’t have to worry about it – simply slide the capped pipe out and the new pipe in – all from the attic. Are you starting to get the feeling that once these guys finished the roof I have no intention of going back up there for a long, long, time?

Finished

Now for a little caulk and paint for the rest of the house.