57: Roof Finished

The roof is on and finished, so I can finally move on with the project.

After getting the main roof panels on, it came time to put on the ridge and rake trim. For those of you not familiar with what the rake is; it is the diagonal roofline along both sides of the gable. All of the roof trim was installed from on top of the roof. Because a slip and fall would (I felt) result in me sliding off the roof I ran a 3/8” safety line along the ridge from one end to the other, tightened it up really good and then ran a little pigtail safety line off the 3/8, tied to my waist. I found that if I wore a relatively new tennis shoes, and stayed pretty much vertical that I could get enough traction to walk around on the roof.

Let’s just say that putting on the roof trim, especially the rake trim was kind of nerve racking. Here you are tied off with a big rope; laying on your stomach or your side, holding the trim in place with one hand and trying to run self-tapping screws into the fascia with the other hand. Take plenty of extra screws with you because you will drop some along the way.

In retrospect, about the only other way I could’ve installed the rake trim, would have been from either a tall ladder, or from scaffolds. My tallest ladder is 20’; not tall enough to reach the roof peak and I don’t have any scaffolds, and didn’t want to pay what it would cost to rent them.

What else did I learn putting on the roof trim? The metal can scratch fairly easily, so touch up (spray) paint is a must. The metal supplier doesn’t stock touch up paint, so I bought every brand of hunter green spray paint I could find (WalMart, Rustoleum, Krylon); and of course none of them match exactly. The Krylon came the closest and has the added benefit of a better quality sprayer mechanism.

Pic 2 is the north side of the roof and the front porch; taken from my neighbor’s yard.