"Harriet" triumphs over a leaky shed roof

I am currently taking another break from work. Yes, that's two in one year, and it's only May. I am consciously trying to cut back on working, in order to not neglect the rest of my life. This is one positive outcome of the pandemic for me. Being forced to slow down, then realizing how much happier I am when I am not staring at a long list of things I haven't gotten around to. 

This break was mostly planned so my alter ego "Harriet Homeowner" could come for another visit, before the weather got too hot for an outdoor project. Harriet's shed is now 19 years old, and its roof was totally shot. Over the winter, she was shopping for a new shed. But aside from the roof, the rest of the shed was still in decent shape, so she considered hiring a roofer to just replace the roof. While researching whether that was possible, she watched a lot of YouTube videos on replacing a shed roof. Which led her to decide to try to do the job herself. 

This is way more construction than I had ever attempted. What would be the worst possible outcome? I would be out a few hundred dollars, before buying a new shed anyways. Or, I might fall off the roof, but from that height I wouldn't be too badly hurt. I certainly wouldn't die. What would be the best possible outcome? I would save about $5000 by not buying a new shed. 

Here's a "before" photo of the shed. You can't really see the roof damage from the front. The damage is visible from the back, and from inside. However, the entire shed was very dirty! That's 19 years of dirt, moss, algae, mold, etc. So I started the whole project by renting a pressure washer. 

The guy at Home Depot expressed doubt that an electric pressure washer could clean a shed. But the gas models were not an option for me, because they were too heavy to lift into my car. It turned out the dirt was very soft, and the electric model did the trick. I was soaking wet and covered in shed crud. Having never used a pressure washer before, I admit it was kind of fun. 

The next day when the shed was dry again, I couldn't believe how different it looked!

This is one of two major faults with the old roof. There were dozens of staples that were in the wrong place, where they were NOT covered up by the next row of shingles. Whenever I noticed a small leak from inside, I would climb up a ladder and always find one of these visible staples. If I caught the leak early enough, a blob of caulk would solve the problem. 

And this is the second major fault with the old roof. The shingles were installed directly onto the wood decking, without any underlayment in between. 

A few winters ago, several shingles were blown off the roof in a storm. They were on the back of the roof, so not visible from the house. And because it was winter, I did not visit the shed again for a few months. And because there was no underlayment layer, there was no backup protection for the missing shingles. By the time I discovered the problem, it was really bad. 

I nailed on some new shingles, but because the wood was already warped and spongy, the new shingles were not watertight, and this spot continued to leak. The damage to the wood got worse and worse.

This is the only tool I needed to buy for this project: a small $10 shingle remover. (I like anything that is orange because I'm an Orioles fan.) The only other tools required were simple hand tools that I already owned.

Once all of the shingles were off, I had to decide how much of the decking I was going to replace. I wanted to save money and labor, and to generate as little trash as possible. I decided to keep anything with only minor water damage, if it felt solid enough to hold new nails. The major area of damage was only on one piece of wood, so that is the only one I replaced. 

After getting this onto the ground, I took its measurements to Home Depot, and had them cut the new pieces for me. Instead of one 3x8' piece, I had them cut two 3x4' pieces instead, so it would be easier for me to carry them up a ladder. 

After getting the new pieces of wood in place, I installed a proper underlayment. (Big thanks to Dave and Emily who gave me the tar paper left over from their own shed project.) I marked the areas with minor water damage, so I could avoid nailing into those spots as much as possible.

This is where I left things at the end of Day 2: shingles removed, rotten wood removed and replaced, underlayment installed, and all the old shingles and trash picked up. BTW, the drip edge from the original roof was in good shape, so I re-used it. 

The third and last day of the project was for installing the new shingles. To the professional roofer on YouTube who replaced an entire shed roof from start to finish in two hours: SLOW CLAP. For me the shingling alone took over seven hours. Granted I was using a hammer instead of a nail gun, but still I think I spent too much time trying to line things up. Much respect to the real experts!

Total cost of the project: $359. After three days of work, Harriet is triumphant! Today, she is hobbling around on sore muscles, and nursing various blisters, scrapes, and bruises. But she is very proud of the fact that she didn't fall off the roof. And she never hammered her thumb, not even once.