Complete Video Transcription
MONTEREY — Host, Sarah Rutan: If you’re planning on re-roofing your home, you’ll need to know how to prepare before remodeling begins. Today, we’re in Monterey with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Pete Scudder of Scudder Roofing Company to learn more.
Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Pete Scudder: Okay. When preparing for a residential re-roof, there’s a few things to consider that are really important. You’re going to – it’s going to be like going through a mild earthquake at your house. So, kind of consider that when you’re putting your project together.
You want to make sure that any fragile items that are on the walls are stabilized or moved off completely. You want to make sure your storage area – so, that’s your attic, your garage, storage, those things – are covered with plastic tarps or removed as well. Because what can happen is when you tear off the existing roof system, debris can come down in there and get inside of boxes. And when Christmas comes around and you have to get inside there and get your stuff out, you’ll see a bunch of debris in there, which you probably don’t want.
Other things to consider is access and egress; how the trucks are going to get into your property. Can they be – can you use your driveway, are there other access points? Even neighbors’ driveways sometimes are used, if you’re friendly with your neighbor. But making sure you have good access points and making sure your driveway is stable enough to take the equipment that’s needed to go on your roof.
A couple of other things you want to think about is your pets; pets and young kids. They’re going to have a bunch of people on the roof and a lot of noise, vibration going on, and some might get scared, your pets might get scared. So, some people actually check their pets into a pet clinic. And they just have to let their kids know there might be some dangerous things going around the outside, meaning debris falling off the roof and those type of things.
So, you want to make sure that protection of the grounds has taken place, which is covering landscape, moving patio furniture, anything that you’re concerned about, protecting walking decks and, again, protecting children from walkway areas so they don’t walk under those type of fall zones.
Also, when you’re inside a house and you’re tearing the roof off, you have to prepare the internal piece. Like I said, it’s like going through a mild earthquake. But when we have to lift the skylights up, you can get dust down inside the house itself.
So, if you have any open beam ceilings, any cathedral type of ceilings, areas where the ceilings could actually vibrate and dust could come through those locations, that can get debris all over your house as well. So, you want to make sure if that’s the case, the contractor is going to cover everything so you don’t have the dust and clean it up afterwards, or something you’re going to think about doing prior to the job.
Probably most importantly is be real proactive; kind of think, kind of walk around the house. Hopefully you’re there with your contractor. He’ll walk you around and show you things that you want to – that you should expect, and where you could help him make his job a lot easier, and just kind of follow those things methodically, and just be there the day the job starts, because that’s a crucial point. Because the day the job starts, things start unfolding, you can see exactly what needs to happen and what doesn’t need to happen.
So, to sum it up, I would say, be proactive, think of it as a mild earthquake, you know. Put the fragile things away or tighten them up. Just make sure it’s a safe environment for everybody who is involved in the process, and you should have a successful project.
Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.info.
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