Admiring Craftsmanship From Below

One of the things percolating to the top of the “Needs To Be Done on the Homestead” list over the past winter was the clearly evident need to bring some attention to the roof of the cabin.  We had the standing seam roof washed and painted right after we bought the cabin twenty years ago but it was once again showing some age.  I think the metal roof was probably installed around 1980 but there is no evidence one way or another.  I only know it was looking tired in 2001.

My original thought for this summer was to get the old roof pressure washed and coated with roll-on epoxy paint.  (My days of scampering around a steep roof are past, so the only certainty was hiring someone to do the task.)  Asking around I got a sense of what that might cost but ran into a hurdle of finding someone who lives in the area to do the job.  It was then that we saw the new roof going on the house of the farmer from whom we buy milk.  It was a new, beautiful honest-to-goodness traditional standing seam roof, albeit with a  baked enamel finish, and when I asked him about it he told me that one of the Amish families new to our area had done the job.

Not long after that I took Mrs. Barn and the older Barndottir to the new greenhouse just south of town, also operated by the same Amish family.  While there I happened to speak to the father about our possible project and within a fortnight he was up to give me a bid.  His estimate for removing the aged roof and replacing it entirely with brand new baked enamel steel roofing was almost the same price!  The decision was not really hard to make.

Given the large number of aging standing seam metal roofs here in the hinterland he has been kept busy almost non-stop repairing and replacing them.  He told me they moved here to be full-service carpenters (our county has one electrician, one plumber, and two home improvement enterprises so it was fertile territory) but his roofing work has pushed almost everything aside.  We got on the schedule for a new roof in October.  Then two weeks age we were notified that there was an opening in the calendar and our new roof project would begin the following day.

One of the drawbacks to living in such a remote are with such a sparse market of skilled tradesmen is that getting someone to do a job and do it in the time promised is pretty discouraging.  So, when the roofers said they would show up at 9AM the following morning we were anxious to see if it would actually come to pass.

They arrived around 8.30AM.  And, got the cabin roof stripped and installed in one day, using their mobile rolling mill to crimp all of the metal panels on the spot.  Good thing as there was rain in the forecast.  We knew in advance that they would be gone for three days attending a horse auction.

The second work day they also said they would be here around the same starting time.  That was an untruth.  They arrived at 7.20 and began installing the front porch roofing almost as fast as they were stripping off the old.  By early afternoon they were packed up and gone with the flashing, storm clips and gutters installed and the job site cleaned up.  I gladly handed over the check for the full payment.

I for one am thrilled at the prospect of more skilled tradesmen moving in to the region and I am helping a newly arrived Amish blacksmith build a foundry in his shop using one of my smelting furnaces.  Now that is going to be fun!