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Post date: Jul 18, 2015 12:26:00 AM
This week my house went from green outside to silver outside, from no insulation up top to insulation and rubber roof.
Of course no one can see the roof from the street, but it looks as though it will shed water. It took about half a day to prepare, half-day to glue down the roof, then another half day to seal around all the edges (191 feet) and the holes (3) and the scuppers (3).
Sealing the vent pipes goes quickly: cut the boot to fit, clean and prime the rubber, peel and stick the boot, then caulk and add a pipe clamp. Sealing the scuppers is much more involved.
The walls are somewhere between. Inside corners can be lapped then sealed with primer and sticky tape. Outside corners get a disk of rubber that is stretched to fit after cleaning and priming the surface. All the rubber joints get an extra dose of black caulk around the edges. The EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Terpolymer) roof is clean, neat, and looks like it could last forever. The outside of the house got 1 1/2" foil-faced polyisocyanurate insulation, with all the joints taped. This took two guys two days to cover completely, including sealing cracks with expanding polyurethane foam. R-9 outside the sheathing, 2xR-13 inside the sheathing, plus stucco, wallboard, and sheathing. Should be warm in winter.
While all this was happening, I was wiring up the temperature sensors — actually routing the wires to the communications panels and punching them down to an old phone connecting block. I was also very curious about the roof application. Fortunately, some of the wiring was in the mechanical room on the roof, giving me an excuse to go up and watch.
I also filled some ditches, moved some dirt around (so it would slope away from the house), picked up trash (a perpetual task), filled holes with foam, and swept the floor. Both the plumbers and electricians drill holes in the framing and never seem to clean up the chips and sawdust that results. So I’ll probably go in Saturday to clean up more.
For months I have thought about how to detect a roof water leak before it does much damage. With more complicated insulation systems, there are more layers to trap water from a leaking roof. It occurred to me that any free space in the attic (or between the ceiling and the roof) would increase in humidity above the ceiling if there were a roof leak.
Measuring humidity is relatively easy these days. I can install a couple of humidity sensors, connect them to a microcomputer controller, and fire off a warning if the humidity rises above a certain level. I can also record the humidity every hour for a couple of years until I learn what is a ‘normal’ humidity in that space.
I figure a sensor over the kitchen and over the bathroom, plus one over the garage, should give me useful data. Now if I can just find humidity sensors as inexpensive and as easy to use as the temperature probes I bought….
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