We had a few bumps in the road on the roof install. They put all the shingles on and then failed inspection. Apparently they did not read the Palo Alto code requiring metal flashing in the valleys. So then they tore off all the shingles and started reshingling. I was stressing out an obsessively checking the weather because we were expecting the winter rains to start any day. This was right before thanksgiving so it was a crazy time trying to get people to work and also try and keep things light for our family activities.

The roofers got the point where almost all the second try shingles were installed. There was just a small portion (maybe 20-30 sq ft) over the new addition that was not shingled, but still had the initial water-proof black paper installed. I was concerned that we needed a tarp, but the roofer assured me that the black paper would keep things water tight until they could get the last shingles installed.

So the rain storm started and I popped over the check how the roof was holding up. Of course, there was water everywhere. We came to realize that the initial shingle install had left nail holes in the waterproof black paper which allowed water to drip through the paper and plywood sub roof. I basically freaked out because I was concerned about getting the wood wet and creating conditions for mold. I laid plastic sheeting on the floor and gathered as many plastic storage buckets as I could from around the house to collect the drips.

It was a rough night for me, I kept going back to the house to check on the buckets and dry up the floor sheeting with towels. I am not sure if my actions helped or not. The next day I asked the guys to put a tarp over the unfinished part of the roof and that kept out the rain for the next few days until they could finish the shingles. I was really worried about all the interior framing being wet, so I turned on my little space heater in the room off and on for a few days.

In the end it took us about another month to get to the insulation and drywall stage so I think the wood had plenty of time to dry and it probably wasn’t THAT big of a deal after all. It definitely would have saved me some stress to just have that tarp on the roof until everything was done though!