It has been a long day. I usually post in the morning, but today I started work early because it is hot on the roof. So, I spent all day on the roof, making a lot of progress, but I had to stop because I am waiting for vent pipe to be run through the roof so that I can flash around them and finish this thing off. Rain is in the forecast for Sunday and Monday.

After looking inside the bathroom, my wife was concerned that it was too dark. Add a skylight to the list. And then when I was talking to the contractor, he was surprised that I didn’t vent the roof. Now, quick aside for a moment. I listen weekly to the Fine Homebuilding podcast and according to them, the science on vented roofs says that venting really does not actually extend the life of a roof, and therefore unnecessary.

Moisture management is really the key concern, not roof life. Even though the addition is open to the currently vented roof, I am a little concerned that moisture from the bathroom cannot adequately equilibrate efficiently, so I am going to add a roof vent as well.

Think like a raindrop was a phrase that my grandfather used. The older I get the more I understand. At seventeen, I didn’t really understand how water behaved. Now knowing some science I can understand water travels by gravity. It also adheres to surfaces with surface tension. You want to keep water away from the building and make paths for efficient flow.

I remember roofing a garage or some other outbuilding and he kept saying over and over that you need to ‘think like a raindrop’. He must have seen the puzzled look on my face, because he then said ‘if you want to keep the water out, you need to think like a raindrop’, he laughed and moved on. He was always saying some sort of colloquialism or bit of wisdom that was wrapped up in a cryptic message of sorts. It’s funny, but those are the things that stick the most to my memory.

I am cutting this a little short since I lost internet connection last night when I wrote most of this (and lost a bunch of additional work too). It seems like a fitting tribute to my grandfather that I can do all these things. I almost cant wait for the rain this weekend to prove the I can now think like a raindrop.