• Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact
  • Let’s Organize These Posts:

    • Art Attack
    • Backyard
    • Barn
    • Basement
    • Bathroom
    • Beach
    • Bedrooms
    • Being Thrifty
    • Business-y
    • Buying and Renting and Selling
    • Casual Celebrations
    • Closets
    • Curb Appeal
    • Dainty Details
    • Deck
    • Decor
    • Dining Room
    • DIY
    • Dog-Related
    • Entryway
    • Flooring
    • For the Kids
    • Garage
    • Gardening
    • Helping The Economy
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects
    • Holiday-Related Projects
    • Home Safety
    • Kitchen
    • Lighting
    • Living Room
    • Merry Travels
    • Office Space
    • Organized
    • Other Pads
    • Outdoor Living
    • Scooter Fun
    • Stairwell
    • Sunroom
    • Supporting Sponsors
    • The Art Room
    • Tools
    • Uncategorizable
    • Wedding
    • Windows
    • Work-pads
  • Search

  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)
  • Search

  • Pages

    • blog
    • Merrypad Features
    • Privacy Policy
    • about emily
    • before + after
      • before + after, our current home
      • before + after, our first house
    • contact me
    • choose a badge and share the merrypad.com love
  • Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact

Tarred, But Spare The Feathers

May 3, 2011

By feathers, I mean maple tree helicopters and pine needles. Trees overhanging my garage: please hold on to your goods this week so as not to disrupt my newly patched garage roof.

A damp garage is no fun. I figured there were some holes that needed to be patched and nails that needed to be sealed in, but still I only rated the situation orange on the “girl, you need to fix this now” scale (self-defined, but noticeably similar to the recently abandoned homeland security terrorism scale). I haven’t had enough moisture come in to seriously damage anything yet (but I’ve been on heightened alert like the airport security checkpoints). I knew it would only get worse, but was fighting mother nature and my work schedule on when to make the move and tar up the roof where it was needed.

It was sunny over the weekend, so we did a little assessment. During this time, Pete marked every slight hole in the existing tar paper while I confused the dog by talking from the roof and snapped a few photos of the backyard, which you probably haven’t seen from this vantage point before (messy, but that’s because we were busy organizing the shed at the same time, true multi-taskers at work):

There's Cody. And yes, I own two lawn mowers because they were both free and one's super powerful but hard for me to start (hence I keep the puny easy-to-start one too)

Side note unrelated to tarring: I love my pergolas even more from above. Wondering if I should add another layer of latticing on top going perpendicular to the 2x4s.

And the deck, also messy. Can you believe that I also have 5 bags of charcoal in the basement? Permission to grill more this year.

Even though we’ve been more diligent to climb up to the roof and sweep it off from time to time to help keep leaves from holding moisture over the weak areas, we knew a real tar job was in order to fix the issue before it got worse. And it’s not that I didn’t get around to buying the tar; it’s been in my garage since last year when I bought it to tar to paint the pressure-treated posts supporting my deck 48″ below the surface of the earth (hello future owners, that deck is s-o-l-i-d). I actually wasn’t even sure the rest of my 5-gallon bin would still be good to use after it spent all winter (presumably) frozen out of sight (and out of mind). Fortunately, the tar was still usable, and fortunately the weather was perfect-o so we didn’t have to deal with it being 90 degrees or windy (which only would have blown more of the tree shiz into the fresh mushy tar).

Pete performed a final sweep-down to prep the area, and I hauled up the 5-gallons of tar and found the worst-of-the-worst paint brushes from our collection (ones we knew we were OK throwing out after the job was done). Here’s the roof before we got started:

Garage roof: before.

We thought it wouldn’t hurt to go over the tar paper seams again, just incase they weren’t overlapped well by the folks who originally installed the roof (a complete tear off in 1997, according to an etching we found inside the garage).

Pete tarring the first seam.

After I took that photo I promptly put my camera far far away from potential sticky danger. Once we were done, the roof looked more like this:

Tar applied. Looking good. Spotty. As far as time is concerned, this was a very quick afternoon job. I had put it off for a year thinking that I’d need a full day (that was also not too hot, not cold, not windy, not rainy) to dedicate to the project (and a pair of shoes that I never wanted to wear again), but it was reasonably fast and neat too; I was even wearing ballet flats — which was pushing my luck + totally inappropriate but I walked away tar-free. It only took us about an hour from sweeping to cleanup. And, I still have about 2.5 gallons of tar to put towards future holes if need be. Any top-of-mind uses for leftovers?

 

Share

DIY  / Garage

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

2 Comments


Shelley
May 10, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Reply

Wow! I’m impressed you took on this project by yourself… we hired a charlotte roof repair repair company to do a similar project a few months ago. I hope one day I can be as DIY ambitious as you! Nice job!



    Emily
    May 10, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    Thanks Shelley! It was really much less of a pain-in-the-you-know-what than I thought it’d be. I had even considered doing the whole thing with the big ol’ mopping technique but fortunately it didn’t seem to need a whole new coat at this point (And if it did, I probably would have needed a second 5-gal container).

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • Instagram

    Can’t believe I ever bought dumpling wrappers. 🥟 Pulse a few cups of flour in the food processor drizzling in cold water until it forms dough. Roll smooth. Use a conveniently large cookie cutter, or just trim out squares. The end ❤️ #hny #dumplings
    Didn’t think I’d be making more masks, but her Didn’t think I’d be making more masks, but here we are (now feat. recycled t-shirt layer for added softness and bonus-layer protection). #diy #amateurseamstress #diymask
    Get out there ☀️ Get out there ☀️
    The gang finally showed up. 👻 The gang finally showed up. 👻
    A record 233 cloves + 10 shallots 🧛🏻‍♀️ 
#merrypadathome #garden2021 #garlic #gardennotes #whatisnormal
    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    Immeasurably tall, lanky tomatillos. #garden2020 # Immeasurably tall, lanky tomatillos. #garden2020 #tomatillos #nofilter
    32 oz., reserved for the brave 🌶🌶 😍#homeg 32 oz., reserved for the brave 🌶🌶 😍#homegrown #tomatillos #harvest2020
    Nothing says “let’s stay home all fall, too” Nothing says “let’s stay home all fall, too” like a badass custom fireplace on our patio. 🔥 #chiminea #merrypadathome
    Load More... follow emily: @merrypad



  • Like Us On Facebook

    Facebook Pagelike Widget



  • Popular Posts

    • How to fix an IKEA drawer. Cheap IKEA Drawers (And The Quick Fix) 39.7k views
    • DIY sideboard rehab. Our Refinished Midcentury Buffet 39.4k views
    • How to design and make a barn quilt. How to Make Your Own Barn Quilt 33.2k views
    • DIY driveway removal. The Driveway Rocks 24.6k views
    • How to hang art on brick surfaces using specialty clips. The Easy Way to Hang Art on Brick or Stone 24.2k views
    • Goodbye, gold fireplace covering. Less Is More: How to Remove a Fireplace Surround 22k views
    • Our DIY flagstone patio. Building a Patio in One Day 17.3k views
    • Bedroom paint, freshened up with Snowbound paint. Painting Everything White: We Chose Snowbound, By Sherwin Williams 16.4k views
    • Tips for dying pasta different colors, and a Halloween Recipe for the kids. Tips for Dying Pasta Different Colors (+ A Special Halloween Recipe) 15.3k views
    • Finished stained kitchen cabinets. Javalicious, A Gel Staining Reveal (Update #3) 14.1k views



  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)





  • a little bit of everything, friends, DIY, and inspiration

    • Dadand.com < My husband and his BFF
    • DIY Network
    • HGTV
  • Get Posts Via Email

  • Some Legal

    Merrypad incorporates the occasional affiliate link to Amazon.com and Minted; we link to many other websites and products, but if it is in context of a paid sponsorship, it is always noted as such. Please review the privacy policy and contact me if you have any additional questions.

    Theme customized by Pete Fazio Creative, the guy from dadand.com.


© Copyright Merrypad