Friday, April 17, 2009

The Jungle eventually eats everything!

There is a homestead back there somewhere...

The crew repairing the concrete roofs at the Broadway Estates is back at it again. This time they built some fall protection for the workers.

As a roofer, I find this humorous. With roofs this flat, and only one story, I would have found working on this roof a walk in the park. There were several years when I worked on a subdivision in Bountiful where the roofs were all 8/12 to 12/12 pitches (the roof above is about a 2/12 pitch--that is a rise of 2" every 12"). Normally, anything over a 4/12 pitch is considered dangerous to walk on without safety measures. As a roofer, we were used to walking on anything up to a 6/12 pitch--after that, it was tough for even us to keep from sliding off. However, while working at this one subdivision, I was soon walking around those steep roofs without thinking about it.
The real danger was always stepping on something. With good shoes, I could climb around on almost any roof, but if I stepped on a loose shingle, or asphalt paper, etc. the grip would be lost, and off I would go down the roof...
Yes... I have fallen off my share of roofs! It is just the nature of the business, like hitting my fingers with a hammer--it comes with the territory. I have fallen off two-story houses twice (both times I was saved by 'aiming' at sand piles that happened to be on site for the brickworkers); have come very close to going off a 3 story apartment building (it was late fall, and the frost on the roof had not melted from the shady areas of the roof--when I walked from the sunny area into the shade of a chimney, off I went... I was saved by grabbing the ladder at the last minute). The only time I was ever hurt was climbing a ladder onto a 10' house. Just as I stepped onto the roof, the feet of the ladder slipped, and down I went, landing on my back. Had the roof been higher, and I had more time to react, I might have landed better...
I broke my wrist once working on the Devereaux Mansion in Salt Lake (it was one of the few buildings in Utah to have a slate roof on it; when I lived in Connecticut, we worked with slate all the time, but in Utah, it was very unique, and expensive). We were loading slate onto the roof when the conveyor went crazy. As I used a rope to try to keep the conveyor from hitting the building, the rope broke and I landed on my hand, breaking my wrist.
I have also stapled my hand to the roof--putting a 2" staple right through the bone of my thumb! That didn't even hurt... the worst part was when I convinced my helped to pull the staple out. I had some vice grip pliers with me, that I clamped on the head of the staple, then told my helper to pull... it didn't hurt, but the squeaking sound the staple made when coming out was so eerie, we both almost lost our lunches!
That's about it for injuries on the job, unless you count my back surgery--the result of years of hauling roofing material up a ladder on my shoulders, or off-loading truck-loads of roofing material into my father's warehouse. In fact, the worst year was when they built a train track extension onto the property! Now I had to unload, by hand, train-car loads of roofing materials (they didn't believe in fork-lifts in my day?). A train car carries about twice what a semi-truck will carry. And to add insult to injury, I was making about $1.50 an hour!
Oh well, kind of got carried away! I am getting old, I guess.
I am always amazed at how quickly the jungle can overwhelm civilization here

You can see how this wall that once surrounded a nice home on Tinian, is being eaten-up

Believe it or not, there are remains of a home under all of that!

Even the family dog didn't escape!

The Grace Christian Academy is preparing for the climax to their big fundraiser here on Tinian, that happens tonight. We are all praying for good weather for them!

Work on the new amphitheater continues


2 comments:

bigsoxfan said...

I'm laughing so hard. I fell straight down three stories while painting so I can feel your pain. However, I gave it up. Stay of the roof, please stay off the roof. I wouldnt be able to laugh while reading Terri's account of you last roofing job. Thanks anyway.

Kevan said...

I suppose I was just lucky I was never seriously hurt falling off a roof. And I only got burned once while working with hot tar (about 500 degrees!). I did see a few people that were burned very badly while working with asphalt.
Construction is a dangerous business, but most problems are due to preventable mistakes-- and considering my history of doing dumb things, I count myself lucky!