Flat Roof Repair

As the bathroom was coming to a wrap earlier this year, we went ahead and had the upstairs studio partially demolished. The work included ripping out 3 layers of ceiling containing the original 1-1/2" plaster with the radiant heating water lines exposing the existing flat roof 2x10 rafters. In all about 4" of ceiling material was removed along with the door and part of the non-load bearing wall was taken out.

In the first photo you can see the remnants of the door/wall removal, the old electric exposed. The concept for the wall removal is to open up the studio as a space to the main living area and allow more air flow from our sole AC in the studio. The wall between the living and studio now is a simple plane unobstructed. The new opening will be about 4 feet clear. Exposing the joists now allows us to put some insulation in the ceiling since we have none elsewhere.

After the demolition was complete and the dust had subsided, we realized we had more problems than a simple room remodel. We kinda anticipated something was up with the roof before demolition, but since we had to put buckets out to catch the drips. All of the framing around the masonry at the chimney was rotted along with several low points of sagging plywood. The main vertex of the sloped roof and the studio flat roof is where there was the worst damage.

It's been one rainy season here in Cincinnati, which has left almost no weekends to do flat roof work. Finally, a somewhat dry weekend came the 1st of August, a call from the roofer on Friday with a go for Saturday, it was on. Climbed up Friday afternoon, swept ponds of water off the roof. The second photo shows the roof area dry prior to Saturday rip off. I can't recall seeing the roof dry, ever. It offered a different perspective, the problematic spot had a previous patch as well.

The original intention was to pull out the low spots of rot, replace plywood, build roof back up, and apply patch of new EPDM. We only had Saturday until the rain forcasted for Sunday. I should note, I'm in no financial condition to replace and repair the roof the way it should be done, maybe one day. The plan was to repair the bad spots over the studio and phase through the future repairs until we can eventually put on a new roof. Additionally, we had a sea of mechanical fastener patches across the roof that were starting to back out and peel up in need of attention. The third photo shows the area of rubber roof cut up, and the super wet underlying fiberboard.

The fourth photo shows how juicy it was/is under the rubber, wait a minute, isn't the rubber supposed to keep the water out? So as we dug throught the layers of history, here's how the roof has been constructed. The original roof was built up tar and gravel, check. An unsuspected second layer of rolled asphalt roof caught me by suprise. Finally, brown fiberboard has been mechanically fastened through all other layers, and to it EPDM roof membrane has been glued.

The fifth photo is what we ended up digging into, queue the 6pm trip to Home Depot to get more plywood and 2x10's. We had gotten way further into the roof than I expected, nor did I realized the extent of my roofing future. Having ripped up all the bad plywood, we had exposed a good portion of th studio roof to the sky. It was much easier to replace the bad 2x10's from above. The sixth photo shows the view looking from in the studio, you can see the missing framing at the chimney.

After all the framing was good, we fastened new plywood down, then built up the roof by fastening down several layers of fiber board. We built up some roof pitch where there once was the large pool with fiberboard. It was about 8pm and starting to get dark about the point we started putting the new EPDM down. Between 4 of us, we had already patched the sea of fasteners and in about an hour, we were flashing around the chimney, everyone way ready for a shower.

It didn't rain that night so the final two photos are the next morning, 'how did we do?' inspection. Everything looked much better, climbing up the ladder and seeing pitch where there once was none is comforting. You can see in the photo the darker 'form flashing' that ties the EPDM to the brick chimney. Also note the darker patches all over the roof, why they ever put that many holes in a membrane is beyond me. I'll chalk that one as a 'Gened up' decision.

There are two other lower spots that probably have to do the same remedy on in the next couple years. Since the replace we had a good 2" rain, the next day revealed only a couple of small puddles over the studio, a significant difference from before. The roofer said all the patches will probably keep the roof dry, maybe long enough for the sponge factor to start drying out a bit. On Sunday we cleaned up a couple spots, and we have been dry ever since.

Mid Century Modern Scavenger Hunt - Zig Zag Roof

I've been doing some scavenger hunting lately for local zig zag roofs for a local modern residential consulting opportunity and thought I'd share some of my scavenger finds. The zig zag form, whether in plan, elevation, or section is signature character that evolved as an element of mid century modern aesthetics. Quite often the tails of the zig zag are left flipping up as can be seen in most of these examples. Part of my mission was to verify the better condition and also see what I could find.

The first building is the Ridge Road Urgent care building. It still has the old exterior bullet lights if you look close. I think this building was originally brick and has been covered over with EIFS on the majority of the exterior and painted the typical suburban 'what shade of beige would you like?'. If you look close you can see the original stacked courses of brick at the windows accompanied with the vertical protruding brick accents. Personally I think if this building was white with dark grey accents it would have more street appeal.

Next are a couple of MCM zig zags we pass by on the way to our Pediatrician's office in Finneytown on Winton Road. The first is a small traditional church that had a 50's entry addition. The architect of this project designed this entry that exhibits a 50's 'time of the now' approach. There is also an excellent obelisk put adjacent to the entry that's not pictured. Shortly down the road from this is a little dry cleaners I've always enjoyed. The cantilevered fly outs are awesome with the dark paint hefting the form over the storefront glass, I bet it looks great at night.

A trip up north in the Lebanon area revealed a small MCM elementary school with a zig zag entry canopy. The rest of the school is a very 'Cranbrook' campus style of school design. The majority of the rest of the building is typical low slope large overhang hip roof boxes connected by flat roof glass corridors. I'm sure the kids love the use of the colors throughout this project, it's good to see they are maintaining what they have.

Next is a recent renovation project of a formerly delapidated MCM building on Victory Parkway by Eden Park. Having gone by this one on my way to work for the past four years I've gotten to watch it sit vacant, then go through the pictured renovation. The original building had some unique aggregate faced concrete panels on the exterior that looked very dated and did not survive the renovation. The new building is a step in the right direction, albeit a bit of a suburban intervention probably developer driven. I'll admit the color scheme is not something I agree with, so I went black and white with my photos.

Last, and certainly not least is Princeton High School up in Sharonville. This is another Cranbrook style school with a cluster of building functions tied together by glass hallways. The building on first pass does not jump out, but a closer look makes a trip to see it worthwhile. The zig zag canopy frames the bus drop off similar to the Lebanon elementary school and is totally made of concrete. There are many playful MCM details and forms in the exterior treatment and daylighting techniques. The original exterior mosaic tiling accents clad angled reveals that are north oriented to avoid direct southern light. The gymnasium facade is folded with stone cladding beyond other numerous MCM details. Certainly it's worth the drive to take a quick exterior tour, it's right off I-75 at the Sharonville exit.

Thrift Shop Scores - Polish Glass

The cat has been out of the bag for quite awhile. Beyond front porch stalking, Thrift shopping can provide some great modern treasure finds. This past weekend we had a yardsale complete with modern furniture we no longer need. Of course at the end meant a carload of donations to the local thrift stores. I can't just drive by these places either, I always, to the chagrin of Wendy, must go in even with the echo of her common call "We don't need anything else!".

Now I should be upfront, unemployment means lots of free time and no income. The yardsale was an effort to purge some old stuff and to maintain some cash flow. Really I had no place stepping a foot in the Thrift shop door. After donating I decided to roam the floor anyways and found a cool old 50's glass set, perfect for a friend collecting such. Then as I was walking out, this glass vase caught my eye from across the room. At first look, the piece was totally out of any price range (that being $0), so I snapped a picture with my cellphone and went home. There's a sticker on the side as pictured "Design Guild, Made in Poland". The piece is pretty hefty as well. The glass is really thick, and the striations in the glass lead me to believe it was hand blown. I didn't know I liked Polish glass.

Once home I showed Wendy, who approved "why didn't you buy it?" and did some quick searching on the internet to see what I could find about the 'Design Guild' and Polish glass. The search came up empty which got me excited, usually unknown stuff has more value right? She handed me some yardsale cash and sent me back to make an offer. Quick negotiations indicateded that the vase had been on the floor at the thrift shop for 2 months, which means discount apparently. The manager took 50% off the asking price. Within a half hour I had the piece cleaned up and on display near our white Ikea dining set. Speaking of Ikea, they sell a very similar vase: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70124506, Ikea does mock-offs sometimes of more famous pieces don't they? Nonetheless this piece is 28" tall and 10" at its widest.

The monetary value of any modern purchase always plays weight in our decision making process of what we should and shouldn't buy. Ikea stuff is easy, it's cheap. A $3 Eames fiberglass armshell chair yardsale grab is a no brainer. More expensive things tend to weigh on my mind, call me frugal. First and foremost, we have to like the piece, if it has good value, that's a bonus. Honestly, I prefer investing in our artwork, I know if I had to sell our collection of modern furnishings, we'd at least break even. I have referred to our Charlie Harper prints in the past as being like hanging savings bonds on the wall to enjoy. For now, I think we'll enjoy my little find. If anyone knows anything about the piece, I'd love to hear about it.

Modern Artworks

Long time with no posts. Excuses aside, it's been a crazy month, I'm now unemployed, and I should have plenty more time to post more regularly. Upcoming posts will feature 'MCM furniture finds', the concrete front porch I poured out front, the complete bathroom remodel we recently completed, and the lurking studio remodel that's currently gutted and in need of a new roof. I thought it might be nice to switch it up a bit and explore the various pieces of MCM art we've acquired and one we made over the past year.

Our first introduction to Mid Century Art was simple, Charlie Harper. As soon as we realized our modern furniture collection was just the beginning in our house, I bought our first Charlie Harper print, Praying Mantis 2, for Wendy's birthday in 2005. After collecting several of his prints we realized we needed to expand our horizons, though I'd be perfectly fine with only Harpers in the house. The first piece, 'Laguna Aurora' is a serigraph I bought at a local auction house downtown. I walked by this place daily and this print jumped off the wall of artwork at me. The print is 10/60 and the artist's name I still have yet to identify. It's either 'Deinstag' or 'Dreustag', but the cursive signature is not legible. Anyone have any ideas? The colors on this and graphic simplicity currently make this my favorite piece in our house.

The second piece I picked up recently is this small oil on canvas painting. It looks as if it was a college students work with the self made frame. The frame is painted wood very rougly nailed to the stretched canvas. Obviously, we veer towards abstract graphical type of work. We also like sculptural objects, we were overwhelmed by tedious repetition at the recent Tara Donovan exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Center downtown. Nonetheless this piece is signed 'Robert Walder or Walden', November 1971 on the back, so period appropriate. I actually found an artist in NYC Robert Walden Jr. who suggested it might be his father's work, but it ended up not being his work after a few emails. I'm still in the dark on this artist, but the piece works great adjacent to the front two toned grey wall, the colors are almost exact.

The final piece is a recent installation Wendy and I came up with while cleaning out the office for demolition. The piece is simply two weathered copper panels juxtaposed on a seafoam colored wall that anchors one end of our large dining / living space. Daily, the sun caresses an array of reflection and color off the pieces. Quite often at dinner I find myself seeing a beach wave crash to shore or a mountain range lurking through the mist. It often inspires a dinner discussion, there's always a different interpretation by different people.

The humorous part is I almost took these panels to the metal scrapyard to be cashed in for their weight. These use to be orchid trays filled with gravel, and over the years the bottoms oxidized slightly and created the complex visual seen in the closeup. When I was cleaning them out and hosing them off outside, the weathered underside of them was discovered. After several mock-up configurations, including a couple angular and vertical ideas, we decided to let the sloped ceiling counter the horizontal shift of the two panels. Viola, trash turned to treasure.

Layers of History - Transitions

It nevers ceases to amaze me how many layers of materials have been put into, and onto, our 56 year old house. There are a numerous variety of materials used for flooring throughout our home, many indicative of the 50's era. In the front entry is green flagstone, adjacent to the grey tiled powder room. The wood flooring is prevalent throughout most of the first floor. The kitchen has 2-3 layers of vinyl flooring, which we plan to replace with cork when we remodel the kitchen.

The upstairs studio (currently in demoltion process) has maroon vct tile as can be seen in the first photo. We originally discovered the vct tile when demolitioning for the bedroom redo. It looks to be the asbestos type, commonly it was made in the 9x9 size we have. The 2nd photo is of the first step upstairs. This was carpeted and removed in our entry overhall. It revealed the original hardwood finish, and a couple of the main colors the house was originally painted, as can be seen in the third photo. This allowed us to match the greenish gray that we eventually painted our dining wall. We intend to redo the entire upstairs hardwood floor at some point to match the original on the stairs.

Downstairs, adjacent to the vct bedroom the hallway has a darker, possibly walnut, hardwood floor. The 4th photo is the transition between Ava's room and the hallway with the hardwood adjacent to the Ikea flooring we put in over the VCT tile. This hardwood extends the run of the hallway in the lower level and continues into the master bedroom. Unfortunately, the hardwood is in pretty rough shape. There are several water damaged areas, and several irregularly leveled areas. I've never dealt with hardwood flooring installation, repair, or refinishing before so this one will be left to the professional. We may just recarpet over it.

The last photo is the dark hardwood at the new bathroom threshold. The bathroom project is a topic for a later post, but in a nutshell, we redid the whole room over the course of 14 months. The flooring is hardipanel smooth cement board, along with the walls and ceiling. I was able to install the cement board flush with the original hardwood in case we are able to save it.

I have removed all the Gened up baseboard trim in the downstairs hallway and revealed a lot of plaster damage. We have yet to install any thresholds downstairs yet until we fix these plaster issues and really tackle the hallway as an individual project. We may just add a layer (to the layers of history) of homasote over the existing plaster which would allow me to avoid any more trim installation. So many modern remodeling plans, so little time.

Bedroom Redo #1

The very first time we looked at our house as it sat vacant we could see the ceiling of the 3rd bedroom was on floor from water damage. This was pretty much the only thing we could see in the house with the blinds all down. I remember telling Wendy, "this isn't going to work". The next time I saw this room was when the neighbors gave us a heads up that "Gene" was in town and working on the house. We drove over and had our first chat with Gene, he was mowing the lawn.

Our conversation went something like:

Us: "Hey, cool house, do you wanna sell it?"

Gene: "Umm its not ready to sell."

Us: "It was on the market a year ago, and has sat vacant ever since"

Gene: "Umm yeah, I don't live here any more"

Us: "Can we have a tour?"

The tour revealed a few things that were mysterious from only an exterior view. One, the house had been Gene's personal ashtray since he'd been back. Two, the reasoning for the low windows in front is because of the stairs. Finally, the reason the ceiling was on the floor in said bedroom is because Gene didn't install the refrigerator icemaker water line correctly in the kitchen above. In its year of vacancy, this leak led to the collapsed ceiling. At the time of our tour, Gene was "gene-ing-it-up" smattering layers of drywall and mud into the irregular collapse. It was a mess.

Fast forward to us living in the house for 8 months, a baby due in two months and we're using the only livable bedroom of three. Beyond Gene's icemaker madness, we also discovered a downspout leak unknown to us. The cat alerted me to it when he was messing with the bubbly plaster by the side window. Basically the water was draining down the brick instead of the downspout. Ten contractor bags of demolition later, I had removed the rot. Our house has no insulation, the exterior walls are built of brick, then 4" block, furring, and plaster.

To make a boring story short, we infilled the wall with a little drywall & actual plaster and replaced part of the over the course of a couple weeks with the help of my uncle, a plaster craftsman. We installed some Ikea flooring, replaced all the trim, closet shelving, and painted the room white. We bought the white Izaac Mizrahi Target furniture on the clearance cheap (2 nightstands, 2 dressers), who knows it might be a collectible item in 30 years. I made the bed in college. We hung the Charlie Harper 'Skipping School' print and called it a wrap. After all was said and done, we actually got two nights to sleep in our new room before Ava was born.