Roofing Disaster Part 1

Food Photo Project on a Table in the Living Room

First of all, I want to thank everyone for your concern, well wishes, prayers and offers of help. It has meant so much to me to know you are out there sending me your positive energy. Thank you, dear friends.

Friday, November 12th, was the day scheduled to start putting the new roof on my house. The week before, the roofing contractor had visited me, looked around inside my home, and said, “There might be a little dust.” Well, to me that meant there also might be no dust. I figured I might have a feather duster in my near future.

So at 8:30 AM Friday, when I left for work, the take-off roofing guys were on the roof with square-edge shovels, breaking up the old roof, shoveling it onto big squares of plastic, and walking them across an improvised walkway from the roof over to an immense shipping container on a big truck that was parked at the curb with the top open. There it was dumped into the container. The debris consisted of, not only the old roof, but 2-3 inch rocks, compost from a 4-inch layer of old leaves, bird droppings, fallout from the nearby oil refinery and LAX, and who knows what from the last 58 years. I waved good-bye and drove off.

When I got home around 3:00, the take-off guys and the shipping container were gone. The new roof supplies had been deposited on the roof and a new roofing crew was getting started. They were nailing rolls of what looked like thick paper across the whole surface. I waved, and they smiled and waved back. Three guys and lots of pounding.

I stuck my key in the lock, opened the door, walked in and gasped, Oh my god!! I walked around from room to room, wringing my hands, saying, Oh my god, over and over. Every surface in my home was covered with roofing debris, from black oily dust to crystalline black sand and rocks. Stripes of black debris ran across every surface and the carpet. It was beyond my ability to understand what had happened. Everything in my house had been destroyed.

My house has slanted, tongue and groove, open beam ceilings which were popular in the 1950’s when it was built. This is Southern California and back then little beach houses didn’t have attics that were insulated. My ceiling is also the roof. The roofing materials are attached to the top side of the ceiling boards. Not only had debris fallen through the tongue and groove, but the take-off guys shovels had broken through the “tongue” and created holes open to the blue sky in every room. Big piles of debris had fallen through those holes. My bed. My desk. My grand piano. My antique white sofa. My kitchen floor was completely black. A big black stripe ran across the top of my refrigerator. My oriental carpet was black. My cookbooks had black dust and little pebbles all over them. It was a nightmare.

I called the roofing contractor in San Diego and told him what had happened. He said he was sorry, that I should call a Molly Maids cleaning company to help clean up the dust and he would reimburse me. I explained it wasn’t just dust, but piles of horrible black debris. Everywhere. He said he would pay to clean it up.

(To be continued)