Roofing in Winter

When I bought the house, I got the seller to agree to pay for the termite-related repairs.  Good deal... except that the termite guys replaced a few roof panels - and didn't fix the roof afterwards.  This isn't a good time to be without a functional roof.  So the first item on my list is to get the roof patched back up.  It doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough to keep water out for a few years.  Eventually, I hope to upgrade to a foam roof, which will provide better insulation and actually be code-conformant.  Shingles on a shallow-sloped roof are apparently not the way to go, although it seems to be good enough since we don't get snow or hurricane-force winds.

Total DIY cost: ~$75 (shingles, roofing felt, staples, nails)

Lowest contractor estimate: ~$450

Savings: ~$375

So far, I've done half the roof.  Here's a photo of the section that I'm still working through.  The termite guys are morons - they tacked the temporary cover through perfectly-good shingles.  Shingles with holes in them need to be filled or replaced.  They also didn't fully-cover the roof, leaving an exposed section of wood.  I'd better work quickly while the weather holds up.

Short days in winter plus a full-time job means that I get to do most of the work in the dark.

Here's the section that I've repaired.  The shingles aren't an exact match to the old ones, but the roof isn't visible from the street anyway.  When I'm done with it, the other section should look similar.  The repairs involve removing damaged shingles and the associated nails.  In this patch, the termite guys also put a few nails through and missed the studs.  With exposed rafters that's simply unacceptable, so I had to remove a roof panel and nail things properly.  Once that was out of the way, I covered the exposed area with roofing felt, which I carefully layered between the roofing felt above and the roofing felt below and stapled into place.  Finally, I layered shingles, taking care to make the existing shingles overhang the new ones in the proper fashion.  It is important that the seams between shingles do not line up with the seams in shingles directly above or below.  Along the edge of the roof in the above picture, I also needed a single strip of starter shingles.

I'm hoping to finish up on Friday, which will let me get started on the originally-planned renovations over the weekend.  Probably starting with the kitchen...