Two by two....?

Two by two....?

August 3rd and 4th -- This is monsoon season which means that from June until mid-September there is a possibility of afternoon storms that can bring dramatic weather depending on the intensity of the high pressure system.  This could result in a good downpour, but sometimes with damaging hail, winds, and infrequently small tornadoes.  When the conditions literally bring a perfect storm, the downpour can be so intense that there is street flooding and the hail so deep that it looks like snowfall in August.  

It has mostly been a hot and dry summer, we've had enough late snowfall to lift the initial stage 1 drought watering restrictions set by the local water utility.  Before the crew left on Friday, they draped the exposed areas of the house with ginormous blue tarps.  The tarps will hopefully protect the most vulnerable exposed parts of the house which is the old master bedroom area because significant water there will lead to great water damage, especially to the interior of the house (i.e., the main floor ceilings, hardwood floors, etc).  

From the old master bedroom this is the view of the tarps.

                                                                                                                                                                             And this is the view from the northwest back of the house to get a sense of what these tarps are supposed to cover.

Yet again I'm in awe of the construction workers who have been on this job site.  this view shows how they nailed "temporary" steps on the very high pitched roof of the original house (this is the south side of the roof over the old bedroom where the roof has not yet been removed on this side).  Then some brave soul actually climbed up these steps to nail down the tarps.

You can see part of the tarp that is covering the open space between the sub-flooring of the upper-level new master bedroom addition and the existing part of the house covering the old master bedroom.





As the day goes on, the Weather Channel keeps changing its predictions about the chance of precipitation.  Again the storms usually come late afternoon and the clouds roll in and out and it looks like we'll dodge the storm.  Just when I think that maybe we'll get through this day relatively dry, the odds change on the Weather Channel to 50% precipitation at 7:00pm and 8:00pm. That means the odds are even it will or won't rain.

Around 7:00pm the wind begins to pick up and the blowing tarps start speaking to me.  The wind is pulling some corners of the tarp away from their nailed edges.  I remember that I have a few tarps in the garage so I go to find them before the rain starts.  Fortunately, the construction crew left a small ladder in the old master bedroom.  I can see the storm clouds through the rafters where the wind has pulled the tarp up from its nailed mooring.  I decide to grab a hammer, some nails and climb up the ladder to see if I can drape a tarp over the rafters where I can see the storm clouds.  After I'm on the ladder for a few minutes there is a flash of light and I start counting until I hear the clap of thunder.  Even though my counting tells me the lightning strike is quite a distance away, I am standing on a metal ladder -- not a good place to be in an electrical storm.  I climb down, put the ladder away and proceed to spread out the tarp with the help of a long broom handle that is wood.  

The sky opens up and a torrential downpour starts and just keeps getting more and more intense.  This goes on for an unbelievably long period of 45 minutes.  I grab a few empty construction buckets and everything I have left in the house that might hold the run-off of the rainfall that has collected in the crevices of the tarps. Finally the rain eases to a drizzle.   Here is what was collected from the tarps in just one bucket:




Between the dark clouds and the late hour, the lighting isn't great for taking photos, but here is the standing water on the upper-level sub-flooring of the master bedroom addition. Fortunately, not enough for a second-story swimming pool.

Then I go downstairs to the main level to check out what is going on down there, and I find about 2 inches of standing water and water is dripping through the overhead joists and sub-flooring of the upper-level addition.  So, I get out the broom and start sweeping the collected, standing water into the exposed stairwell. 

All things considered, this downpour could have been a whole lot worse.  There was just a little bit of water in the covered old master bedroom and the extra tarp that I put up over the exposed rafters (shown in the photo below) helped to channel the collected rainfall into buckets and tubs that I placed below the tarps.  I ran into my neighbor this afternoon, and he told me the rain gauge in his yard recorded 2.5 inches of water from the storm last night!  He had some water damage from a roof leak in one room of his house, which was built about 10 years ago.  There were no roof leaks in my 110-year-old house, except for the areas where the tarps were blown off their moorings.  Not bad.

Here is the result of the tarp being pulled away as shown by the sun shining through.

 And here is the reason why...the wind blew the tarp off the peak of the old roof line as shown in this photo

 Although it feels a bit humid now, I'm going with the Weather Channel's prediction of 0% precipitation tonight with an increased chance of 30% for rain, thunder and lightning at 10:00 pm.  The ten-day forecast is looking good with each day predicted to have no more than a 30% chance of rain, or a 70% chance of NO RAIN.  If we can get through this week with no more torrential downpours that would be great as the framing should be completed by the end of the coming week. Keep your fingers crossed!