Shingles...Layers and layers of shingles...

We had a structure fire a couple of weeks ago. We went offensive and kept it to the void space above the living room and behind the wall of the upper bedroom. It got into the roof and was trying to travel. The roof was composed of 1x6 slats with three layers of wood shake shingles with one layer of tar shingles on the outer most layer. We have an old FMC with a high pressure pump that would peel up the top layer of shingles but that still left the wood shingles. Over an hour was spent just trying to peel up the wood shingles with shovels and pry bars. Here is my question. How would you get down through the layers of shingles efficiently to ensure that you have stopped it?

Gopher

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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on February 25, 2009 at 6:43am

We use this thing called sweat and hard work.....LOL...I don't think there is an "easy" way....add insult to injury it is not uncommon for us to run into the same situation up here in the frozen north BUT add to the misery with a layer of tin roofing (galvinized metal roof)...Talk about an easy bake oven situation....There is a tool out there that works quite well....Called the "DemoDawg" you can find it online and in a few building supply shops.....Stay safe....Keep the Faith.......Paul

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Permalink Reply by Doug on February 25, 2009 at 7:04am

A really good roof saw.

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Permalink Reply by John on February 25, 2009 at 9:04am

Hard work is what I am thinking, or cut it with a power saw. Sounds like a nightmare though

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Permalink Reply by Dave Curtis on February 25, 2009 at 10:46am

I am on board with the saw, if for some reason it is not avalable or had a falure we carry a roof stripping shovel and some young guys to operate them.

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Permalink Reply by Lt. Ballinger on February 25, 2009 at 4:47pm

Our Truck carries a Surevent saw with an adjustable wheel to set the depth of the cut and we carry a K12 saw with an assortment of blades for metal, wood, masonry, steel. Don't recomend the K12 on a steep pitch but sometimes like that you have to do what ever it takes.

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Permalink Reply by John Rulli Jr. on February 25, 2009 at 4:57pm

This sounds like a K-12 job. Hold on to it the K-12 is a mean machine

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Permalink Reply by Gordon "Gopher" Runer on February 25, 2009 at 5:07pm

Well growing up my dad always said to work smarter not harder. Thanks though i will look for one of those and maybe convince them to buy one or more for the truck. The upstairs bedroom was an easy bake even after some venting. Thanks again.

Gopher

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Permalink Reply by Gordon "Gopher" Runer on February 25, 2009 at 5:10pm

Well down here there seems to be a lack of building code inspectors and so we run into some pretty weird situations. The house was probably built back in the 50's and has never been inspected since. Thanks for the advice.

Gopher

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Permalink Reply by Gordon "Gopher" Runer on February 25, 2009 at 5:13pm

Well I am one of those young guys who got to be on the wrong end of the shingle shovel! Something about it not fitting anyone else's hand or something like that. lol Glad to hear that it does actually fit someone else's hands.

Gopher

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Permalink Reply by Lt. Ballinger on February 25, 2009 at 5:14pm

About 11 years ago we ran into a similar situation. 6 of us took turns beating ourselves trying to open the roof up with axes cause the engine was crying it was too hot up there. After 20-30 minutes we had a 6" X6" hole. We went and got the Skill saw and it wouldn't cut it, we finally got the K12 and it was bogging down but did cut it eventually to find out there was another roof under that one. Luckily in the mean time we made a " Bay window" out of the the "Scuttle window" on the end of the building and started the PPV at their back to help blow it out. We later found out the "House" we were working was at one time the garage they turned into another house and they just layed one roof over the other. Outter roof was 2" X 10" boards with 4 layers of shingles and the inner roof was standard press board with 3 layers of shingles. Just goes to show you you never know what your getting yourself into.

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Permalink Reply by Gordon "Gopher" Runer on February 25, 2009 at 5:17pm

We were trying to keep the weight up there down to a minimum because it was wanting to sag in a few areas. We were having to strictly work off of a roof ladder and would have been difficult to hang on to the K12. Thanks for the input.

Gopher

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Permalink Reply by Gordon "Gopher" Runer on February 26, 2009 at 12:05am

We end up with a lot of flat tar and gravel roofs that someone has put a pitched roof over and then the layers of shingles start. Too bad that the people who add on to buildings so stupidly don't have to try to fight a fire in them.

Gopher