I am neither a ruler or a general however I am cautious when it comes certain things; not timid mind you, just cautious.
Applying caution has, at times, saved me from pain and suffering and I'll go as far as saying that it's saved my life as well. It is, therefore, with caution that I approached a job that needs doing around my house last weekend.
Damage
Late last year we had a terrible hail storm that caused a lot of damage. Many thousands of cars were hail-damaged, properties were flooded from the ceiling down and crops, including important vineyards in the Barossa Valley, were decimated. It was a very destructive sixty seconds costing millions of dollars.
I had thought my house was intact until I noticed some stained ceilings in my internal garage and second living area a few weeks after the storm and on further inspection realised I'd had water ingress. Insurance is repairing that damage this week and I figured I'd gotten away with it quite lightly considering the damage some have sustained. That was until I was in my second garage the other day whilst it was raining.
On the roof of that garage are some light panels made up of some sort of a fibreglass material (as pictured) and water was dripping from cracks caused by that hail storm. Considering what I have in the garage I can't tolerate leaks so rectification is required. I was contemplating calling my insurance company but with a five hundred dollar excess on claims I discounted it right away. That left three options: Fix it myself, fix it myself with help or pay someone to fix it.
Considerations
Asking for help isn't my thing, I'm an independent man, and paying someone to do a job I can easily handle myself doesn't sit well either so my first thought was to fix it myself; it's easy enough to do really.
But here's the thing, almost a year ago I fell off my roof whilst cleaning the gutters and it hurt a lot; in fact, more than you'd actually expect.
I use my garden blower to do the job, walking along blowing the leaves and dirt out and sweeping it all up later, from below. It's quick and easy...until one falls off the roof. You can read the story here and whilst I make light of it in the post, in truth, it wasn't that funny; I was lucky I only sustained minor injuries and major pain.
I actually fell only centimetres from a wooden stake that holds up a plant in the garden bed I fell into. A few centimetres to the left and I would have been impaled through my right side ribcage area. Anyway, it makes me a little cautious of getting on the roof now. I'm not getting any younger and don't bounce as well as I used to, and being impaled doesn't sound like any fun at all.
On Sunday I assessed the job which is quite simple: Access roof, reverse tek-screws holding the sheets, remove existing cracked sheets, replace with new ones, tek-screw in place, exfil from roof. An easy mission.
Caution
The problem is that the roof is a long way up as the garage is set on a built-up, retaining-walled, section of my allotment and the paths (ground level) are well below the floor-level of the garage meaning the roof is extra high; I have a suitably long ladder but manoeuvring the sheeting up and down to the height I need myself will be problematic and makes what should be a simple job a little more complicated. Of course, it's safer to have a roofing-buddy to help and so that's the consideration.
I measured up and went to the hardware store to cost up the job. I won't be replacing those sheets with the shitty fibreglass stuff that's there already as it's just rubbish. There's two other options to select from, both polycarbonate.
The one I like, the beehive (prismatic) one, is $132AUD, for each 2.4m long sheet and the other is $42AUD per sheet. Both will let light in however the more expensive is tougher and will last longer. I have the tek-screws and ladder and all so it's really just the choice of sheeting I need to decide on. images below from here.
I also decided to replace the fluorescent tube lighting with LED versions so priced them up also. I need four of them so it's another $60AUD.
After assessing the job I have decided it's something I can handle although caution has swayed me towards asking a friend to help. I don't really like the idea but I like the idea of falling to my death or being rendered permanently disabled because I stubbornly chose to do it myself even less.
I'm going to grab the sheets next weekend as I'll have to unload my kayaks from my trailer to get them home and I couldn't be bothered doing it last Sunday, and then I'll work out a plan to get the job done. Considering it's summer, I'll be looking for a cooler day and will do it in the early morning. The hardest part is going to be asking for help as it really goes against the grain for me to do so; I'm a rather independent caveman. I'll ask though, and after we do the job cook up a decent bacon and eggs breakfast and brew up some legit coffee for my mate and sit around celebrating our roofing-magnificence.
I'll let y'all know how it goes, either after a successful roofing exercise or from the hospital; let's hope the former. Don't worry folks, if I was to fall I'll be sure to land on my head which will limit the amount of damage to other more important parts of me.
How about you? Have you ever had a job to do at home or elsewhere but caution made you think twice and seek alternative options? If so, let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to come over to my place and help let me know in the comments; many hands make light work you know. After the work is done we'll eat and sit around celebrating our handy-person awesomeness, or as I like to say, our handpersomeness. (I know, that's a legit word!)
What do you reckon? Are you coming over to help?
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind