mdshunk

I noticed this slate roof being put on in my travels today. I know that slate roofs are mostly a northeast thing, so I thought I'd snap a few pictures. This roof looks like it must have leaked bad before, because I notice they brought in packaged A/C units to dehumidify the space.

BrianHay

Here is a shot of a slate roof I helped with in the winter of 94. Its the Prince Of Whales Hotel in Waterton Lakes National Park. The park is half in Alberta and half in Montana.

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theroofinggod

just get charged up looking at work like that,very nice!

Ed the Roofer

Don't they require fall arrest safety lines and harnesses over there?

Don't snitch to OSHA.

Ed

BrianHay

Sure was/am proud of that job. We worked our asses off all winter in some crazy weather conditions. Very long hours and often a small crew. Was hard to find guys willing to do it and it needed to be finished before the park opened in the spring. The powers that be did everything they could to stop work on it. They didn't want us up there in the winter, way too dangerous. Looking back they were probably right. Roof was almost always covered in snow and ice, we next to never tied off and the wind was always blowing hard. Cowley Alberta is only 40 mins North and holds the record for highest average sustained wind speed in North America. Its hard to tell in the picture but the lowest eve is 127 feet up. We packed most of the materials in from the main road by hand. After the road got snowed in they did succeed in keeping it from getting plowed out as part of thier efforts to stop us. But we were unstopable. We had big dreams of what we were going to do with our huge bonuses in the spring....that we never did see.

BrianHay

My dad took that picture for me and gave it to me for christmas years later. I'm sitting here looking at it hanging on my wall and reflecting back on that winter. And you know what even though we didn't get our bonuses and I've just recently regained feeling in some of my finger tips from them getting frozen so many times...I would not trade that experience for nothing and would do it all over again in a heartbeat if I could. That winter was awsome.

Sorry Md I kinda hijacked your thread. Hope you don't mind my little bit of story telling. Great pics you took. Thanks. Brought back lots fond memories for me that I nearly forgoten.

theroofinggod

yeah,i`ve done the hands freezing,thaw them out till they freeze again,then thaw them out again routine

jrroofing

thats sweet! I'm wondering how you guys stayed on the bell tower.

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BrianHay

We did the bell tower when it was -43...it was the only time the wind stopped blowing . We used roofing jacks with 2x6's and tied off with thick belts that had D-rings on them.

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send_it_all

That is just bananas.

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For the wrong reason and the wrong rhyme
On the wrong day of the wrong week
I used the wrong method with the wrong technique