One-day Roof

      Saturday morning, as we rode up our road toward our house, we noticed a big change: part of the roof had been installed!  We talked with the Subcontractor and found out that he had just started that very same day, probably at 8am. 

     So from the early morning, he had been busy bringing the tiles, securing the frame of the roof and finishing off the front part of the house.  Pretty impressive!

The tiles come in packaged and piled up as shown below: 

There are also other parts for the frame of the roof that are packaged separately.

 

     We watched our expert in action and noticed how agile he was climbing up, transporting several tiles at once, moving easily from one side of the roof to the other. 

Here, he is using a slider to bring several tiles at a time up near the roof.

The device up on the roof is called a Single-cutter (しんぐるかったー) 

and, as the name implies, is used to cut the tiles.

     And if you take a closer look at the roof, near the edges, you can see little devices protruding.  These are called "Yukidome Kanamono (ゆきどめ かなもの) which serve the purpose of stopping the snow from falling down on passers-by.

     And sure enough, he covered the entire roof surface in a single day as we were able to confirm the next morning! 

     Installing the roof involves several stages, and the only way you're going to finish the job in a single day is if you're a Pro.  DIY advice on installing or changing a roof all agree on the fact that, yes, it can be done, but it's a difficult and laborious process.  Aside from material and equipment, it requires physical strength, a high tolerance of heights, and the ability to stay balanced on a an inclined surface. 

    Now, we would have preferred to have a lighter tone roof from Kmew's Quad Series, but to this date, the firm has not resumed its normal production of roofing tiles.  So in a sense it was a good thing we upgraded to Glassa Tiles and avoided further construction  delay.  

      The Glassa line has a special top coating that prevents dirt from adhering to it and discourages color fading. The various layers are also engineered so as to resist the elements over a longer period of time than acrylic-coated tiles, reducing the need for and frequency of maintenance.