CONNECT GENERATOR TO HOUSE CAREFULLY
Q What’s the best way to connect my generator to the wiring of my house? I’ve been running extension cords indoors to power what I can during outages, but this is a hassle and I can’t power anything hardwired this way.
A As you’ve discovered, it’s one thing to own a generator but you won’t get maximum benefit from it unless you can also connect it to your main electrical panel in some way. Technically speaking, it’s easy to make the physical connection, except for the challenge of guaranteeing your generator is not delivering power back through the grid, endangering utility workers who think the lines are dead when you’ve made them live. This is why every legal generator connection method must include some system to ensure that either the grid is connected to your panel or the generator is but never both at the same time. Visit baileylineroad. com/34793 for a detailed tutorial on choosing a generator and three legal methods of connecting it to your home.
CEDAR SIDEWALL PROJECT
Q Can you recommend a source of cedar shingles for a cottage project? I just watched your video on sidewall shingling and we’re planning to reside our cottage the way you showed.
A There are two types of wood used for cedar shingles: western red cedar and eastern white cedar. Although western red cedar shingles are available across most of North America, I prefer the less common eastern white cedar. The wood is harder, stronger and it weathers to a nicer colour in my book. Several times over the last 20 years I’ve bought excellent white cedar shingles directly from a mill in New Brunswick. The company is called Waska and their prices are reasonable, even including delivery to rural Ontario, where I live. Go to baileylineroad.com/36867 for a detailed video on cedar sidewall shingle installation.
ROOF VENT QUESTIONS
Q What kind of roof vents do you recommend? My roofer likes Max Vent because they don’t get covered in snow. He says we only need two for the whole house. Also, he plans not to use any underlay. Except for a swath at the eaves, the proposal is to put shingles directly on the wooden roof deck.
A I have two concerns with Max Vents. First, they look terrible. That might not matter to some people, but I believe houses in general (and roofs in particular) should look as good as possible. Second, I need to be convinced that just two of these vents would do the job. The openings in the roof for these don’t look very large, and wouldn’t meet the minimum code requirement for 1/300th of the attic floor area.
My preference is for ridge vents. They don’t look bad and they deliver a lot of venting action. GAF makes a ridge vent made to work in snowy situations.
As for the lack of underlay, it sounds to me like you’re dealing with a lazy roofer. While it may be true that this company doesn’t add underlay as a rule, that’s certainly not common practice in the industry. In fact, the best roofers make the roof waterproof before shingles go on. The crazy thing is, it doesn’t even cost much more nor add much work to have underlay applied over the entire roof. Without this, what happens when some shingles blow off in a high wind? Without underlay, you’ve got a big, avoidable roof leak. Penny wise and pound foolish, I say. With underlay, the urgency of any shingle repair is greatly reduced.
Steve Maxwell shingled his first roof in 1986. Visit BaileyLineRoad.com for free access to more than 1.000 articles about hands-on, how-to living and join 31,000 people who get Steve’s newsletter each Saturday morning.