Roofs for Remodeling Dummies

framing the roof of an addition
to a building

Ever ask a question and get an answer that was completely incorrect, as though the other person had totally misunderstood you? Here at the Antisocial Network, we call that the "Emily Litella effect." We named it after a Gilda Radner character from the original Saturday Night Live who just never quite got things. We have seen the same symptoms in the content created by some of eHow's stable of freelancers, more than one of whom has proven prone to completely misunderstanding the questions they were allegedly answering. In the process, they supply responses that would be laughable had the reader not wasted several minutes of his or her life reading through useless babble. Take, for instance, eHow's Elizabeth Knoll and the post she created called "How to Connect a New Roof to an Existing Roof"¹ at HomeSteady.com.

The question is obviously, at least to everyone here at the Antisocial Network, about connecting a new-construction roof to the original roof; presumably during during the course of a remodel or an add-on. We would like to think that anyone qualified to write help for home repair and remodeling would understand that the question is what are the steps and pitfalls of tying the roof of the remodel or addition to the existing roof. You know, valleys, flashing, framing, opening the old roof, and similar problems. Answering that question is beyond the scope of this post, by far, but it was obviously beyond Knoll's comprehension. We say that because she not only fails to answer the questions, she obviously failed to understand it: her "answer" starts out something like this:

"...If your shingles look worn, you need to replace them or cover them with new shingles. Roofs tolerate up to two shingle layers. However, the second layer becomes more susceptible to damage. Install a second shingle layer over the existing layer with the butt-and-run or nesting method. Do not overlay badly damaged shingles. Instead, tear those shingles off and install a fresh layer..." "...Install a second shingle layer," huh? "...[B]utt-and-run or nesting method," eh? Lest you think Knoll will eventually get to an actual answer for the OQ (trust us, she won't), here's more of her "solution" to the problem of tying a new section of roof to the pre-existing structure:

"Begin laying the second shingle panel layer in the roof's lower left-hand corner and work your way up and across the roof in a triangular pattern..."

Yup: Elizabeth continues to think that this question is all about adding a second layer of shingles over the first. Never mind that the question specifically states "connect" a new roof to an old one, not "add" a new roof covering.
As is often the case – too often for our tastes – eHow's second layer of "expertise," their vaunted content editors, proved every bit as incompetent as the freelance writer who vomited out this content. It's times like this that we consider handing out a Dumbass of the Day award to both of them...

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_8636461_connect-new-roof-existing-roof.html

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