Fiddling On the Roof

We have a steep pitched roof.  It is a 12/12.  That means that it rises 12 inches vertically for every 12 inches of horizontal run.  There are some advantages to this: There is more attic space and headroom that allows you to deck and have great storage.  The pitch allows the hot air to move up in the summer and not sit directly on top of you and that gives energy efficiency.  Finally, the steep pitch allows for rain to get off your roof quickly.

There's one problem, though.  In the spring when the live oaks tassel, they fall in thick mats.  Even on a steep roof, sometimes they stay in the valleys and pile up.  They catch leaves and sticks and before you know it, you have a bunch of debris on your roof and that's not good.  The steep pitch makes the roof impossible to walk on.  So how do I get the debris cleared?  Well, with a little redneck engineering, I've devised a method that works.

I wish I would've taken a photo of all the leaves, sticks and tassels before I started, but I was so focused I forgot to.  The photos that follow shows when I'm just about done, but you'll get the idea.  You can see some debris remaining and the remnants in the valley in the photo below.   I'll show you how we cleaned things up.

You can see several joints of PVC pipe I've fitted together and am pulling the debris off the roof.

Almost got the last bit off.  There was a LOT up there.  I was worried that if I left it any longer, it would damage the roof.  Even torrential rainfall has not knocked it down.

In the end of the 1/2 PVC pipe, I jammed a hand garden tool and taped it securely with a little duct tape.  I push the pvc pipe up the valley past the obstruction with the forks pointed upward so it slides.  Once I have it past the debris, I flip the pvc pipe over and now the prongs of the garden tool bite into the mat of debris.  Then, I pull downward.  Soon, after doing this task repeatedly, all of the stuff is cleared from the roof.

I do have to wait for an opportune time to do this task every year - When it is raining!  Why?  Because there is a colony of honeybees that live in the hollow fiberglass column that is mere feet from were I need to be on top of a ladder to execute this job.  I don't want to get attacked by angry bees when I'm standing atop an 8 foot ladder.  That's a long way down.  During rainfall, bees don't fly.  This afternoon, in a rainstorm, I quickly executed my plan, and it worked to perfection.

Here's a look at the finished product.  Once we get a nice rain, like I think I can hear as I'm typing this, it will clean the remaining leaves off the roof.

Fiddling on the Roof.  It's become an annual "Tradition!"