October 23, 1999

Dear Margrit,

Enclosed are two recent telephone bills, which I have paid.  I send them not as a request for reimbursement, but to give you the opportunity to review the charges to make sure that they are appropriate.

I though it would be worthwhile if I explained to you why it is that the roof shingles are being pushed up.  From the original building plans, which I reviewed, it is apparent that the architect's design of the roof was faulty, insofar as no provision was made for ventilation of the sheathing (the boards covering the rafters, onto which boards the shingles are nailed.)

There are two deleterious consequences of the lack of ventilation.  The first, which seems not (yet) to have occurred, is the so-called ice dam, where after a heavy snow the sheathing and overlying shingles, being warmed by the heat of the house, melt the snow immediately above. The resulting water freezes at its lower margin forming an "ice dam" behind which the water backs up and sometimes leaks into the house.

The second deleterious consequence of the lack of ventilation is that moisture from inside the house, from cooking, showering, bathing, or just breathing, condenses (like dew) on the unventilated sheathing, in effect soaking these wooden boards in water.  Later they are dried out by the warmth of the sun on the overlying shingles. This cycle of becoming wet and drying out causes wood to warp: and this warping is what we are seeing now.  The wetness of the wood has long been evident from the peeling of paint on the soffits (the lower edge of the roof) which has been going on for decades. The reason the sheathing boards are only now starting to curl is that after 48 years, the nails which previously restrained this warping are rusting or for other reasons becoming loose.

In any event, this is a serious building problem which can be resolved only by providing adequate roof ventilation, and this in turn requires replacing not only the shingles and the sheathing but also the plastering of the second story ceiling, in effect some day making it necessary to rebuild the entire second story, at a cost much greater than the original cost of the house.

My strategy is to defer this reconstruction as long as practicable.  In the course of the coming years, (I hope not months) more and more shingles may be expected to be pushed up by twisted boards, and these one will try to repair, one defect at a time. When this is no longer possible, the major reconstruction will have to be undertaken, but who knows what our situation will be at that time.

Meanwhile you should understand how you can help to retard the deterioration of the roof:

1) Avoid using the second floor bathroom in cold weather.
2) Except when necessary for reasons of health, avoid filling the house with water vapor as from prolonged boiling of water.  Any activity that causes the windows to fog is likely also to cause condensation on the roof sheathing.  Evacuate steam from cooking by using the electric ventilator, noisy as it is, above the stove, or if this is too distracting, let steam from cooking escape through an open outside kitchen door or through windows whenever practical.
3) When showering or bathing, keep the bathroom door closed.  Let the steam from the bath escape through an open window to the extent compatible with comfort.
4) Keep the radiators closed in all rooms that are not in use, especially on the second floor.
5) When practical, dry laundry on the line outside rather than in the drying room or in the clothes drier.
6) If not too inconvenient, form a habit of wearing sweaters and warm underwear to make it possible to keep the room temperature at 65 degrees or less.

I would like you to be comfortable in the house, and I think that it is inevitable that the use of the house in winter, by yourself or by anyone else, will have some adverse effects on its defective structure.  Please don't feel that you should subject yourself to discomfort or to inconvenience; Please to try to understand the issues and then please to try to decide rationally, without lapsing into ritual or sentimentality, which ventilatory stresses are worth imposing on the house and which are not.

Dein Jochen