It Sounded Like A Good Idea

It rained throughout the night. While it seemed to have stopped by daybreak, I was surprised when the roofers showed up around 9:00 am. While I thought they had finished stripping off all the old shingles yesterday, it seems there was still some more to come down which could not be seen from the ground.

What really surprised me was when a couple of their laborers started unloading all the lumber debris from their dumpster that Nate had filled yesterday evening. They unceremoniously threw all of it into our front yard. Quite a mess.

I first called and left a message on "Our" Mike's phone. Next I called Bret (roofer) and, when no one answered (his voice message inbox is full), I called his wife and asked her to have Bret call me. A few minutes later, Mike called to say he had just talked with Bret. It seems they take the old shingles to a recycler. If there is other trash in the dumpster, they have to take it to a conventional landfill. It costs more to go to the landfill. Mike and I agreed that, while it seemed like a good idea yesterday, someone should have consulted with Bret before we filled the dumpster. Mike said he would have a dumpster brought on Monday, which means we will have a front yard full of trash all weekend.

Just a little bit after they had finished depositing all the lumber debris into our front yard, Mike called again. He asked if I could go out and find the foreman (El Jefe) and have him call Mike. Mike had come to the realization that the cost of him renting a dumpster was going to be roughly the same as if we had Bret pay to have the load of this dumpster taken to a conventional landfill. Mike had tried to call Bret, but Bret did not answer. As I was talking with Mike, Bret's van pulled up in front of our house. I told Mike I would go down and let Bret talk with him on my phone. By the time I got down there, Bret had departed and Mike (who was still on the phone) said he had a call waiting from Bret. Mike said he would call me back. A few minutes later, Mike did call back and said that they would reload all the trash, which they had just finished unloading into my front yard, back into the dumpster and take it to a conventional landfill. I mentioned to Mike again that there is still a small pile of debris remaining in the garage which Nate could not fit into the dumpster yesterday. Mike tried to get me to estimate whether it would fit into his pickup, but I refused.

If they are really smart, they will finish the stripping of the roof, put all the old shingles into the dumpster and take the dumpster to the recycler. Then bring the dumpster back and load the lumber debris (both what is now in our front yard and remaining debris in the garage) into the dumpster and take it to the landfill. We'll see how smart they are and how much my initial good idea is going to end up costing us.

The roofers left earlier than they have this past week. By 4:00 pm, they were gone. They did a nice job cleaning up. They did not finish the main house roof and have not yet started on the sunroom. They did not recycle the old shingles and return to reload the lumber debris. They just reloaded the debris back into the dumpster. We expect to see them again on Monday. Forecast for Monday is mostly sunny with a high or 78F. It will cool back off as the week progresses, but there is not a significant chance of rain (40%) until Thursday.