Good day to All!

We are taking a trip down memory lane. Back in August of 1984, G & E Roofing was contracted by the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), the organization that maintains the huts along the Appalachian Mountain trail, to install a new roof on the Tip Top House at the top of Mount Washington.
Originally built in 1853 to serve as a hotel, the Tip Top House had a flat roof and in the early 1860's, a decision was made to replace the flat roof with a sloped roof. Beginning in 1877, the Tip Top House served as a printing office for Among the Clouds, the mountain's newspaper. When the newspaper moved, the house was abandoned and fell into disrepair.
A fire destroyed the House, it was restored then abandoned again in 1968. Now recognized as a state historic site, the Tip Top House was restored again in the mid 1980's, which included the replacing the roof back to it's original flat roof.


                          

Our day started by removing 4" of fresh powered snow prior to the installation of the new plywood. It had snowed the night before but on this day, it would be 50 degrees with little or no wind. I remember a gentleman from AMC pointing out the Atlantic Ocean to us, making the comment " This only happens a couple of times a year."  All we needed was two good days to install the plywood and membrane and fasten it off at the perimeter. And two good days we got and almost had it completed before bad weather set in. We had to pick and choose our days from there, but we completed the membrane and metal bar termination prior to the onset of winter weather. One day when we were working, the wind chill was 23 degrees below zero, making it very difficult. 

               
The remainder of the project consisted of installing 2" X 24" X 24" concrete pavers over the entire roof area. The pavers served two purposes, one, to prevent the roof from blowing off and secondly, to provide protection to the roof from the spikes in the footwear worn by hikers in snow and ice conditions. Per AMC personnel, hikers climb all over this building in the middle of winter. With the snow and ice the mountain looks like one big unrecognizable mass.

              
The two biggest challenges on the project were to get a window of time where the weather would allow the installation and also to get a truckload of pavers to the top of the mountain via the access road. Any vehicle larger than a single axle was only allowed after 7 pm and had to be off the road by 7:30 am. We hit the window of opportunity on the two day forecast and worked very closely with Gagne Concrete Block on the delivery of the pavers to the summit. It actually took us three weeks to install the concrete pavers, picking and choosing days when we could work. In a normal work environment, the pavers would have been installed in two days, rain or shine at sea elevation. 

             
It is my understanding that Mount Washington still claims to have had the worst recorded weather conditions in the world, with wind speeds of 231 mph. Even on a calm day, the wind blows with gusts of 20-30 mph. When handling the plywood, you had to be very careful to always keep the plywood downwind from yourself as you picked it up. It would be one thing for the wind to catch a sheet and blow it off the roof but if you were behind it, you would be off the roof also! Not good! Everything went off without a hitch.

On a recent trip this past week to the Mount Washington Hotel, where I attended a banking convention, I had a free afternoon and I could see the mountain out our hotel room window. It was as if the mountain was calling me. It was clear and calm in the valley and I thought it would be a perfect day to take the cog railway up the mountain and see if we could see the Atlantic Ocean. It was only 7 miles by car to base of the mountain, so off Teresa and I went. We were lucky enough to arrive just as a train was about to depart. We purchased our tickets without having to wait, boarded the train and away we went.


Once on top of the mountain, it was calm, clear but there was no sign of the ocean, and if there had been, I'm not sure that I could have picked it out. It all looked like blue sky with a few clouds to me. I did have the opportunity to climb to the absolute peak of the mountain and continued to climb up the rocks piled next to the Tip Top House to take a quick glance and inspect the roof installed by G & E Roofing in 1984, some 30 years ago . I'm happy to report there have been no leaks and with the exception of a couple of deteriorated pavers, the roof system is in excellent condition. And now you know the rest of the story....it sure did bring back memories. 


          
Make it a great day!

Norm

p.s. Fryeburg Fair  winds down the summer taking place September 29th thru October 6th!