I punched a hole in the roof yesterday to stick a beam through to hoist a new plate log on. We had planned on replacing the leaking old roof with a new standing seam one. This roof I was told had been on the old courthouse, the one that predated our 1908 building, so I figured it had served a long and useful life. It was interesting in that it was made of sheets about 12"x20", crimped flat in the pan and standing on the edges. I was going to save a section for the owners, for posterity.
As soon as the sawsall hit the metal it was obvious it wasn't tin. When the sheathing oak was pulled away from the piece I cut out there was no corrosion, absolutely none. The plumber came by and we tried to melt some, thinking it might be lead, we got the yellow ring around the heated area and thought better of it. He came back towards the end of the day. He had run into one of our local old timers. He was a friend of my client's mother when she was alive and remembered the roof as being solid zinc.
I've never run into one of these before have any of you? I'm hoping it has some recycle value to help offset the new roof.
Oh, got the top log set and the roof set back down on it today. Woohoo
