2nd Story Roofing: Doing it Safely, Feeling Safe?

[Dr_Zinj]

Two years ago I had to fix a dozen shingles on the roof. 2 & a half stories up, 45 degree pitch.
Used a safety rope that ran over the top of the ridge and was tied off to tractor so i could move it every so often.
Took me all day.
Last year I hired a guy to fix the other half of the roof.
He used roof jacks.
Took him two hours tops.

 

[Ted Summey]

I re-roofed my house five or so years ago. We used a combination of cushions from old sofas and roof jacks and walk boards. My house has a 12/12 pitch on the main house that slopes down to 7/12 pitch on the porches.

When using cushions, we used two or three at a time. We sit on, one to move to, then leap-frog the cushions and scoot across the roof. We did not use safety harnesses and lines because we didn't feel like we were ever in jeapordy of sliding off the roof with the cushions.

It took me and a helper about 5 weekends to get the roof on. We tore off the old. Installed roofing felt and valley sealing felt then applied the shingles in about four stages.