(Fortunately, my boss delivered the ladders, staging, and shingles to the job site.) My tool box was so light that I was able to commute to the roofing shop on my bicycle I strapped my tool box and my lunch box on the rack over the rear wheel. straight-claw Estwing hammer, a Stanley utility knife, a cat’s paw, a chalkline, a measuring tape, a pair of metal snips, and a cotton nail bag. My staging consisted of 2×12 planks laid on hardwood shingle brackets each bracket was secured to the roof with three 16d nails. Most of the time, I was installing asphalt shingles, back in the days before nail guns and portable compressors. Every now and then, I also helped Ed, the company’s sheet-metal worker, to install copper valleys and copper-lined cedar gutters on slate roofs. For the next 12 months, I installed countless bundles of asphalt shingles and mopped acres of tar-and-gravel roofs with hot asphalt. Thornton Roofing Company in Newtonville, Massachusetts. Soon after I dropped out of college in 1974, I got my first construction job.

Experienced roofers see a lot of stupid roofs. Lots of things can go wrong with roofs: bad flashing can cause leaks, a poorly designed valley can turn into a slow-moving glacier, and misplaced gutters can do more harm than good.

Roof cricket