C-J Extra: Replacing rounded roof on Topeka house requires steaming shingles
Project on Topeka home took more than five weeks
If you’ve driven down the 1600 block of S.W. MacVicar Ave., it’s likely one particular home has caught your eye. It’s a fairly large, peach-colored house at 1625 S.W. MacVicar that has a unique, rounded-style roof. The men responsible for the roof — John Barta, co-owner of Dovetail Roofing, and roofer Richard “Rich” Gordinier — recently spoke about the design that’s piqued the interest of people from hundreds of miles away.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for such a quaint roof?
Barta: Well, considering the shingles were already there, I knew it had already been done. But, no one around here had really done anything like this before, or was at least well-versed at it. I told Rich I could bend the shingles. Rich was like, “Well, I can put ’em on.” So, I devised a way we could steam them and bend them, and Rich came up with a way to install them.
Q: I’m sure it required a special process?
Barta: Yeah, I did research but didn’t find anything I liked. Then it came to me. If I took boards and cut them into the shape I wanted and stood them up, I could hinge them, so it would be like a butcher’s block, but you could open it. Just steam the shingles.
Gordinier: He built a big, barbecue-like thing with a big bucket underneath.
Barta: I cut about nine inches out of a 55-gallon drum. Then, I took a large tool box with a lid that opened up in front and cut that out, so the steam would come out and heat the shingles so they’d bend.
Q: How long did it take to finish the roof?
Barta: Five weeks and two days. That was the fall of 2008. We have a YouTube video of it, which has over 100,000 views. Then there was a storm in May 2011, and softball-size hail hit the house. It ruined Rich’s work, so he got to do it again.
Gordinier: The cool thing is, my father first roofed this house in the ’50s when I was 8 or 9 years old.
Q: Is this the only roof you’ve done of its kind?
Barta: It’s the only roof like it in a 500-mile radius. We’ve been contacted by people in Indianapolis … all over now, asking us to do one, but we haven’t been able to.
Q: How long does this size house normally take to roof?
Barta: A day; a day and a half.
Q: So this would be a very expensive roof.
Barta: It doesn’t take much of an economics major to understand that you’re not going to lose out on five weeks’ worth of work to do this job.
Q: Rich, you’ve retired, right?
Gordinier: Yes, a couple of months now.
Q: How long had you been roofing?
Gordinier: I started at age 13 with my father. Then I took some time to go to flight school, where I learned how to fly helicopters for the military. I became an instructor pilot and retired with 23 years in the Kansas National Guard.
Q: Do you still keep up with what they’re doing at Dovetail Roofing?
Gordinier: I do. I ask questions, and they tell me to go … uh …
Q: Go be retired?
Gordinier: (chuckle) Exactly. I’d still be doing this if I didn’t need to be a caregiver for my wife. I enjoy being around the younger guys. It keeps me young. I try to teach them things as they come up. I don’t try to force my knowledge on them, but if they ask …
Barta: It’s important to pass on the years of experience from different eras of homes. The homes that are built now are completely different than this one, and you treat them differently.
Q: What about when it’s time to roof this again?
Gordinier: (laughing) I’ll be dead.
Barta: It will be difficult. I’ll still be able to bend the shingles, but to find someone else who can install the — it’s not gonna have the same character it does now.
RICHARD “RICH” GORDINIER
Born: October 1945
Career: Began roofing at age 13. Inherited Gordinier Roofing from his father in 1986. Sold Gordinier Roofing and joined Dovetail Roofing in 2006.
Company website: www.dovetailroofing.com
Video showing roof’s renovation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJV2-E_VoT4
Liz Montano is a freelance writer from Topeka. She can be reached at (785) 230-3907 or newsbizliz@gmail.com.