LOCAL

C-J Extra: Replacing rounded roof on Topeka house requires steaming shingles

Project on Topeka home took more than five weeks

Liz Montano
Richard “Rich” Gordinier, a retired roofer, helped install the shingles on this rounded-styled roof at 1625 S.W. MacVicar. Also working on the roof was John Barta, co-owner of Dovetail Roofing. (Chris Neal/The Capital-Journal)

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.