What does a summer of roofing look like?

This summer, more than 1,500 students joined us in Memphis, providing essential home repairs to  families in our partner neighborhoods in Memphis. In recent history, SOS has spent most of the summer putting roofs over heads, literally! Throughout our organization’s history, we’ve done a great number of home repair projects. But we found through our relationship with the homeowners, that interior renovations can be quickly destroyed if the roof is in poor shape. So we put on our harnesses, climbed a few ladders and focused on providing total roof repairs to our partner families.

You might ask yourself, “how are middle school, high school, and college students able to reroof a home?” The answer is simple – through hard work and determination.

There are a number of steps in the process of reroofing a home, and this photo demonstrates all of them! First, we remove the old shingles. We’re then able to evaluate the strength and condition of the decking under the shingles. We replace any places where the decking is in poor condition and prepare to lay the underlayment (the blue tarp covering in this photo). Once the underlayment is in place, we then put on new shingles. It took us seven weeks to totally repair all 32 roofs we completed this summer.

Roofing really is an amazing process! And what’s even better is seeing the reaction of the homeowners, who no longer have to worry about leaks and other problems caused by a roof in need of repair.

As you read, a total roof repair requires a number of steps, and each step requires a specific set of materials. The construction materials to complete the 32 projects this summer alone cost more than $130,000!. Our camper fees only cover one half of our cost to run our home repair camps.. Would you consider supporting SOS and putting stable roofs over the heads of Memphians who need your support? Donate to SOS by following this link.