My siding and exterior trim sub will arrive on site in three weeks. So I have time to do a little studying about shingles.
He wants to apply them using staple guns, shooting 1/4″ crown staples. My only experience is with another sub, who did the fastening with SS ringshanks and a coil gun. I think the staples are OK. What do you think?
We are using factory finished Eastern white cedar extras, 16″ by about a 3/8″ butt. Our substrate, under 30# felt, is 7/16″ OSB. What length would you use?
We have a 6″ exposure, and I figure (conservatively) with staples spaced 2″ apart, we will use about 12 per square foot. Thus for my 3200 sf I need to get this guy about 40,000 staples. Is my thinking OK here for quantity? Nobody stocks these things here, and whatever I buy is not returnable, so I want to have the right figure.
He says galv is fine so go ahead and buy them. I know some of you purists will say to use SS. How about a compromise, say, 10 percent SS, for use wherever we will have exposed staple tops, like under windows and at wall tops? What do you think?
BTW, we are corner weaving, no corner boards, and I have practised a few cuts flushing them up with a small router and flush trim bit. Pretty slick. Told my guy to try it, too, before he comes. He says he has always used a block plane.
Replies
galv is fine in your climate.. but no staples for exposed shingles.. like under the windows and up the rakes ... only SS siding nails with a head..
if he's a block plane guy, leave him alone.. forget about the router.. too many tools for a simple job...
as to staples... i hate 'em.. almost impossible to thief out for repairs.. but they certainly hold..
if you are using a factory finished shingle.... and the finish is maintained.. then the shingles will theoretically last forever.. but your galvanized staples won't..
seems like a mismatch to me
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
1/4" crown???????????
Didn't know they made it so small. I'm like Mike and hate staples but I allow my subs to use wide crown if adjusted so they seat snug without breaking the wood fibres.
If he does a neat job weaving with the block plane, he's done enough of this, that you DO NOT NEED to micromanage him..
Excellence is its own reward!
I've a little 1/4" crown gun I've used mostly in cabinet work, stapling backs into cab boxes. I'll try it out on some shingle samples, before I let this guy do his thing.
Being a router freak, with at least one in every HP range, and having made and used many dozen jigs and fixtures doing furniture and cabinetry, I was intrigued when I saw a tip on shingle corner trimming with one. So I made up a sample corner and tried it. He is weeks away from starting, but I told my big bearded siding guy about the technique, and showed him the sample, when he stopped by the job the other day. He said it was cool, might try it himself. It doesn't matter to me what tool he uses, but I want him to do a quality job quickly, because winter is coming.
In the block plane category, I have two iron ones, two wood ones, and a couple handy razor plane versions. Use 'em all. But any time I can make a power tool work for me and it saves time and does a quality job, I'll use it.
That Stickley style desk I made for my friend Jack earlier this year had 22 bowtie inlays in its white oak top, and I did all the work with a router and jigs. Absolutely hairline joints everywhere. A friend of mine who does high end furniture commissions, and who works mainly with hand tools, cuts all his using chisels, saws, and files. To each his own.
Ya, For me, routers got their place, but there is nothing that feels so good as a nice plane shaving wood.
And when I clean up my shingle job, there is little sawdust - but lots of those beautiful curly shavings....Ah, the joy!.
Excellence is its own reward!
1/4 inch crown refers to the height the crown of the staple is not the width of the staple..
Really????????
height above what? If above the shingle, that would be too loose.
Count me puzzled..
Excellence is its own reward!
You never heard of a narrow crown stapler? Are you inserting a trick post to make sure we are paying attention?
And don't listen to Frenchy, another trick post I fear.
How do you keep a narrow crown from punching a hole right through the shingle?.
Excellence is its own reward!
It's a pressure thing, and buy a Bostitch, they couldn't blow thru a stick of butter. It doesn't hurt to have a feel for it, like anything else.
I used a wide crown on one house, like the narrow much much better. Wanna buy a Hilti widecrowner cheap? Throw in 2 boxes of staples, even wipe the dust off it too.
Don't know anybody servicing them here.
Like I said, I'll hand nail and leet the subs provide their own tools. .
Excellence is its own reward!
And yeah, not being a staple man, I never heard of....
Excellence is its own reward!
You don't nail shingles on a nailing pattern, you place one nail on each edge, so you figure the math out for that one. Ask your sider what he uses per square, he'll get you close to the amount.
The narrow crown is all I would use for a stapler, so if stapling is ok with you then it is a question of ss or not.
Length, 1 1/4" is fine.
Definately nails for exposed fasteners.
The router idea sounds neat, but what about the flair on the corner?
i just reread your 1st post...
a 16" shingle should NOT have an exposure greater than 1/3 it's length.. so it should be less than 5 1/3 "... especially with woven corners.. whited cedars are not as stable as red cedars ,so i would limit the exposure to 5"
and at 5" exposure.. you should use between 500 & 600 shingles / sq. @ 2 fasteners / shingle.. .. 1000 to 1200 fasteners per sq.
so your 32 sq. should be just fine with 40K
also.. don't let them close the woven corners with a finish nail in the edge.. s lot of people do this.. but it's wrong.. looks crappy and a lot of them eventually split
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore