Hey everyone,
Im still a little new to exterior siding. Whats the best way to fasten cedar (or any wood) shingles? It seems people I talk to are divided on whether to do it manually or pneumatically. But with a gun, what gauge gun and type of nail do you use? Same for manual too?
Replies
Wood pegs are the only way to go.
Okay.
Which whould be best, hand whittled, hand split, shaved with a draw knife, spoke shaven, driven through an iron dowell plate, or turned pegs?
Holes made with red hot iron, or gimlet?
Dowell plate and hot iron -- far less tedious than those old-fashioned methods.
They have these new electric drills now, I hear they are faster than the red hot iron, but I dunno.
There used to be an "antenna
There used to be an "antenna barn" on the edge of WPAFB outside of Dayton. (Was torn down in the early 70s, I believe.) Legend had it that it had been built by Amish craftsmen (probably during WWII) without using any metal fasteners. It had a wood shingle roof, presumably pegged, and the rest of the structure was reportedly pegged.
Unfortunately, I never had an opportunity to inspect it up close.
If time is no object and you like to drive nails, hand driving may be the way to go because the fasteners are easier to remove if future repairs are needed.
In my world though 7/16" width crown sheathing staples are the more likely choice. They hold well, seldom split the shingle and the stapler is light weight.
I use 18 guage 1.5" stainless
I use 18 guage 1.5" stainless staples, although all the official literature recommends stouter staples. You can probably find some info here:
http://www.cedarbureau.org/installation/wall-manual.htm
Ditto
on the Cedar Bureau site... worth reading the entire wall manual if it's your first time.
I hang shingles with 7/16" x 1-1/2" stainless staples from Senco, I believe they're 16ga. Set the nose of the gun so the bar of the staple lays across the face of the wood, not biting in to the grain at all.
Yeah, I co-oped (interned) at Wright-Patt 1969-1971. The barn was still there (and looked to be in fairly good shape) at that time. It was on the"back" (uphill) side of what I vaguely recall was referred to as "Area A" -- the Wright field half. Right next to the helicopter rotor pen. I heard 2-3 years later that it had been torn down.
There used to be a shaker village that abbuted to my property untill the early 1900s called Watervliet village. It was sold to the county when they disbanded and was turned into the county farm for the mental patients. I know there were shaker barns and such torn down in the 70's or so. There was a Shaker steam powered woolen mill there, which was their primary source of income. You can still see the area they dumped coal clinkers close to home. I do find coal chunks occasionally when digging on my property, but my house was always heated with gas as far as I know. The old apple orchard was still there untill Shakertown road was relocated. Now it's Kettering Research Park, and I work in sight of my company. It's nice to be able to walk to work in five minutes.
I wish I could have seen what it was like then.
WPAFB wasn't much to look at, and the surrounding area (Fairborn, et al) wasn't much better -- lots of WWII and 50s hurry-up construction.
Looking at a map, I believe the barn was at the SE corner of the Wright Field area, along what's apparently named "National Road" now (thought that name isn't familiar). From the satellite view it appears that the building where I worked (and many others) has been torn down, but I can't quite get my bearings enough to tell for sure. In fact, it looks like about 2/3rds of the buildings on the site have been torn down.
There has been a major rehab of that area, lots of ugly stuff torn down, but it's still ugly. Major expansion is scheduled to begin soon. There is a battle of sorts going on because the base wants to close a mile of Rt 444 for security and expansion.
National road is US40, I believe the first federally funded cross country road circa 1927.
What's kinda funny is I own a 1940's hurry up government commisioned cape cod house. It is a prefab, but built from near actual size 2x lumber. They were built in Hamilton Ohio, and put up in Kettering (then Van Buren Township). When I stripped the siding down to the sheathing I found signatures from Army and Navy builders, with their notes about their military service. My street is named Bataan, after the famous Bataan Peninsula on luzon Province in the Phillipines.
It is an off base officers house for the old DESC (Gentile Air Force Station). That was another ugly place, now decommisioned and cleaned up. Lots of demolition was done and the salvaged buildings are fairly attractive and in use for mostly offices and commercial use.
My neighbood is a pretty nice place, and the old houses are well maintained. A number of them receive awards from the city for their "City Beautiful" campaign.
Like I said before my house butts up to the old Shaker village, now a research park. Here's the marker.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=26345
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I wish I'd had more opportunity to explore the area when I lived there, but I didn't have a car. So for the most part Kettering was only a place I heard about. I think I did make a quick pass through a Shaker museum at some point, but don't recall where it was.