I wanted to get some opinions about shingling; specifically on corner weaving. I’m reshingling my house and am using #1 red cedar shingles and putting them on with a 5″ exposure and I’m not painting them; I’m leaving them natural. There are no corner boards so I’m weaving the corners. It’s something that I haven’t done for a long, long time but interestingly enough once you get into the process you get a lot faster…but I digress.
The specific question that I have is whether you guys use nails on the woven corners. In the past I never did, I guess either because I was never taught to or the fact that I sort of took pride in that my corners were pretty tight. However, when consulting a back issue of FHB, May ’06 #102 (there as a nice article on sidewall shingling), the author stated that he uses a ring-shank nail either aluminum or brass. He stated that he puts one nail 1.5″ up and in from the end/side on the first shingle. For the second, overlapping shingle he drills a pilot hole about 2″ up from the butt end in order to facilitate another nail that goes into the edge of the first shingle that’s being overlapped.
Obviously this is good to do in order to guard against warping and cupping over time, and it seems that the author advocates doing this even though he uses only #1 shingles (which are typically all vertical grain). I have no problem following this method but to my eyes not having the nails makes the corner look much cleaner but I also realize that over time you may get some cupping and/or warping. In my case the #1 shingles that I got were really high quality and I’m sure the warping and cupping would be a minimum over time. So, I just thought I’d ask the group what the consensus is about this corner method: nails or no nails?
Thanks in advance for any advice or words of wisdom!
Replies
IIRC, this has been discussed here before, by people who have unfortunately moved on in protest of the software change. But you might find something with the search function.
Be prepared to wait for the search though; I did one today that took about five minutes.
It doesn't hurt to nail the corners. Stainless steel nails should be used on red cedar. I use 4d finish nails up about 1" + and set them. Pre-drilling helps keep them going in straight and prevents driving the shingle sideways. You don't even see the nails.
go to the source.... this link http://www.wrcla.org/
you'll never look anywhere else for answers.
Interesting site; thanks for the link.
Thanks, all for your input; I've decided to start nailing my corners. I went to a different lumber yard the other day and found the exact type of nails that were mentioned in that back issue of FHB. They are stainless steel, ring-shank, and the heads appear to be a bit smaller in diameter than box or common nails. Also, the heads have a nice 'knurled' pattern on them...not that big of a deal but it sort of adds a bit of aesthetics to the process...not that the nails will be all that visible (hopefully).