Hi All,
A little about me before my question. I started out as a carpenters helper in 1980 and through the years evolved into a custom furniture maker and really left carpentry for the most part. 6 years ago I took a professional sales job that I will be leaving shortly to begin renovation on my new home, so I will be posting here frequently. I pride myself on complete perfection seeing the job through as perfectly as it can be done (probably why I never made great money at it). I have the shop from hell, everything $$$.
Now my question, calculating R&R cedar shingles and what exposure to use. Also shouldn’t the first course be doubled up?
Lets say I have a 10′ x 10′ wall to shingle and the shingles are 18″, given your suggestions for exposure, help me calculate.
Thanks a bunch everyone!
Have a great weekend.
Replies
Go to cedarbureau.org and read up on wall installation. I'd probably go with ~6" exposure.
Great site. Thanks David, I appreciate it.
Western Red Cedar shingles are normally fastened with 5" exposure "to the weather". Yes a first course is installed, and sometimes #2's are used, thogh some of these need to be discarded or cut down. Then begin the exposed course at the same level.
Here on the West Coast you'll sometimes see alternate courses, at say 2" exposed and the suceeding course at 5", or 6". This variation can be played with. I recently went with a 2" course every 6 courses for an element of interest, but wish I'd sprung a few extra hundred for every 5 courses.
I also figured this house will never see an old growth product again because when these shingles wear out the virgin forests will be long ago history. So I dipped the bottom 10" of shingle in an oil based TWP (out of Oklahoma) product. This sheds water and should greatly lengthen the life of the shingles, though the oil-impregnated shingles worry me a little should the field around me catch on fine. I leave a good defensible space around the house.
I had an old timer tell me there's no other way to fasten shingles than with nails. But I bought a 1/2" crown stapler, used 2" staples, and they worked well.
Hi Coastal,
When I installed these shingles years ago in the Boston area (live in NC now) I bought galvanized box nails at 2 different lumberyards. I bought from F. Diehl and Sons, and Barney & Carey. I have not seen these nails in NC.
So the crowns worked good?
We use the Red Label shingles (not the Blue Label re-sawn re-butted) and start out walls with a kicker strip 1.25" x 3/4" usually ripped from treated 1x6. Then a double course to start and then a course every 8". (ie 8" to the weather) we get four bundles to the square so your 10 x 10 wall would take four bundles plus a double handful for the starter row. My labor cost here in NC is about $250 per square including WC and taxes.
We use wood strips with very sharp drywall screws to lay our shingles on as we go and staple them with two 1" crown 1" leg galvenized Senco staples per shingle. Never allow the crew to leave the strips up over night. Weave the outside corners. Use 5/4 x 1.25 unpainted cedar inside corner strips.
We paint the soffits and door and window trim before we put up the inside corner boards or any shingles. With clad windows we run 5/4 x 4 sides and top and 5/4 x 1.75 under. Tack the bottom strip about 4" below the window on the tyvek. Let the painter paint the trim to match the window and paint three sides and the ends of the sill strip when the siders get to the sill strip they pull it off, run the cuts tight to the clad window and then use the dtrip to cover the staples. at the end of the job we run around the house with an electric pressure washer to clean up any mud or saw dust and send the painter around to put a last coat on the "sills".
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"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
Edited 3/3/2007 11:12 pm ET by ShelterNerd