Replies

1. 
   Mad_Dog | Oct 23, 1999 12:35am | #1

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   Peter,
   I'm going out on a limb here, and have no experience with white oak shingles, but my guess is you'd want to put 'em up green, so as to help with the nailing. I believe that there could be a shrinking around the nail benefit to this as well. White oak should last a while, probably not as long as redwood or cedar though. There are fireproofing additives you can put on, I assume the same ones used for other wood roofing. BTW, what is the roof pitch? Hopefully, it's fairly steep. Check with some of the roofers here, maybe they have some actual experience with this.

2. 
   Guest_ | Oct 23, 1999 02:57am | #2

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   I would recommend against using white oak, or any oak for shingles. Oak, even though its a good structural wood, and makes beautiful furniture and floors, it doesnt have the same characteristics as cedar or redwood for exterior applications. Insects dont like the tannin found in cedar and redwood, and I believe this is the same stuff that makes it resistant to mildew, etc. Go with a No. 1 grade cedar shingle.

   Dave

3. 
   Mike_Smith | Oct 23, 1999 07:36pm | #3

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   Yes you can. They were often made of oak or anything else that was growing next to the cabin. But you probably can't make shingles (sawn in a shingle mill). You can make "shakes" just like they've been made for a thousand years:
   Cut your logs into the length you want the shingles, this is your "butt", say 24". select the straight grain butts.
   Get a "froe" and a striking mallet. The froe is a strong long splitting tool with the handle at right angles to the blade and pointing down. It is held in your off hand with the blade in contact with the top of the butt. Strike the blade with the mallet & split off the "shake" (shingle) by twisting the handle up to open the split.
   You can rough saw your butts or rough split them into long squares, say 8" x 8", assuming a one inch thick shake, this will give you 8 shakes.
   Oak splits best green and frozen and the nails will tend to split less if you apply them green. If you want to fireproof or preserve them you'll have to do some research about a dipping solution, in that case, I would rack your shakes to let them dry , say 2-3 weeks in a dry location. And then dip them and rack them again to dry again. You may have to predrill them for nailing.
   I would lay these with 24" strips of 30 # felt at each course covering the top 4" I would install a good metal drip edge at the eaves and rakes and I would lay the 24" on a 10 " exposure on skipped sheathing say a 1x6 @ 10" oc. Don't lay these on a plywood deck, they need to breathe on the bottom to dry out between rain soakings. I would keep the roof pitch at 8 or steeper.
   Naturally , you can buy red cedar shakes factory treated. You local historical society can tell you what the native material for roofs in your area was (or is ).
   Does this sound like something they made during the winter ?
   Yes, and moonshine too !

1. 
   Mad_Dog | Oct 24, 1999 07:07pm | #4

   *Peter, I figured you had some background info on this, or some other reason to use oak. Perhaps you have a large supply of free oak to work with. Whatever, there is plenty of history in using white oak for roofing.I agree with most of what Mike said, from what I know of oak shakes as being historically used. You can make the froe out of old leaf springs, and even build sort of a splitter if you put the leaf spring hole through a vertical rod. The striking mallet could be just a big piece of oak with a good handle, take you a couple minutes to make.Mike's advice on the materials, spacing, etc. is dead on as I understand wood roofing. I think if you were doing it on a barn or shed and didn't like the look of the felt from inside, you could probably leave it off, maybe tighten up your exposures a little then. (A little more historically correct, if that's important to you). Good luc

4. 
   Peter_F_Walsh | Oct 24, 1999 07:07pm | #5

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   Anyone know if I can make roof shingles out of white oak. If so should I put them up green or dried. Fireproofing? waterproofing? preserving? I live in North Carolina.