One of our ongoing projects is to cover the house with shingles. The front was done a number of years ago when my parents were visiting. It's one of those jobs that is quite satisfying as it moves along fast and you can soon see results!
Those shingles, on the front, were bought. They were a good product but not overly big.
As we had the saw mill we decided to cut our own and successfully made enough to cover one end of the house. Some of ours were over 18 inches wide so you didn't need many to do a row.
Shake/Shingle blocks are a by product of logging. After trees are felled and the logs taken away, shake cutters move in and can cut blocks from the stumps and ends of logs left on the site. We gather logs that are floating around and so cut fire wood or lumber logs saving pieces that are clear (no knots) for shingles.
Shakes usually go on roofs and shingles as siding. Shakes are bigger and thicker.
This side of the house is nice and straight with only the one window to work round. It is covered in tar paper as a barrier and then you start at the bottom with one row of shingles. The second row goes directly over the top but the third and consequent rows are staggered to cover the joins.
Shingles are tapered so you have one end thicker than the other. The thin end is upper most so any water will run down and away from the wall.
The nice thing about working with cedar shingles is they can be cut easily to fit whatever size. To keep the rows straight we used a chalk line. There is about a 2/3 1/3 overlap and the nails are in the top third so are covered all the time.
The round vent you can see is into the roof space.
The finishing touch is a window box that is now overflowing with geraniums.
We still have some shingles left to start on the other end of the house and eventually we will get round to the back too. The back will be a longer process as there are 5 windows and 1 door to work round!
We have been in this house for 14 years and we have done 2 sides! So at that rate we should be done by the time we hit retirement age!!
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