Installing wood shakes and shingles

A woven inside corner is much more difficult to achieve, so the usual practice is to install inside corner trim prior to shingling. However, as long as the shingles are not completely dried out, they will shrink slightly after installation, so gapping is usually not needed. Check with your supplier to be sure. If you decide to trim outside corners, you may choose to install corner trim pieces and simply butt the shingles up to the trim boards. Although this project can be hard work, if you're determined and have a helping hand, it will be done before you know it!

Check out our step-by-step guide to siding shingles below. To prepare the exterior walls, apply building wrap for a water-resistant barrier beneath the shingles. Apply self-adhesive flashing tape to corners and around windows and doors. Take special care not to crease the wrap or flashings.

Install exterior trim around the windows and doors as needed. Be sure to choose a wood stain or material for the trim that will complement your new shingle siding. If you plan to weave the shingles at outside corners see steps 6 and 7 , you don't need outside corner trim. Use a story pole to lay out courses and help you avoid using narrow pieces above or below windows and doors.

You may choose to raise or lower the bottom course to achieve the desired layout see step 10 or use the swing-stick method to keep the layout consistent. Mark the layout all around the house. Install inside corner trim pieces. Ideally, these should not be too visible, but they must be wide enough to provide room for caulking after the shingles are installed.

Hold up several layers of shingles to make sure the trim is thick enough. Install the first starter-course piece at a corner. It should run past the corner by about 1 inch. Use a small level to hold it plumb and attach with two nails or staples. Less-expensive, low-grade shingles can be used as the starter course. Install a piece on the other side of the corner butted against the first piece. Use a utility knife to roughly cut the first piece. Slice once or twice, then snap the shingle apart.

If needed, you can cut shingles using a table saw, chop saw, or radial-arm saw. In the example shown, the miter gauge is used to cut corner pieces at a slight angle, which eliminates the need to knife-trim perhaps even planing smooth the corner pieces. If you use a circular saw, clamp the shingle first to keep your fingers away from the blade. If the grain is straight and knot-free, use a utility knife to make simple cuts. You may need to touch up the split for a smooth edge.

Use a small block plane or Surform tool to trim the shingle edge flush. When building a corner, trim and plane each piece before moving on to the next course. Make a jig as shown as a quick, failsafe way to keep the courses even. Use a straight 1x4 as the guide and 1x2s as the hangers. Check that it's level and fasten it with 3-inch screws. The starter course is made of two layers of shingles. You will likely need to cut the last pieces in each row. You can hand-nail shingles, but the job goes faster with a pneumatic nailer or stapler.

A stapler is used most often because it is less likely to split the shingles. Even if you are shingling just a single wall, renting power equipment will be worth the cost. Adjust the stapler so it drives the staples just flush and does not indent them.

When you hit a stud, the staple may not sink in completely; drive the staple flush with a hammer. Use galvanized nails or staples for most of the job, but stainless-steel nails are the best choice wherever the heads will show.

Build up the corners. The bottom course which is on top of the starter course may be anywhere from 1 to 4 inches above the starter course, depending on your layout.

To maintain correct exposures, use a homemade exposure guide. Drive nails or staples about 1 inch above the exposure so they will be covered. Be sure to check your layout marks every few courses. Trim and plane a corner board before you install the next course. Build the inside corners. Follow the same steps you used for the outer corners.

However, you will not need to plane any shingle edges. Once you have built up the corners by about 10 courses, snap a chalk line to mark the bottom of the next course. Attach vertical pieces to a long, straight guide and attach to the wall as shown. Continue installing your shingle siding around windows and doors. To accommodate corners, install wide notch-cut shingles.

Avoid having a joint closer than 1 inch from the corner. The shingles above windows and doors require special attention since they're not layered on top of other shingles. To ensure a consistent look, you will need to cut and install strips of the correct thickness underneath the row of shingles. That way, the full-thickness pieces installed over them will be correctly flared out from the wall. Work around your home's exterior features, such as spigots.

Turn off the water and remove the hose spigot. Use a drill and a hole saw to cut a neat hole in the shingle. Interlayment acts as a weather baffle and helps prevent wind-driven snow and rain from penetrating the roof. Because shakes are usually rougher and coarser than shingles, wind-driven precipitation is more likely to penetrate shakes than shingles.

Interlayment requirements may vary by area. Neither shakes nor shingles should have a waterproof underlayment installed unless the shakes or shingles are installed on a batten system, which allows for good air flow between the underlayment and the underside of the shakes or shingles.

You may occasionally see shakes installed without interlayment. If this is the case, the shake installation should be 3-ply. The roof should be covered with three layers of shakes at any given point in the roof system. This is not a method approved by any existing building codes or by the CSSB, but may be approved by the local AHJ on an individual basis. Three-ply systems should use only 1 or premium-grade taper-sawn shakes.

Installing interlayment on 3-ply roofs may result in trapping moisture and reducing the lifespan of the shakes. A 3-ply roof can be installed over either spaced board or solid roof sheathing. Three-ply systems should never be used on roofs with a slope of less than Shake roofs installed using the 2-ply method in which the roof is covered with two layers of shakes at any given point in the roof system must have interlayment installed.

Shakes measuring 15 inches are made for starter and finish courses finish courses being the courses at the peak , but are seldom used. Most installers use similar shakes and shingles for the starter and finish courses. The proper exposure for both shakes and shingles is determined by the length and the grade. The exposure of a shake or shingle is that portion which is exposed to weather. So, if you look at a roof with inch shakes installed and you can see 10 inches of the length of each shake, the exposure is 10 inches.

Both shakes and shingles have minimum slope requirements. According to the IRC, shakes should never be installed on roofs with slopes of less than Shingles should never be installed on roofs with slopes of less than But on roofs with slopes of between and , exposures should be reduced according to shingle length and grade. Although decreasing shake or shingle exposure is acceptable, the maximum exposure should never be exceeded. Wood roofs are sometimes installed with butts staggered up and down.

The installation should never exceed the maximum-allowable exposure when this method is used. Field shakes and shingles are all those on a roof except those in the starter course along the lower roof edge and in the finish course at the roof peak. Wood shakes and shingles swell when they get wet and shrink when they dry. Because of the structure and orientation of wood cells, there will be more dramatic movement across the width than in the length.

Limitations on spacing may vary according to the AHJ in the area where the inspection is being performed. Flat-grain shingles wider than 8 inches should be split in two before installation. Modern building codes require that no two joints in any three adjacent courses be in alignment. The distance separating vertical joints between shakes and shingles in adjacent courses is called the sidelap.

This is because shingles are likely to split first at these defects.