I replaced some windows in a 30-year-old house that was covered with cedar shingles, and try as I might I found it impossible not to scar some of the shingles with my ladder. Also, I had to remove some of the shingles to trim them, which further damaged their faces.
After thinking about the problem, I decided to try reviving the shingles with a very soft wire brush. I brushed with the grain, starting at the top and working down. I first tried a small spot in an unobtrusive place, and found that the shingles had a nap like suede or velvet. Brushing with the grain pushed all the fibers back into the grain lines that emerge as the shingles weather with age. I brushed all the shingles around each window about a foot out from the casings, and then I sprayed them lightly with a hose to clean the wall of fine particles. When everything dried, it was barely noticeable that any work had been done.
—Richard E. Reed, Doylestown, PA
Edited by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #67
