B grade cedar shingles for shed roof?
Megunticook
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Hi,
Building a storage shed, thinking B-grade shingles will do for the roof but have reservations. These are eastern white cedar manufactured by Maibec. I know A is recommended for roofing, and if this were a house there’d be no question, but given the application I’m thinking it may be OK to go with B and save a little dough.
I know, I know, if I want to save money why am I using cedar shingles? Well, aesthetics is a big consideration here, as well as longevity, so that ruled out asphalt. I looked into some steel options and they actually were more expensive.
Thanks.
Replies
I'd scout some pieces of Ice and Water Shield and do the whole shed roof; I'm assuming a "shed" means a small area roof. If you had to buy a whole roll, that'd kill your savings.
Noticed your handle, "Megunticook." Seen the movie "The Black Robe?"
I always though about making a metal jig to mount a machete to hand split those 1 x 6 cedar boards for fencing into wood shingles
The fence boards are sawn, they will not split true. Get a froe and a cord of cedar bolts if you want to split. Use the fence boards as is. One of my shed roofs is simply 1/4 plywood off crates laid as big shingles with good side up and painted, has lasted 20 years.
BTW,I've 2 cords of cedar bolts in a trailer, cannot get up the ambition to split them, figure my hand labor costs and skill would price them at a few hundred a square.
You can have the cedar free, but the shipping down the coast would be a killer ?
I've seen a froe ground from a leaf spring... do you have any kids to split cedar at $.50/hr?
I used Grade C eastern white cedar shingles to roof a barn in 1991. Still looks good and isn't leaking. I discarded the worst of the shingles ... perhaps a tenth of them.
I'm now completing 8 square of eastern white cedar on my house. Five-inch exposure. Again I used Grade C, but discarded about a quarter of the shingles. Probably should have discarded more of them, but my budget is tight.
For the rest of the house (another 12 squares for the east and north wings ... next year), I might try to find a supplier of a better grade of eastern white. Locally I've only found top-quality western red cedar (prohibitively expensive), and the low-grade eastern white cedar (which I prefer color-wise).
For a utility shed, the Grade B shingles should be fine ... three-ply, joints offset more than an inch within THREE courses. Discard the worst of the shingles (flat-sawn sapwood, large knots in exposed 5 inches).
Allen
megun... b's are fine for a shed..
but WC will not last as long as RC.. and a heavy duty architectural asphalt will outlast both of them and cost a lot less
any wood shingle roof should go on cedar breather or skip sheathing or you can forget about long life...
also.. shed roofs tend to be low pitch... low pitch, wood shingles, and long life do not fit in the same sentence..Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Thanks for replies all.This has a 12-pitch roof, so that should help things stay drier. Sheathing will simply be 1x spaced to allow plenty of airflow from below (I once rented a house where they installed wood shingles over felt on solid sheathing--not a pretty sight).I'll go with the B-grade in this case.Choice of material is determined by a number of factors here:1. aesthetics
2. longevity
3. use of locally-produced material
4. avoiding petroleum-based productsThe last one is probably a head-scratcher for some--but there's a long list of reasons why we'd all be better off if in general we eased up on our voracious oil appetite.