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starter course for hardie individual shingles on dormer wall

weekendrenoman | Posted in Construction Techniques on August 13, 2011 04:49am

I want to cover the walls of our shed dormer with individual Hardie shingles.   I’m trying to mtach the look of Hardie staggered shingles on our garage using individual hardie shingles.

The window wall looks easy since the bottom of the wall is straight and level.   However,  I’m wondering how to lay the starter strip and starter course on the dormer side walls that run in the direction of the roof fall line;   the bottom of the dormer wall is sloped.    If I run the starter strip and starter course parallel to the sloped roof (and spaced up 2 inches) then the shorter up-roof shingles will be on a steeper angle than the longer down-roof shingles on the dormer wall.    Do I have to do a short horizontal starter strip and starter course for each shingle as I step up the dormer wall / roof intersection?   The Hardie shingles  are 4.2″, 5.5″, 6.75″, 7.25″ and 10″ wide – so there would be a lot of steps and I worry about how to accurately maintain the shingle angle between steps?

Any advice on how to do this properly would be most appreciated.

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  1. weekendrenoman | Aug 14, 2011 11:01am | #1

    maybe a sketch will help explain things...

    Here's my sketch....the roof pitch is fairly steep so I'm only going to get 1 or 2 shingles per each bottom row as I step up the roof line. 

    File format
  2. calvin | Aug 14, 2011 11:16am | #2

    I'm no sider.

    And, the detail you show for the front is one I've not seen done-adding the solid course of siding over a kickout starter.

    But, I think the same answer might apply.

    On the face of the dormer, you did your detail.  Repeat this on the side of the dorner.  However, you only need to do it on the bottom course, the rest of the courses will align as do your front shingles.

    **note:  You are just laying the individual shingles over what you show in the detail as you proceed up the wall?

    That detail going up the wall will need to be what it is that kicks your first course out-easier to say than do.  Your starter really is only at the bottom tip of the first shingle.  It tapers back (thinner) as you go up.  How you hack that pc is up to you.  For all I know, it will only need to be a small wedge on the bottom of that shingle (the proper thickness to match up the front.

    no?.

    1. weekendrenoman | Aug 14, 2011 11:52am | #3

      siding on dormer

      Thanks for the reply Calvin.

      The front Detail A is straight from the James Hardie website on how to install.

      On the sides, I see what you are saying about the succeeding courses taking the angle from the bottom most row however without the starter course behind water will be able to penetrate directly though the shingle gaps to the tar paper and there wouldn't be mush of a drip edge from the shingles...

      This must be a standard problem that occurs on most dormers so there must be a proper way of doing it.   Maybe someone with siding experience will set me straight.

  3. User avater
    MarkH | Aug 14, 2011 12:23pm | #4

    You can cut tapered starter strips to place under each course of shingles, if you want a continuous starter strip.  I've included a nice drawing to show the flashing for a typical dormer window. 

    http://www.dryvit.com/fileshare/doc/us/description/ds504_5.pdf

    1. weekendrenoman | Aug 15, 2011 12:06pm | #5

      its looking like alot of tapered wedges...

      Thanks MarkH.

      I'm now thinking of cutting alot of tapered wedges and using them vertically under the start course and forgetting about any starter strip.   The wedges will allow me to move them up and down or even cut them lengthwise to accomodate short shingles as I move up the roof line.  Doing this will allow me to maintain the angle that the shingles stick out from the wall.

      This will be a lot of fiddling work....I was hoping there was a simplier method.  Oh well, time to get it done.

      Thanks for the ideas everyone.

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