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Wood Shingle & Wood Shake Roof Identification, Inspection, Installation Details - Photo Guide InspectAPedia®  -     Wood shingle roof inspection, failures, repair, product defects What types of nails or staples are used with wood shakes or wood shingles? What is the proper nailing pattern for wood shingle or wood shake roofs" Roof inspection, leak detection, roof diagnosis, roof repair Key design details & references for wood shingle roofs Wood roof inspection checklist

Here we illustrate and discuss wood shingle roofing in historic and contemporary use, we describe proper wood shingle or wood shake roof installation details, and we provide a wood roof inspection checklist. Our page top photo shows a lichens and moss covered roof located in Key West, Florida, viewed from the Key West lighthouse. If you are not sure of the difference between a wood shingle and a wood shake, wood shingles are saw-cut and have smooth flat surfaces, while wood shakes are split (by hand or by machine) to produce a thicker and more irregular product. As Carson Dunlop point out in their Home Reference Book, most wood shingles are white cyprus (most durable), cedar (western red cedar or white cedar) but in some locales redwood shingles are also used, and white pine shingles, yellow pine,and spruce have been used. Also see Wood Shakes & Application Details.

© Copyright 2010 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use the links at page left to navigate this document or to go to Other Website Topics. Green links show where you are in our document & website.

Wood Roofing Shingle Quality & Types

Wood Roofing Shingle Specifications & How are Wood Shingles Nailed onto a Roof?

Wood roof shingles are typically 16", 18" or 24" in length and up to 13" in width (but limited to 8" in width in some building codes).

Carson Dunlop's sketch (left) illustrates the typical wood roof shingle application pattern.

The shingles are 4/10" to 1/2" in thickness, and wood shingles are installed with a 5" exposure (16" shingle length), 5 1/2" exposure (18" shingle length), or 7 1/2" exposure (24" wood shingle length).

The typical life of a wood shingle roof is 30-40 years, but life expectancy varies considerably depending on how the shingles were installed as well as on the pitch of the roof (its slope), and its sun and weather exposure. (Too much sun dries out the shingles leading to splitting, and too much shade may keep the shingles too damp, leading to rot.)

Shingle quality and shingle treatments (for example with preservatives or with protection against photoxidation) are important life factors as well. Wood shingles are installed on roofs with a slope of 6" in 12" for best performance but may be on a slope as low as 4/12.

Wood shingle head lap in a good installation exposes no more than 1/3 of the shingle to the weather. The head laps are 6", 7", or 9" respectively for 16", 18" or 24" long shingles respectively. More details are at Wood Roof Inspection Guide.

Wood Shingle Fastener Specifications

Wood shingle nails need to be long enough to penetrate 1/2" (3/4" for the UBC) into the roof wood decking or nailing boards. The diamond-shaped nail tip itself has no holding power, just the roofing nail shank. So if you see shingle nails protruding through a plywood roof deck, that is not an error.

Nail specifications for wood shingles may vary by wood species; using western red cedar as an example, nails are to be corrosion resistant hot dipped galvanized, stainless steel, aluminum, or copper. In dry climates, good quality electrogalvanized staples, conforming to ASTM A641, are satisfactory according to the Cedar Shake and Shingel Bureau, but from our field experience we prefer nails.

Do not use blued steel or copper fasteners with cedar shakes or cedar shingles.

Wood shingle nailing pattern: in most applications only two nails are used per shingle, in order to permit movement without splitting as the shingle expands and contracts during changes in its moisture level. Keep nails about 3/4" to 1" (1" is for the U.B. Code), away from the side edges of the shingles and 1 1/2" (2" for UBC) above the butt line of the following course.

According to the Cedar Shake and Shingel Bureau, fasteners should be driven flush with the shake or shingle top surface, but no so deeply that the head crushes the wood.

For added details about proper wood shingle or wood shake roof installation, perhaps the most authoritative source of wood shingle and wood shake information is from the Western Red Cedar Shingle & Shake Bureau (now the Cedar and Shake Shingle Bureau, since not only western red cedar is used for roof shingles).

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Use links just below or at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

ROOFING INSPECTION & REPAIR
ASBESTOS CEMENT ROOFING
ASPHALT ROOF SHINGLES
BUILT UP ROOFS
CERTIFICATIONS for ROOFING CONTRACTORS
CHIMNEY INSPECTION & REPAIRS
CHOOSING A ROOFING CONTRACTOR
CLAY TILE ROOFING
FIRE RETARDANT PLYWOOD
HEAT TAPES & CABLES on Roofs for Ice Dams
INSULATION & VENTILATION INSPECTION & IMPROVEMENT
LOW SLOPE ROOFING MATERIALS
MASONITE WOODRUF FIBERBOARD ROOFING
MEMBRANE & SINGLE PLY ROOFS
METAL ROOFING TYPES
MODIFIED BITUMEN ROOFING
ROOF INSPECTION SAFETY & LIMITS
ROOF VENTILATION SPECIFICATIONS
ROOF VENTING ENERGY SAVING DETAILS
SLATE ROOF INSPECTION & REPAIR
SOD ROOFING
SIDING WOOD
STAIN DIAGNOSIS on Building Exteriors
STAIN DIAGNOSIS on Roofs
STANDARDS for ROOFING
STONE ROOFING
THATCH ROOFING
THERMAL EXPANSION of MATERIALS
THERMAL MASS in BUILDINGS
THERMAL MASS in UPSTAIRS
TILE ROOFING
WARRANTIES for ROOF SHINGLES
WOOD SHAKE & SHINGLE ROOFING
  Wood Roof Shingle Quality & Types
  Wood Shingle Specifications
  Wood Roof Wear or Installation Problems
  Wood Roof Inspection Guide
  Wood Roof Trouble Signs
  Wood Shakes & Application Details
  Wood Roof Protective Coatings & Fire Rating
WORKMANSHIP & WIND DAMAGE

• Thanks to Alan Carson and Bob Dunlop, Carson Dunlop, Associates, Toronto, for permission to use illustrations from their publication, The Illustrated Home which illustrates construction details and building components. Carson Dunlop provides home inspection education, publications, report writing materials, and home inspection services. Alan Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.
• "Choosing Roofing," Jefferson Kolle, January 1995, No. 92, Fine Homebuilding, Taunton Press, 63 S. Main St., PO Box 5506, Newton CT 06470 - 800-888-8286 - see http://www.taunton.com/FineHomebuilding/ for the magazine's website and for subscription information.
• The Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau in the U.S.: Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau, P.O. Box 1178
  Sumas, WA 98295-1178, or in Canada: Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau, #2 - 7101 Horne Street
  Mission, BC V2V 7A2, 604-820-7700 E-mail: info@cedarbureau.com. The association can also be contacted by their website, cedarbureau.org where the association offers wood shingle installation instructions in the form of a manual - cedarbureau.org/installation/wall_manual/introduction.htm
• "Treatment of Cedar Shakes and Shingles," David Flickinger, RRO, Professional Roofing, October 1999, Rosemont IL.
  

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