How to Side a House With Shingles

Although infrequently used in new houses, wooden shingles provide an attractive appearance that is more genuine and traditional than vinyl siding. Furthermore, in parts of the country where many older homes use wood shingles for siding, wooden shingles allow your home to blend into the neighborhood.

Things You'll Need

• Bundles of shingles
• Hammer
• Nails
• Straightedge
• Wooden or plastic slats
• Drip caps
• Small hand saw

Instructions

1. Measure the sides of your house. Use a simple length x width calculation to determine the surface area to be covered. Decide which style of shingle siding you wish to use. Walls are either single or double-coursed. Double-coursing means that two shingles are applied as if they were one, providing greater weather protection and thicker edging for attractive shadow lines. You will naturally need twice as many shingles for a double-coursed siding job.

2. Determine the size of shingles you want to use and the amount of area you need to cover. Shingles are packaged in lengths varying between 16 and 24 inches, with each bundle being packaged to cover a set approximate area (typically, but not always, 25 square feet). While using big shingles means less work, small shingles are more attractive. Purchase enough bundles of shingles to cover your siding job, with a handful of bundles as spares. The spares are useful in case you underestimated the job; they also come in handy for later repairs.

3. The use of wooden or plastic slats--thin boards--will raise the shingles from the wall, providing greater protection. The shingles are nailed through their ends and middles, so you will need to measure where to nail the slats to the wall accordingly. For example, if you are using 24-inch shingles, your first slat will need to be 12 inches off the ground, and every other slat set 12 inches higher. These slats should be aligned in straight lines running across the wall. A drip cap should be fixed to the very bottom line of the shingle siding.

4. Work from the bottom up. Nail the first layer of shingles, driving a nail through the top end and the middle line of each shingle, fixing them to the slat beneath. Use a straightedge if you feel you need to check the alignment of your work with the shingles. Then, as you work up, arrange the shingles to overlap. The middle of the next layer of singles should be on a line with the top ends of the layer beneath. Continue working your way up, row after row.

5. Corners can be handled in one of two ways. Saw individual shingles to fit the corners. This works for both inward and outward-facing corners. The other method is to use a frame. For an outward-facing corner, join small boards into place to cover the corner, overlapping the shingles on both sides of the corner. For an inward-facing corner, use a strip of wood 1-inch by 1-inch, or 2 inches by 2 inches to place in the corner. Run the shingles up to this strip. Dealing with corners will prove to be the most delicate part of siding your house with shingles.