How To Split Wood Roof Shingles

Tom silva shows the apprentices how to properly install wood shingles.

How to split wood roof shingles.

How to hand split shingles and shingle a house. There are two primary types of wood roof shingles. For this reason and because wet wood roofs are slippery and dangerous to walk they should be inspected when they re dry. Splits are more difficult to see when wood is wet because as wood absorbs moisture it swells which tends to close splits.

Contrary to popular belief wood shingles and wood shakes are not the same thing. Use traditional hand tools to make oak shingles. The tools you ll need to split the shingle from the bolts include a froe metal wedge 8 12 long with an eye in one end to hold a handle and a wooden mallet made of hardwood with a knot for. Wood shakes are also thicker than wood.

2 slide a flat bar up under the shingle and pry out the nails with a few hammer blows. There are two main types. Wood shakes are split on one or both sides to form a textured grain appearance. Wood shingles are generally sawn on both sides to form a smooth tapered profile shape.

Using old fashioned tools and simple raw materials this old time self. 1 handsplit and resawn and 2 tapersawn. Wood shakes are split by hand from wood blocks are sometimes grooved and have a more rustic unique look. Thisoldhouse asktoh subscribe to this old house.

The craft of making roof shingles. For more videos visit http w. Near as peter gott can recollect he s split some 15 000 shingles over the. 1 split the defective shingle along the wood grain using a hammer and chisel as shown in the photo at the top of the page and pull out as many pieces of the shingle as you can.

Wood shakes are thicker than wood shingles. Pa mac demonstrates how to install a wood shingle roof on his new log chicken house. Hand split shakes are unmatched for beauty when you shingle a house. Having someone install a wood shingle roof runs anywhere from 4 7 a square foot or about 6 800 14 700 for an average one story ranch style home with a roof of 1 700 2 100 square feet.

Handsplit and resawn shakes have the split face exposed with a naturally rustic appearance and are sawn on the back. Or for a neater job you can cut off the nails using a hacksaw or a special.