Library builder

IN ADDITION TO VINYL SIDING, there are three more exterior finisies to consider if you’re inter­ested in affordability, low maintenance, and attrac­tive appearance: Composite wood. These planks are made the same way as OSB sheathing panels, but they look like solid-wood clapboards or horizontal lap siding when installed. This siding comes with a factory-applied primer […]

EACH PHASE OF A HOMEBUILDING PROJECT OFFERS A NEW SET OF CHALLENGES and rewards, but the work that we do in this chapter is especially exciting. The big, stick-framed box we’ve built is about to receive a beautiful skin, with windows and doors added to make it weatherproof. By the time we’ve finished the tasks […]

At the ridge, many builders install ridge shingles on the roof ends with a ridge vent between them. An alternative is to install the ridge vent across the entire roof, even though the ends of the vent (located over the gable — end overhangs) are not functional. Some ridge vents do not require a cap […]

When a porch roof intersects the main roof at a right angle, a valley is formed. Shingles can be laid across a vallev in different wavs. 4 4 A woven valley is formed by weaving shingles across the valley, alternately overlapping from the main roof onto the porch roof, then vice versa. When properly done, […]

HERE IN THE WEST, we try to order shingles the day before they will be installed. Suppliers arrive with a hoist and stack both shingles and felt paper directly onto the roof. An expe­rienced celivery person knows to stack bundles of shingles about 6 ft. apart on both sides of the roof. The other way […]

TO OBTAIN THE RIGHT LAYOUT, try this two-step method: 1. Measure across the roof from out side edge to outside edge (parallel with the eave wall), including the planned overhang distance for the shingles. For example, let’s assume that the shingles will overhang the drip edge by / in. Measure in yards (since the length […]

DETERMINING THE QUANTITY of materials needed to cover and shingle a roof is rather easy. First, measure the roof to determine its square footage. Add the width of both sides of the roof and multi­ply that number by the length of the roof. Let’s look at an example: A roof with an overall width of […]

Back in the days when 1 was a roof shingler, I hardly ever saw asphalt or fiberglass (compo­sition) shingles. Being a shingler meant work­ing with wood shingles. Now in most parts of the country, I see wood shingles used more often on the sides of buildings than on roofs. Composition shingles are more popular because […]

Now that the house has been framed and sheathed, its time to seal it from the elements. As long as you are able to work safely on a roof, voucan cover it with rooting felt and shingles. It’s best if all the plumbing and beating vents are through the root before you install the felt. […]

A SAFE STRATEGY for hoisting sheathing onto a roof is to build a simple staging platform, as shown in the photo at right. Nail the platform’s two horizontal supports (a pair of 2x4s works fine) to the wall framing or, if the wall has been sheathed already, to a 2x cleat nailed through the sheathing […]