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URGENT Cedar shingle layout question

12 years ago

Hi all-

I'm siding my home with cedar shingles. It's looking great, but I have a layout question I hope you can answer.

The shingles are Maibec white cedar (Cabot bleaching oil-dipped) and the reveal is about 4.875". There are corner boards. The courses were carefully laid out to align with the tops and bottoms of the windows. As you can see in the photo, though, this makes the topmost course on the non-gable side be really short (Maibec's instructions say that the top row should not be less than 4".

Visually, I feel like the short top row (that I just started installing) also creates an optical illusion that makes the row below it seem too tall.

However, if I replace that top row with a 4" row, it won't line up with the adjacent row on the gable end.

What's the lesser of two evils? What would you do?

Thank you!

Stacey

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Comments (7)

athensmomof3
12 years ago
I think it is unnoticeable under the eave like that. We are just talking about an inch, right? I really don't think it looks bad at all. I think it is more important that the rows align at the corners, if this is what you are asking.
Stacey Collins
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you! Yeah, that's sort of what I thought as well. And the manufacturer's 4" requirement is probably to do with watershedding, which isn't an issue under the eave. I will probably continue with my Thanks for the input, I appreciate it :)
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@cpartist Thank you for your design ideas. I appreciate the time you put into making the diagram. It does definitely make the house look less busy and emphasizes the entry. We do like more of a craftsman look which makes the board and batten work for us. Unfortunately, it is too late to make changes to the layout. The lap siding and board and batten are already installed. The stone is not installed yet, but we actually removed the stone from front of the house replacing it with lap siding and will just be keeping it around the pillars and surrounding the front door. I understand what you mean about a lot going on. I do like the interest in varied textures, but I do feel that effort must be made to not make it look too busy. I think i should either go with one color or just the shingles in a slightly darker color and the rest one color. Would that be your recommendation to simplify? The front door will be a stained wood door.
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noodlesportland
12 years ago
This looks great!
Also, love thelook!
User
12 years ago
Part of the charm of wood shingles is that they create the appearance of a textured fabric that wraps the house or infills between trim boards. Details like the top course height are just part of the fabric. The only way to minimize variations in coursing is to reduce the shingle exposure for all of the shingles which is expensive. 5" exposure is normal for 15" shingles (triple coverage).

I think it looks fine.
MRutledge
12 years ago
Due to the proximity of your window trim your solution works fine. Typically you want to shorten several courses to accomodate the top and bottoms of windows, walls etc. So instead of going short 1" on one course, you'd shorten four courses by 1/4" each. The reason they don't want you to go shorter than 4" is because the flat grain in white cedar cups and curls so easily. I've done 2" trims like this with Western Red Cedar Shingles which are 100% vertical grain, and they still look great after 20 years.
Stacey Collins
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you all very much for your input. I continued my short
bryan805
6 years ago
Hi Stacey,

I was planning on installing the exact same shingles. Have you had any issues with cupping or mildew with the bleaching oil since you installed them 6 years ago?

Thanks!

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