January. 1913 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
15 
generally favored material. There are other shingles, to be sure: 
cypress and redwood, for instance. The latter, particularly, is 
cheaper and easier to obtain in the Western than the Eastern 
market. In northern latitudes the redwood shingles have some¬ 
times not been satisfactory from the fact that they come in such 
large widths that, when filled with moisture and frozen by a sud¬ 
den change in the weather, they are apt to split along the grain 
of the wood under the action of the slight pressure exerted by 
the upcurving uneven edges of the shingles beneath. This occa¬ 
sionally opens up crevices through which the next rainstorm finds 
an opening into the house below. Cypress or cedar shingles 
should both be laid up about the same distance to the weather, 
although the commercial 
shingle is growing thinner 
and shorter with each pass¬ 
ing season and now barely 
covers eighty-five surface 
feet when it formerly cov¬ 
ered one hundred. The cy¬ 
press shingle comes in larger 
sizes and can be laid up in 
larger widths. Besides, it 
has obtained the reputation 
of extreme durability. The 
ordinary exposure of the 
cedar shingle is 4J4 inches 
when on the roof, and not 
exceeding 5 inches when on 
the wall, and this gives the 
roof the appearance of being lined across with narrow strips 
that sometimes succeed in making the material too small and 
characterless on a large and boldly designed dwelling. In that 
case the architect has still at his command the larger and heavier 
cypress shingles, or occasionally he restores the proper scale to 
his design by doubling the shingles in every four or five courses, 
obtaining from the heavier shadow cast by this greater thickness 
a grouping - of the small shingle units into greater divisions of 
more size, giving them importance on the design. This, of 
course, adds to the expense and — in some localities—may possi¬ 
bly slightly increase the tendency of the shingle to rot where the 
double courses retain the moisture and cut out the ventilation. 
In some country locations, native shingles can be bought as low 
as $2.00 and $2.50 a thousand, but these are made from softer 
woods, often without regard to the direction of the grain; and 
they rarely — or never — can be obtained without a great number 
of knots, which add neither to the appearance of the roof nor to 
the life of the shingle after it has been ' secured in place. 
By means of stain, the shingle is adapted to run almost the 
entire gamut of color expression. Barring the fact that the 
darker wood shingle — such as the redwood or red cedar shingle— 
will not take the lighter stains without considerably modifying the 
color pigment, the white cedar can be toned from the most deli¬ 
cate shades up to the darkest, the latter obtainable only in the 
darker grained woods. If stained, the shingle should be dipped 
before placing upon the roof, so that not only the outer exposed 
face, but the butts, the sides and even the back receive a thorough 
coating of the pigment, or the preservative. In this way the life 
of a shingle is considerably prolonged. If stain is applied to 
shingles after they are laid upon the roof, it should be of the 
thinnest possible quality. A 
thick stain will merely run 
down to the lower edge of 
the butt and form a ridge 
above which water collects, 
having a tendency to rot 
the shingle course below. 
Paint produces the same re¬ 
sult to even a greater de¬ 
gree. Therefore a painted 
roof lasts less time than a 
natural shingled roof. A 
shingled roof, covered with 
a thick coat of stain after 
the shingles are laid, is like¬ 
ly to last less time than if 
the shingles were left nat¬ 
ural ; and the adding of the stain to the shingle by dipping before 
it is put in place will probably increase the life of the wood in 
the neighborhood of twenty to twenty-five per cent. This just 
about pays for the extra expense of stain and dipping, but the 
advantage — aside from the fact that it is so easy by the use of 
stains to bring the roof into its proper harmony of any color 
scheme desired—lies in the fact that the color of the roof is kept 
pleasing from the very moment of laying up to the very end of 
the life of the material. The dipped shingle, of course, absorbs a 
little more of the material than when it is applied with a brush, 
and it is also considered more of a bother to lay by carpenters, 
and consequently it costs a little bit more on both these items; 
but it is well worth the additional sum. 
In using color on shingles, especially in the darker tones, the 
result is likely to be too dense, heavy and “stodgy” in effect. In 
the lighter shingle colors the different texture of the wood, and 
the varying amount of stain it may absorb by its varying porous 
qualities, make certain minor gradations that soften the effect of 
The appearance of a tile roof is improved when the various tiles are left 
open at the eaves, producing the interesting wave line 
A mottled effect produced by unstained shingles allowed to weather 
for a time is attractive 
The use of shingles may be varied to produce pattern effects of various 
lines such as is shown here 
