Difficult as it may be to believe, I do not have to make everything myself. Once you get started, though, it feels easier to make stuff than it is to look for an appropriate product. So, I was thinking I would be making my own shingles for the little half-a-house that I’m calling 716 Mary Street.
Then, as I was taking a break from the Craftsman’s Corner at Vancouver Train Expo a few weeks ago, I happened to wander into Monashee Laser Engineering’s stall, where, along with shelves of useless but pretty items like CPR stations I found a peg full of laser cut peel-and-stick shingles. I don’t need those, I snorted to myself, as I continued on my way.
Yet, I must have circled back, because they were in my box when I unpacked later that evening. Then, with the coal dock completed, and not quite ready to start on the water tower in earnest, I let the campfire smell out of the little zip-lock bag that is the shingles’ packaging.
Inspired by one of the photos of shingle roofs I took at Fort Langley this summer, I stained two sheets with greys and a bit of burnt umber oil paint. Before staining, the sheets were brown-bag colour, so the stain shifts that, but doesn’t replace it. Next time I will use a narrower brush as there are some sections where a whole row of shingles is one colour, and I’ll have to return with a brush to break those up later.
Laying the shingles was straightforward, and it was fun to use someone else’s work for once. They are an excellent product. With the backing removed, the glue is very sticky, although you have a moment or two to reposition before you’re replacing the strip and possibly the one beneath it too. My only criticism is that some of the shingles scale out to about 16 inches wide or so, which is a very wide shingle even here in the land of big trees.
The only hard part was pencilling guidelines onto the existing roof. That would be much easier before the roof was installed, and easier still if I’d had the laser do it when it was cutting them out. In the end, I wound up clamping a scale rule in place to mark the lines.
The chimney is printed from my own pattern, which made getting it vertical a doddle. Flashing is aluminum foil, and remains to be painted.
Pembroke:87 