Repair or replace shingle siding?

[JRC]

My house has shingle siding in the front gables. The shingles in the gable of the porch roof appear fine. But, some of the shingles in the large roof gable are lifting, and some are missing.



Unfortunately, I can't decide what the best approach to fixing the problem is. Also, now that the big pine tree is gone, someone is going to notice, and I'm going to be forced into action by the city.

So, here's the deal. The shingles that are there, are about 16" long, about 5" wide, with a 1.25" half-cove on each side. After a quick Google search, I see that many places carry "fancy butt" half cove shingles, but none appear to match the exact size and proportion of my existing shingles, if I wanted to just replace the missing/bad ones.

Then, if I order a custom shape, or try to cut them myself, (and although I own a coping saw, I'm not so sure I have the skill to do a good job) the new cedar shingles will still appear mismatched, because they won't have all the layers of paint that the existing shingles do.

It would seem that, based on the above, I should just replace all of the shingles below the window head, in the pictured gable. But, most of the shingles still appear in decent shape. Also, if I replaced all of the shingles, I should replace the metal flashing at the bottom of the gable. (that's a question for another day, because although it's water tight, it holds water, and is somewhat rusty) But now, a project of that scope is a little too expensive for me, right now. I could replace a couple of the shingles from out of the attic window, but I'd need to hire someone to replace all of them, and the metal flashing.

Now that I've written it all out, it seems like the best answer might be to order a dozen or so shingles that might come close to matching the shape, and live with a slight mismatch for a few years, until I can afford to completely re-shingle the whole gable. But, if anyone has any better ideas, or companies they've dealt with and would recommend, please share. (for example, individual half cove cedar shingles from this place are $2.69 per shingle, so my order could be less than $35, but the profile isn't exactly the same: http://www.vintagewoodworks.com/cutcedcart.html)

Thanks in advance for any advice or experience you can share!

[Powermuffin]

Seems like you might be able to have a nicely placed row of new shingles, rather than try to mix them in next to the old ones.

[SkipW]

For the number you need to make the repairs, I would vote for cutting your own to the correct size as opposed to buying the wrong size. You can use one from the gable as a template. If you make your own and they are slightly irregular, I imagine it would look better that a true mismatch. Also, since they are that high, you could get away with using small head stainless siding nails and face nailing near the top of the exposure (pre-drill) and paint and it would never be seen.

[Mick_VT]

See if they will custom mill, or make your own. You could make that half cove shape clean and fast with a hole saw (maybe even do four at a time!)

It would be a huge amount of unnecessary work to replace them all. As Skip says, once up there and painted you will never know the difference.

[JRC]

Thanks for the replies, so far! I had another idea: I could order a number of the "square" shingles from the above website, and try to cut the correct size half-cove myself.

I found some places, online, that give the option of custom shapes, but there is a minimum order required, that is much more than I need.

I may try the hole saw idea, to make the half-coves. Would you clamp the shingles to a sacrificial board, and drill through the whole thing?

[Mick_VT]

I may try the hole saw idea, to make the half-coves. Would you clamp the shingles to a sacrificial board, and drill through the whole thing?

Essentially yes. I think I would make a jig that would take 4 shingles at a time - like a shallow box that would allow easy alignment and hold them from spinning. You would likely also need to clamp them down. This would allow you to cut a complete circle taking an equal arc from the corner each of the four shingles. You would simply place the pilot drill of the hole saw where the 4 meet. I would make the bottom of the jig box out thick plywood. It would be somewhat sacrificial but I would not let the hole saw gut right through it after going through the shingles.

Hoping that what's in my mind's eye comes across above

[Gothichome]

JRC, here's a thought. Strip the shingles from the peak and use to rebuild the bottom section. At that point you can use all new similar shaped on the now bare peak or go with another pattern all together. The pattern change would only work if no other peak is visible on my the same side though.

[JRC]

I finally got around to this project today: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=79&p=11863#p11863