Greenleaf Day 10 - siding

I have been putting siding on the shack today. The siding is the stuff that Greenleaf sells, and they call it Clapboard Siding. It measures 3/4 inch wide and comes in 12-inch long pieces. It can be glued horizontally in overlapping rows, or attached vertically, as I have chosen to do. It is thin and can be cut with scissors, which is great if you need to cut a curve. Gee, the top of the wall is curved!

I have been gluing the siding to the wall with yellow carpenter's glue. Since I am gluing wood to wood, it should hold really well. Plus, there are no nasty fumes from quick-drying glue! It is a slow process, though. The glue warps the thin strips of wood, so I have been attaching the strips one piece at a time, and holding each strip in place with lots of painter's tape. The glue sets up in about 30 minutes. I started in the middle of the wall, and once the first strip was done, I could glue two strips at a time--one on each side. This is not a process that produces quick results, but it is great for a person with a short attention span, which I have. Actually, it was a good project for today. I had to bring some work home, since there is not enough time nor enough quiet at work to get done what I need to get done. Gluing siding to the shack was a good excuse to take a break from the reading for work that I have to do.



There are some things I should point out in the picture, that I think of as tips.

First, there is a strip of siding leaning against the wall. I have not glued it in place yet. It will cover a groove I had cut in the wall, which will hold a wire for an interior light which has not been installed yet. Some of the strips of siding held to the wall with tape are also not glued in place.

Second, I put narrow horizontal pieces of the siding wood above and below the windows and above the door. This is so that there is are neater edges along the openings. Trim will be added over the siding, but a thin layer of siding will show around each opening because I didn't want to butt the siding up to the window trim, and I didn't want to route out part of the trim to cover the edges of the trim. So, instead of having a bunch of board ends at the edge of a opening, there will be one piece of wood above and below each window. It will all be painted or stained, so it won't show too much, but the side grain will look better than the end grain of the siding, no matter what kind of finish is used.

Third, I drew part of a circle that same radius as the curve of the roof on a scrap piece of card stock, and I cut out the curve. I use it as a guide for cutting off the tops of the boards for the curved part of the roof. I laid a board in place, extending it past the edge of the wall, put the guide over it, lining it up with the curved edge of the wall, and traced the outline with pencil. Then I cut the wood with scissors.

Fourth, I staggered the joints of the boards where I had too butt them together. In some places, the boards were not tall enough. A funny thing is that I have seen real houses where the butt joints of siding were not properly staggered. Well, they were staggered, but not randomly. It drives me nuts when I see it done incorrectly.

Today's favorite tool: scissors