PSA: The easiest way to add "nail heads" to scratchbuilt wooden structures.

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Folks:

Don’t.

Adding prick-punched “nail marks” to clapboard structures has to be one of the leading things the skillful craftsmen in our hobby do that they really shouldn’t.

Here’s why: the whole point of clapboards, shingles, novelty siding and the like is to cover its own joints, and to cover its own nails. All are nailed near the top edge, and the next piece up is laid to overlap the nails. I haven’t seen too many board-and-batten structures, but I don’t recall seeing any visible nails on these, either, so they’re probably placed where the battens will cover them.

The reason: nails are unsightly, and they also rust. Rust absorbs water into the space between nail and wood, rotting the wood and causing further rust.

Occasionally a clapboard that has warped, or one that somebody has removed, will be face-nailed, but in nearly every case, with nearly every type of siding, it’s more realistic to leave them out. The only kind of siding which would be visibly face-nailed is plain wooden planking, which is not very common except for floors and modern decks, and even here the nails will be practically invisible, since they’ve been driven flush and probably painted over.

Scribe the board ends, add grain, and detail to your heart’s content, but leave those nail holes out.

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You are right. I never thought about it before. Board and batten does have nails in the battens but the boards although nailed would most often be covered by the battens. Of course there are going to be exceptions as uaual.

Dave

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DGS:

D’oh. thumps head, making hollow sound

Right, the battens would have to be face-nailed. Silly me. Still, even here I can’t recall ever seeing a prototype b&b structure where the nails were at all visible.

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These days maybe galvanized nails or coated screws could be used. In older buildings the nails rust and thats it. Pre 1900 buildings used hand forged nails, they rusted quickly when exposed to the weather.

Dave

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[#oops] good call, i’ll remember that! Thanks for the info.

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Sounds like you’ve been losing sleep over this.[:D]Good point though.[tup]

I do remember on a garage I owned there were nails where two boards butted up to each other. That was just plain wood siding boards.

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Tongue and groove siding is nailed through the groove and the nailhead is covered by the tongue of the next board. These type of boards are usually installed vertically but if they are horizontal, they should be installed with the groove facing down. That way, any water running down cannot gather in the groove and start the wood rotting.

Blue Flamer.

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BlF:

Interesting. That might explain very nicely just why the siding is usually installed vertically!

Nailing upwards through the groove into the studs would be a MAJOR PITA.

I have seen T&G flooring which was nailed through the tongue at a sharp angle - this prevents the nail from breaking through the underside of the tongue and interfering with the neighboring groove.

Siding, like the T&G “ceiling” often seen, might be too thin for this to work, hence the groove nailing.

Am I making any sense here?

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This debate has raged long and hard in the narrow gauge and craftsman kit world. Having participated in such a discussion on a craftsman structure building forum and been shown numerous examples of clapboard with face nails from old structures, I would contest that it is a matter of personal preference. There are enough examples in the real world to convince me that it can be done. Most that add them say that it is done to give a little more visual interest to the structure.

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prototypical or not I like the look of them

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I beg to differ.

Clapboard and novelty siding is nailed through the LOWER part of the faces. The nails are usually caulked over and then everything is painted. That is why you don’t normally see the nails until (if) the caulk falls out.

Clapboard nailed only at the top thinnest edges can split and fall off. It is also FAR less wind resistant. Ask an old time carpenter not one of those plastic siding guys. Better yet take a good look a well built wood sided house.

Still the point is not to model nails that you wouldn’t see. I agree with that.

[2c]

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On the jobsite, for money, to eat, I’ve nailed lap siding both ways. It depends some on what the siding is made of, some on what the shape of the siding cross section is, and quite a bit on what the guy writing the checks has to say about it.

Generally, with tons and tons of exceptions over twenty plus years on jobsites, running from 1978 to 2004, with a gap here and there for other pursuits, older cedar or natural wood tapered siding gets face nailed, because the top edge is too thin to hold a nail without splitting. Newer masonite or composite lap siding, those with a constant thickness cross section, is top nailed, for the reasons given by the OP. The uppermost piece in a vertical run of horizontal siding is, by necessity, face nailed. A good carpenter will plan his runs so that the top piece is a full sized ripper, cut to the width of an exposed piece of siding so it all looks uniform. Around a corner, inside or outside corner, his runs will be even, the bottoms all matching in heigth.

Over time, the galvanized coating on nails wears or rusts off, and then the nail becoms the top end of a rust waterfall forever, till the nail is rusted completely away. Learned that pulling hundred and twenty year old siding to replace it, both with new, and with “simulated old” new siding. It was easy to pull, because none of the nails had heads on them. they had all rusted away. The shafts of the nails, however, still had the hot dip galvanized “barbs” on them, and because they all projected the thickness of the old siding out from the stud faces, we had to pull every one, by hand, without benefit of the heads. Because of the Historical Building designation, we were not permitted to leave them in place or drive them, but we were also not required to dig out nails that broke off at the stud surface, and quite a few of the tougher ones to pull somehow…broke off. One of my fonder memories, to be sure.

On barns, sheds, outbuildings, and on larger buildings built by no

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I seem to recall reading somewhere about ‘stealth technology’ emerging in the building trades; one day in the not too distant future we will find ourselves using hardware which we cannot see nailing up boards which we also cannot see. That should go far to solving the problems of “nail heads”.

I look forward to the day when City Hall looks, suspiciously, like a vacant lot.

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I think it is also worth pointing out that many of the Craftsman kit type modellers are striving for a depression/steam era “other side of the tracks” look. In some cases this is almost a caricature, based on no particular prototype. Split and broken clapboards, peeling paint and exposed rusting nail holes all add to the effect. Not everyone likes this look, but each-to-their-own. I was lucky enough to attend the 2007 Craftsman Structure Show and had the chance to see models built by some of the masters of this type. All I can say is that the effect is breathtaking.

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