I am building my first laser cut building. It is one of the new Walthers kits, Macon’s. The kit comes with stick on tar paper for the shed roof. I have a couple of packs of North Eastern pre-assembled shingles.
I realize a builder in 1 to 1 could use any materials he had available. But my question is: would the shingles be appropriate on a SHED roof?
Thanks
I would say yes. There’s enough slope. The building is a “private owner” (not corporate), so the owner could have his own opinions on what makes a good/proper roof.
Ed
I am putting the finishing touches on an FSM kit and I elected to go the other way. The kit included shingles for the roof on one of the structures but to my eye, it just didn’t look right. To me the shingles looked like what they were, paper. I had some left over “tar paper” from another craftsman kit and I substituted that for the shingles and I liked the look. It’s all a matter of preference. Whatever looks right to you. Either type of roof would be appropriate.
For what it’s worth, I am building a garden shed in my backyard and I am going to use some left over shingles. I imagine the builder of any shed would choose whatever is most economical. A shed is a shed so why put more money into it than necessary.
The shingles would be much more appropriate for any roof than tarpaper. I believe, though, that what modellers often refer to as tarpaper is actually roll roofing. Roll roofing is very similar in appearance to asphalt shingles, and is intended for roofs with a fairly low slope (1 in 12 or slightly steeper). If the roof is too steep, though, roll roofing has a fairly short lifespan.
Tarpaper is usually used as a moisture or wind barrier, often on walls, although many roofers use it as an underlay for various types of shingles, too. It’s not intended to be left exposed.
I simulated roll roofing with .005" sheet styrene on these trackside sheds, despite their rather steep roofs:
…and used paint to depict it on the roofs of the Hoffentoth Bros.’ businesses:
Wayne
I certainly would not claim to know much about roofing in general, but I do know that the answer to the shingles/tar paper question if very dependent on time period and location. If you model the southern U.S. in the steam/early diesel era you would be absolutely correct in using ‘tar paper’ on rural house roofs, especially those of poorer folks. Shingles would be well above the standard for most shotgun houses. In addition, modest structures that were getting up in years by mid 20th Century could well have had tar paper rather than shingles (roll or otherwise.) Can’t say if that applied in other parts of the country.
It just might be that in looking at roll shingles versus tar paper, it is a matter of a distinction without a difference.
Having a modest background in construction, DRWayne is most correct but I believe the breakpoint ti be closer to 3:12. But using whats availible is also a big factor so for small insignificant structures do whatever is handy but for larger more permanent structures let the pitch decide.
The funny part here is that I have a good-sized shed in my backyard that has both shingles and rolled roofing on it. Why? Hoo-boy. Well, it’s like this… It’s 119 years old, and my family has owned it for the past 70 years. My grandfather put rolled roofing on it even tho’ it has a fairly steep pitch becuse it was cheaper and it’s just a shed. The southwestern side is the weather side and gets the sun all day. Therefore, it wore out faster, needing my father and I to go up every year and tar the seams and small holes that appeared like clockwork.
After I almost fell off the roof trying to repair a cracked roof sheet (the roof was so steep that one of the sheets had buckled after 20 years), I decided enough was enough. I talked my father into letting me strip the roof and lay down asphalt shingles on tar paper instead of more rolled roofing on the southwestern side.
Meanwhile, the northeastern side, which rarely gets much weather or sun (lots of shade in the morning) is still rolled roofing and has held up pretty well even tho’ it’s been years since I’ve touched it.
So if you want, when you model a shed, you can have both shingles and rolled roofing! [:)]
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven