Dmitry, Omsk asks a question:

Good afternoon. I want to make a gazebo at my dacha, and its roof will be made of wooden tiles. Tell me, who knows how to make wooden tiles with your own hands. What is the order of work? In general, we can describe the entire sequential series of works. What tools or devices might be needed for this? Do I need to cover the finished boards with something? If necessary, then what impregnating compositions are best to use for this? In general, the more information offered on a given subject, the better. I'm waiting for detailed answers. Thank you for your attention.

The expert answers:

Today, making wooden tiles with your own hands is carried out by craftsmen who honor traditions. However, their work is not cheap. Wood shingles- a type of roofing covering that was used in ancient times and was valued for its durability, unique aesthetic qualities, frost and wind resistance, as well as excellent noise-absorbing properties. Purpose of this material– not only to be a covering on the roof, but also to serve as a decorative exterior finishing facades.

In Rus', a roof made of wooden tiles was called shingles, in America - shingles, in Europe - shindel. Today, shingles are increasingly playing the role of decorative covering, or it can be found in architecture museums.

Shingles are made from oak, beech, larch, ash, spruce, pine, cypress, and cedar. Larch shingles are more expensive. Larch wood is endowed with increased moisture resistance, and is even superior to oak in strength. Over time, it only gains strength due to the exceptional combination of resins in this wood species, which serve to protect the wood from mold and insects. More budget option considered to be pine wood, which is most often used for shingles in central Russia.

To create shingles, the butt part of the trunk is used, which is equal to the distance from the roots to the first knot. Since it is in this section of the trunk that there is a greater accumulation of resins, less humidity and no knots. And the butt section of the trunk is the smoothest. The wood is used from winter felling.

The trunks are also suitable for small diameters. The main thing is that they are even and that they can be cut into logs approximately 40-45 cm in length and without knots. Shingles are made from lumps of wood, pre-dried and with the core cut out, due to the fact that this is where the wood cracks the most. To do this, each log is split into two halves or quarters. After cutting out the core, the remaining wood is split into thin plates, which are shingles. Splitting is done with a special wide cleaver driven with a mallet, or a special shingle cutting machine is used.

Shingles are harvested in spring, summer and autumn. Before work, be sure to remove the bark from the logs. Otherwise, the lifespan of your shingle roof will be short.

The finished tiles are impregnated with drying oil, and varnish for external use is applied on top.

The service life of wood tiles is about 50 years.

To ensure the longevity of a shingle roof, the roof angle should be pointed, but not less than 18 degrees. The higher the angle of inclination of the roof slope, the longer the service life of the coating. Lay the shingles in three layers.

The return to natural building materials is due not only to fashionable environmental arguments, although there is no doubt about their persuasiveness. Organic matter created by nature spontaneously adapts to the living conditions of its owners at a unique intellectual level. It is completely recycled after wear and tear, without disturbing the natural balance either during or after use. Among the materials that have “surfaced” from the depths of time are shingles and other types of wooden roofing, firmly forgotten due to their considerable cost and labor-intensive installation. However, it is possible to cover a roof with shingles very economically. The technology is not complicated, but diligence and baggage simple rules the future roofer needs to stock up.

Advantages of a wooden roof

It’s easy to guess that the installation of wooden shingles will involve the scrupulous fastening of each individual element. If you are interested in a budget wooden roof, you will also need to make the material yourself. But thanks to the excellent insulating properties of wood, the owners will not be disturbed by the sound of rain and cats prancing on the roof. And the structure will become unique due to the inimitable effect of the wooden plates.

All types roofing coverings, united under the technological name “shingle roofing”, work on the principle of a fir cone. When wet, their elements swell, as if they close together, turning into a barrier to atmospheric moisture. In dry weather, the wood shrinks, allowing air to circulate freely. roof gaps and in the under-roof space. That is, both waterproofing and ventilation are carried out independently by natural organic matter. Because wooden structures Most roofs do not require the installation of steam and waterproof layers if the slope angle is not lower than the limits specified in DIN 68119.

Types of Wood Roofing Sheets

To install a bathhouse roof, you can buy factory-made material or make it yourself. Factory options won’t be cheap, but they can impress full readiness for installation or artistic carving of the lower edge. Elements of shingle coverings differ in manufacturing technology, configuration and installation method. Based on the listed differences, they are divided into the following types:

• Shingles are the covering that gave the name to all types in this category. It consists of individual sawn or chipped plates, the longitudinal section of which can be strictly rectangular, trapezoidal, or may resemble dovetail. In the case of the tail, planks tongued in this way are not only attached to the sheathing, but are also connected to each other using a tongue-and-groove pattern. In the case of using non-grooved material, i.e. trapezoidal and rectangular elements, fastening to the sheathing and connecting to each other is carried out only with the help of nails or self-tapping screws. The fastener passes through two plates without a tongue and goes all the way into the lath by 2 cm.

Pay attention! Sawn material is noticeably inferior in terms of operational and technical specifications chopped analogue. During the sawing process, the natural structure of the wood fibers is disrupted, which is why it cannot withstand external negative factors.

• Shingles and chips are simplified variations on the theme of shingles, differing only in dimensions and thickness. The length of the roofing shingles is usually from 40 cm to 1 m, the chips are smaller. Both wood chips and shingles are made with your own hands by chopping wood into uncalibrated planks. The log for the logs must be thick and well dried, otherwise many planks will be wasted. If you chop lumber with a moisture content of less than 18%, the elements will crack when drying. If you use the soft center of the log - sapwood, the planks will not withstand long-term use. In addition, there should be no knots or snags on the elements of the roofing shingles, as well as through cracks and areas prone to rot. It is optimal to use aspen or alder; soft coniferous species are suitable. The shingles on the roof are laid according to the checkerboard principle in two, three, four or five layers with overlaps, both horizontally and vertically.

Please note. For proper fit, the side edges of the boards are chamfered. At an angle of 45º it must be done in the same direction on both sides. Craftsmen who know very well how to make shingles recommend chamfering the outer transverse edge for beauty and the inner one for a better fit.

• Shindel is a tile made of wood, mounted overlapping, but not in a clear checkerboard pattern, but with some displacement of the elements. This prototype of modern flexible tiles do not attach rigidly to the sheathing. There should be some screw left. Elements of wooden shingles are not installed tightly to each other to ensure the ability to increase in size from moisture without “swelling” of the planks resting against each other. When making a spindle, it is important to take into account the location of the structural rings of wood, otherwise, with repeated drying and moistening, the material will warp in a direction that is not necessary for the owner.
• The ploughshare is a legendary covering that adorned wooden churches and boyar mansions in Rus' with carved splendor. Each ploughshare is piece of art, entirely created by the skilled hands of a master. For production we use exclusively aspen and hand tool. Wood is harvested during the period of active circulation the largest number juice by fiber - at the end of spring. A lot of carefully selected lumber goes into creating the plowshare elements, which resemble a paddle with a carved edge. An expensive pleasure is extremely rarely ordered from specialized artels for the decoration of small-sized architectural forms.

• Tes - coniferous boards laid on roofs along the eaves line or across. The second option is the most practical, as it lasts much longer. A groove is cut in the center of the boards installed across the cornice to allow water to drain. The roof is installed from planks in two layers, staggered, with or without a gap between the boards. Fastening is done with one nail. The boards of the top layer are well planed and positioned so that the core “looks” out. The boards of the bottom layer do not need to be planed; they are installed with the core down. If the installation direction is chosen along the eaves line, installation begins with fastening the sheathing board against which the first row will rest. Installation is carried out with an overlap of 5 cm of each subsequent row on the previous board.

Inexperienced home handyman It is possible to independently produce shingles or wood chips, which does not require special skills or qualifications as a wood carver. Despite the ease of processing lumber with natural humidity, it cannot be used, you need to stack the logs and dry them. It will take 3 years for a log to “mature” until it is ready; the process can be accelerated by sawing it into logs with a minimum length of 40 cm. Then the logs will be ready in six months, but it is better to wait 9 months. Prick the dried hard rock very difficult, but in order to get wear-resistant roofing shingles it’s worth the effort.

Calculation of the amount of lumber for the roof

Naturally, there are few people who want to discover the shortage of the coating that has been prepared for installation for so long. Therefore, it is better to calculate the required number of logs in advance. There are special tables for calculating the amount of factory material. Using them, the number of planks required for laying in two or three rows on a slope with a certain slope can be easily calculated. The material is usually purchased with a 5% reserve in case of an unsuccessful attempt to hammer a nail. The home roofer also needs to focus on the roof area, the size of which depends on the steepness of the upper enclosing structure. However, first you need to calculate how many plates are needed to cover one meter.

Please note. The optimal slope of a roof with wooden tiles is 55º-71º. Roofers consider the slope figure to be an indicator equivalent to the service life of the coating. The critical limit for the slope angle is 14º-18º. The higher the slope, the more material is needed for its construction.

A four-meter log from which wooden shingles will be produced can be divided into a maximum of 10 lumps. One block will yield 3 or 4 boards with a width of about 15 cm. Precise calibration of the elements is not required. 7 plates can be laid along the longitudinal line per meter of roofing. Further calculations depend on the number of coating layers. With a three-layer installation used for home improvement, only a third of the element reaches the daytime surface.

Over bathhouses, gazebos, and verandas, wooden tiles are usually laid in two layers. This means that the number of plates produced needs to be doubled, we get 14. With a two-layer laying with an overlap of the previous row of 10 cm, 30 cm of boards will “peek out” from under the next row. That is, approximately 3 rows go vertically. Let's multiply and round, we get 42 elements, but it is better to count on 50. The remainder will not be lost in any case. Shingles can be used to decorate the pediment, façade, or cover the walls inside.

Please note. To perform the first from eaves overhang row and for the ridge analogue, the plates are made shorter.

Shingling technology

Wood roofing is classified as a medium-heavy structure; roofing shingles will not weigh more than 17 kg. Powerful rafter system no need for it. But the sheathing must be constructed in increments depending on the spacing of the elements. Experienced craftsmen It is advised to build the sheathing with a continuous flooring without gaps from the board. In the case we are considering, installing shingles in two layers of lath, you need to install them every 30 cm.

Please note. The sheathing pitch for a three-layer finished roof is calculated by dividing the length of the element by 3. Rounding is done downward.

The plates are fastened with galvanized self-tapping screws designed for working with wood, special screw-shaped or grooved nails. The fasteners are placed in the two upper corners of the shingles, no closer than 2 cm to the edge.

Attention! In the case of a wooden roof with insulation, direct contact between the shingles and waterproofing material unacceptable. Between them you need to form ventilation gap by installing a counter-lattice. Ventilation will not be required if a superdiffusion membrane is used as an insulating layer.

The main components of a wooden roof are built according to the same technological principle for all roofs. A hermetically sealed tin apron is required around the chimney and along the connection lines. Valley and convex corners are laid in a fan pattern. The ridge can be decorated by laying two joined long boards, installing short boards with an overlap similar to the ridge structure for ceramic tiles. You can lay a shingle on the ridge - a full-length log with a longitudinal groove formed for inserting the upper edges of the shingles under it.

More and more people are striving to make their homes natural. Moreover, we have materials that our ancestors used. The first one is wood. Many technologies have come down to us from them. So, for example, when installing log houses, we still use the techniques that were developed centuries ago. The roof was no exception. Today, wooden roofs can increasingly be seen not only on old houses or domes, but also on well-built houses and bathhouses. Both wooden buildings and wooden roofs are becoming increasingly popular, even as new, faster and much cheaper technologies emerge.

With the production of roofing and roofing wooden materials it will take a long time to get there. It takes a long time to make the wooden roofing materials themselves, and the flooring of such a roof is a long process. But you can do everything with your own hands, with an axe, a hammer and a couple of blades. Of course, it will take a lot of time, patience and wood.

From the name it is clear that this type of natural roofing material Once upon a time they were torn by hand. This was done using a long wedge-shaped blade and a hammer or mallet, which was used to hit the blade.

We used coniferous wood when working with the blade: it is softer and easier to split. At the same time, they chose straight, knot-free trunks that were kept for at least 3 years to dry. After which they sawed them into logs about 40 cm long. The bark was removed from them and they began to make shingles.

But shingles are not only coniferous; they are made from aspen and linden. Their wood is denser and you can’t split it with your hands. For this purpose they used a special “machine” - mahalo. These are two logs of small diameter (12-16 cm), fastened together with a kingpin. On the lower one they made a device for wedging logs, on the upper one a blade was attached horizontally. The distance from the blade to the log determines the thickness of the shingles.

This is a fragment of the work of the “machine” - the wave

You can chip on dry or soaked wood. To make it easier to make thin shingles - no more than 3 mm, the prepared logs were soaked overnight.

The prepared log was secured in a transverse position, after which the top log began to be waved from side to side. The blade first cuts the wood, and then it splits off along the grain. To make it easier to swing, you could tie a rope to the handle and throw it over your shoulder. This way your hands drop lower and it’s easier to work.

It is by appearance that one can distinguish whether shingles are made manually or on a machine. When made by hand upper part it turns out smooth - the blade cut it, and the bottom one is wavy - as if it was torn off along the fibers. Made on machines, it has a flat and smooth surface along its entire length.

If we talk about which is better - hand-made or factory-made, then preference is given to hand-made. It may not be ideal (many people like imperfection), but it lasts longer. The fact is that when the fibers split, they do not collapse, and therefore such shingles can, as they say, last 100 years. When sawn, the fibers are cut, water flows into them and the decomposition process begins.

Method and order of installation

Masters claim that when correct installation no additional layers are needed. After all, shingles are laid in three to five layers. So no rain can wet it. Wood itself does an excellent job of both waterproofing and ventilation. Films will only interfere with natural ventilation.

The length of the shingles is approximately 35-45 cm, width 5-12 cm, thickness - 3-8 mm. It is laid in several layers one on top of the other. There are from three to five layers. The colder the region, or the stronger the winds, the thicker the roof should be.

Depending on how many layers there will be, choose the lathing pitch. In principle, it can be solid, but with 5 mm gaps between the slats - for good ventilation.

It is convenient to align the edge along the lace stretched from edge to edge. The planks are laid one next to the other, sometimes with a slight overlap. Each is nailed with a roofing nail, preferably galvanized. When the use of tribute was widespread, special nails were made that were thinner than regular nails. Before use they were boiled in drying oil. Such fasteners did not rust for decades.

Lay the shingles from the bottom/up, the first row along the eaves overhang. It should extend beyond the sheathing (stick out) by 3-5 cm. This way the shingles will also protect the sheathing, otherwise it will darken from moisture and may begin to rot. Planks different widths you need to alternate, so the thickness of the roof will be more uniform.

Turn the shingles so that the fibers face down. This way the water will roll off and not flow into the wood. If done incorrectly, it will quickly turn black and disintegrate. The direction of the fibers is clearly visible if the board is slightly bent.

Shorter planks are placed under the shingles of the first row. If you don't do this, it will end up bent down. Therefore, firstly, an additional beam is nailed there (if the sheathing is not solid), and secondly, two additional layers are laid. You can see how it looks in the photo.

Having reached the ridge, the shingles are cut to the required size. After all the necessary dies have been secured, the ridge is covered with two long boards.

Shingles and shingle roofing

It can be distinguished from all other wooden roofing materials by its triangular profile: one side of the plank is significantly thicker than the other. To obtain this shape, the wood is split in a radial direction.

This is a shingle - it has a triangular profile and a groove at the wider end

A wedge-shaped recess is made on the thickened side into which the narrow edge of the next plank is inserted. Thus it turns out very reliable roof. The roofing on residential buildings is done in two layers, on outbuildings - in one.

The dimensions of the gontines are approximately the same: 30-45 cm in length, 6-12 cm in width. It’s not easy to determine the thickness because of the triangular shape.

Shingles can also be sawn or chipped. Sawn is less durable, although it looks neater. Larch and spruce performed best when using such roofs. Slightly worse are pine and aspen.

Bars 50*50 mm or 60*60 mm are used for the sheathing. And all because the weight is considerable, especially if it is covered with two layers of shingles.

There is no need to use shingles that are too dry: when wet, they can swell and lose their tightness. If the wood is too dry, soak it for several hours before laying. Only purchased material cannot be installed immediately: not all grooves and ridges will fit together. That’s why they first go over it and trim it.

Laying begins from the roof overhang. A board is nailed to the cornice; it should protrude slightly - the first row of wooden tiles will rest against it. It is laid from shortened boards - 30 cm, at the top it is attached to the first bar of the sheathing. The second row is laid so as to overlap the joint of the first, and the head of the nail must also be covered (it is also advisable to find them thinner than usual, but with a wide head).

There are many ways to lay shingles; in any case, they look very decorative. Sometimes it is painted, but then the painting must be done before installation. Without treatment, the wood soon turns gray, but does not lose its water-repellent properties. Our ancestors to save appearance roofs, impregnated it with melted resin. The question is where to get enough resin today.

Schindel

This is one of the shingle options, but with its own characteristics. He came to us from Europe. It is made from large diameter saw logs - from 40 cm to 805 cm. More often - from larch. Trunks without knots are divided into logs, from which the sapwood is removed. Then they are divided into quarters, each of them into blocks. Already the blocks are divided into shindels with a blade and a mallet - wood plates from 6 to 15 mm thick.

Then each plate is trimmed so that the ends are even and the planks fit tightly. But that's not all. Now the part that will lie under the top rows is planed - it is made thinner. The outer edge of the board may also change. It is either chamfered at approximately 45° or given one of the following shapes.

After the shingles are finished, they are bundled and left to dry. The ideal humidity for styling is about 25%.

It turns out that each board is processed by hand, and more than once. It is clear that such roofing material is not cheap. Is it possible to do it yourself? In principle, it is possible. But it will take a lot of time.

ploughshare

This is also handmade, but even more complex: the ploughshare has a non-linear shape. It is made specifically to decorate the domes of churches and chapels.

There are special patterns for each row of wooden shingles. The process is also not easy. Watch the video to see how they do it today in one of the monasteries.

Board roofing

Tes are coniferous boards that were also initially split and then trimmed with axes (hence the name) to more or less even sizes. It behaves normally with a roof slope of 18° to 45°.

Today, you can also find split plank or make it yourself, and then cover the roof of the bathhouse. The technology is no different from those described above, only in the size of the blocks: they should be around a meter. The dimensions of the board are about a meter long, 15-20 cm wide. It is better not to make it wider: they warp more and crack more often. Often one or two grooves are made on the front surface of the boards through which rainwater flows.

Split the wood radially - from the edges to the center. Then all the irregularities that were formed during the split are removed with an ax. The side and end edges of the boards are aligned.

There are two installation methods:

• Two rows of boards, closely fitted to one another. The top row is laid so as to overlap the seams of the first.
• Laying with vacuum. The boards are not laid closely, but at a distance of ½ or 2/5 of the width. The second row is laid on top. This method is more economical, but there is a greater chance of getting a leaking roof during drying.

But when laying the board with your own hands, there are some tricks. The first row of boards is laid with the convexity of the annual rings up, the second - on the contrary, down. The first row is fastened with a nail in the middle, the second - with two at the edges. This way, when it dries out and warps, you will get a more even roof.

The now fashionable wooden roof is perhaps one of the greatest roofing “luxuries”. Roof of three to four hundred square meters will cost almost a million rubles. However, having studied the issue and mastered some skills, it is quite possible not only to build such a roof yourself, but also to make the material for it yourself. And it will cost an order of magnitude cheaper.

What is a wooden roof

We know many architectural monuments of antiquity, and most of them are covered with wood. In forest-rich Russia, this was the best and most affordable roofing material. However, today's fashion for wooden roofs comes not from Russian antiquity, but from modern Europe. There they did not stop using wood for these purposes, since modernizing old houses in Holland, Switzerland, and France is prohibited by law.

A house in the Swiss Alps, covered with shingles, is protected by the state

Wooden roof in the most general sense, it is a roof made entirely of wood, with the exception of fastening materials - nails or screws. Although in ancient Rus' the fastening spikes were also made of wood. Let us at least remember the famous churches that have survived: in Spas-Vezhi (1628), Yuryev (1718), Yanidor in the Perm region (1702), Varzuga in the Murmansk region (1674), Kizhi on Onega Island (1714).

The Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Kizhi was built without a single metal fastening element

Advantages and disadvantages of wooden roofing

Fashion is fashion, but we need to understand what we are up to in our quest to make our home beautiful.

The advantages of such a roof are very significant:

Of course, there are also disadvantages:

1. Fragility in case of improper installation or use of unstable wood. A roof made of aspen shingles is designed to last only 8 years, and a roof made of pine planks - up to 20 years.
2. High cost of material and labor.
3. In the case of independent execution, there is a large labor cost for installation, which implies scrupulous fixation of each, often very small, element.
4. Low fire resistance. Some danger remains even with thorough impregnation of each element with modern fire retardants, correct design fire-fighting materials around the pipe areas and installation of anti-spark deflectors on pipes and lightning rods.
5. Strict requirements for the slope of the slope. A wooden roof does not rot or leak even with a fairly large roof slope - from 18 to 70 o, ideally 40-45 o.

Construction, material and characteristics of a wooden roof

In order to correctly understand what a wooden roof is, to understand the intricacies of choosing and laying its different types, you need to have a good knowledge of the structure of the roof in principle and the materials suitable for such a roof.

Structural terminology of the roof in general

When designing and constructing roofing structures, it is customary to use the following terms.

Choosing wood for roofing

Wooden roofing is made from any wood, but in most cases coniferous is preferable: spruce, cedar, larch (only soft linden or aspen are needed for the ploughshare). Coniferous varieties contain resins and essential substances, natural antiseptics against bacteria and fungi.

A roof made of coniferous wood, even without treatment with a synthetic antiseptic, will last twice as long as a deciduous one.

Working with raw lumber

Ideally, all types of roofing material are made from large trunks - 40-80 centimeters - in diameter, but smaller ones can be used for wood chips and shingles. Of course, the log should not have knots or through cracks, wane, blue stains, or damage by insects. The wetter the logs, the easier they are to process, but the longer the plates are after drying. A sawn log takes three years to dry, so it is advisable to saw it for faster drying into churaki (logs) 40-70 centimeters long and remove the bark. Then the drying time is reduced to six months. The middle of the log (sapwood), as well as the outer side (sapwood) for roofing elements It is not recommended to use them, they are not strong enough. Finished plates of any type must be dried in packs to a moisture content of 25% - it is quite difficult to determine the finished state of the wood by eye, but it will take three to four months.

Roofing plates dry in packs for three to four months

It is also necessary to take into account the location of the annual rings of wood - the more frequent they are, the stronger the elements of the wooden roof.

Types of wooden roofing coverings

The name “wooden roofing” brings together quite a few varieties. They differ:

• by quality and type of wood;
• by installation methods;
• according to the shape and type of plates.

Let's look at the types of plates, since they determine everything else.

Shingle

The word “shingle”, along with the principles of application, came from Poland. Formally, this term combines shingles, wood chips, and shindel.

Gaunt (from Polish word gont) - thin and short wooden plates or planks used to cover roofs - “gontinki”.

Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron

https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%AD%D0%A1%D0%91%D0%95/%D0%93%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%82

Shingles are made in two ways.

1. Split shingles are dies that break off from a block using a cleaver, but due to inaccurate manufacturing they do not connect well and warp more. In addition, chipped shingles are used more wood and labor, so it costs more.
2. Sawn shingles are produced using special machines. It has a lower cost, but when sawing, the structure of the fibers is disrupted and moisture penetrates better into the rough surface after sawing, so the service life of sawn shingles is shorter.

Based on the type of section, shingles are divided into two types.

Tongue and groove shingle roofing due to complex design The plates are very durable, but making it yourself is almost impossible.

Shingles and wood chips

Non-grooved shingles come in lenticular or rectangular sections and are then called shingles.

Special shingles more than a centimeter thick made from Canadian cedar will last for decades

Shingles got their name from the verb “to tear” - plates 35-100 centimeters long, 15-20 centimeters wide, and a centimeter thick are cut or chipped from a log or lump along the fibers.

If used conifers, then the shingles are split manually using a cleaver (special ax) and a “dryna” - a beater.

The shingles are plucked off using a cleaver and a drill

If soft linden or aspen are used, a shingle machine works better. The historical machine for “drawing” was called a mahal. The master “waves” a log with a knife attached to it, which splits off the shingles from the attached block.

Mahalo - a machine for pinching shingles - requires great physical effort

It is quite possible to make such a machine yourself. You need to movably fasten the end of a heavy log about three meters long with a pin to a heavy long base. Attach a latch for the block on the base a meter from the kingpin, and on the log - a knife-clip with a length of at least 50 centimeters. A handle is attached to the second end of the log for convenience. True, only a physically strong person can work on such a machine.

Video: homemade machine for tearing

Properly made shingles are plastic, do not flake, on the one hand it is smooth and even (and is laid with this side down), on the other it is splintered, which is precisely why it does not crack when driving a nail. It bends only towards the smooth surface. The finished roof is very beautiful and looks like wrinkled scales.

Thin (up to 10 millimeters, and usually 2-3 millimeters) non-grooved shingles of rectangular cross-section are called chips or shavings. It is planed from blocks of equal length and width either by machine or by hand. On the upper side of the chips there are always “spins” that are noticeable when bent. It is imperative to lay wood chips smooth surface down, and the “pins” should be directed towards the eaves of the roof so that water flows down them. Chips make it easy to create a coating with a large number of layers, which increases the protective properties of the roof in all respects.

Video: features of roofing chips

Production required quantity chips or shingles and their installation are quite within the capabilities of any meticulous non-professional.

Chips lying on the roof often acquire beautiful shades

Video: installation of shingles

Shindel (wooden tiles)

Shindel is often confused with shingles. This, of course, is one of its options, but more labor-intensive to manufacture. The name "wood shingles" is more accurate. Its form and name came to us from Europe: scindula from the Latin verb scindere - to split. Wood preparation is similar to that used in the production of non-grooved shingles and shingles. But then each plate is individually planed on all sides - the thickness is removed from one end, where it will be attached. For a better fit, the plates are butted on the sides, and a transverse chamfer is removed from the bottom edge to facilitate water drainage, or its entire geometry is changed - the edge is rounded or takes on a different shape.

On the side where the shindle will be attached to the roof, its thickness is less

Making a spindle yourself is almost impossible due to the incredible labor intensity.

Depending on the shape of the shingle, you can get a variety of patterns of roofing material

Video: serial production of schindel

The ploughshare is the most beautiful of all types of wooden roofing; it resembles a concave blade with carvings along the edge. The already mentioned churches of the 17th-18th centuries are covered with a ploughshare. And also - boyar mansions and wooden palaces. The ploughshare is made only from soft aspen, cut down in late spring, with the maximum amount of sap. Each petal is a unique piece of art. It takes a lot of wood and a huge amount of manual labor. Therefore, the ploughshare is now used only for the restoration of old and - rarely - for the construction of new churches. When covering a dome, each row has its own “patterns” that differ in curvature. Due to humidity and time, the ploughshare bends even more and creates an impeccable dome shape.

A dome made of ploughshare is very expensive, so this material is most often used for the restoration of ancient temples

The ploughshare represents the present ancient art. I saw temples whose heads were covered with ploughshares. It looks incredible. They are covered with a noble silver patina and shine in the sun. It's as if the heads are covered with pure silver.

The ploughshare-covered dome of the chapel of St. John the Evangelist in the village of Zekhnovo, Arkhangelsk region, gives the impression of being made of pure silver

Video: how a ploughshare is made today in one of the monasteries

Only a very few professional woodworkers can use the plowshare.

Tes (plank roof)

Tes are simply boards, often equal in length to the size of the slope or half of it. Initially, they were split from a long log with an ax, and then hewn to more or less flat surface- hence the name. From that time, only grooves remained on the upper side of the boards for quick drainage of water.

The roof is made of planks using old Russian technologies.

The boards are laid perpendicular to the ridge in three ways:

In all cases, the boards of the bottom row are laid with the core down, and the top row - out. Then, when the boards of both rows are deformed, they will create an airtight structure.

If the principle of laying planks is followed, the roof will never leak

You can lay the democratic plank yourself.

Do-it-yourself wooden roof installation

Having studied the types of wooden coverings, we begin to select them, while simultaneously assessing our own capabilities.

Choosing a wooden covering

In a very traditional Russian house, passed down from my great-grandparents to mine cousin, outbuildings are covered with wood chips - there are many buildings, the area of ​​​​their roofs is quite large. These roofs are about a hundred years old. They have never been repaired and still do not leak. True, there are many layers - five or six, and the thickness of the roof is 7-8 centimeters. The size of the spruce plates is approximately 10x40 centimeters, thickness - 3-4 millimeters. Their great-grandfather personally pinched them with a cleaver. The cleaver has also been preserved - special, with a long and thin sting, similar to a scythe. They said that the thicker the chips, the worse it will be, the more it will warp. The nails there are still antique: iron, very thin and long, their length is enough for all the layers. The wood chips lie on a sparse sheathing of poles about five centimeters in diameter, hewn from the top and bottom sides. The slope is quite steep, about 35 o. There is no hydro-, steam- or other insulation there, just an ordinary attic with a log ceiling, so you can look at the roof from below, from the attic. Everything is absolutely intact there too. The sheds and storerooms are quite warm, very dry, and the attics are also very cozy. Knowing about these roofs, remembering them from childhood, I am absolutely sure that if we want a durable and inexpensive wooden roof, then shingles or wood chips are the ideal solution. I can confidently recommend shingles for self-laying, as the most economical and easy-to-implement material.

Lumber calculation

When doing calculations for the article, as always, I was faced with insufficient initial conditions. Therefore, everything can be calculated only by setting the conditions approximately. Well, at least we’ll show the way for the interested reader. Let's assume that we already have assembled truss structure gable roof with slope dimensions of 6x8.3 meters. This means that we already have a roof area of ​​100 square meters. Let’s also assume that we will do without any types of insulation, which means without a counter-lattice. And in our building there is no stove heating, which means there are no pipes. And we will lay the wood chips in three layers, considering that this is enough for our structure.

1. According to reference books and the experience of professionals, on average, per square meter of roofing with a three-layer installation will require 100 plates, and special shingles or chip nails - 110 grams. For 100 square meters there are 10,000 pieces of wood chips and 11 kilograms of nails. We will add the required 25% for errors and defects. That makes 12,500 pieces and about 14 kilograms of stainless steel nails.
2. A six-meter pine log with a diameter of 50 centimeters, after removing the sapwood, is divided on average into 60 quarters of logs. Each yields approximately 40 successful chips. The simplest calculation shows: we will need 12,500 /(60 · 40) ≈ 7 logs, which is approximately 6 m3.
3. Chips are the lightest of all types of wood shingles. It is permissible to make the lathing for it from 40x40 mm timber. The sheathing pitch is dictated by the number of layers of chips. With three layers, two-thirds of the plate should be covered, with four, three-quarters. Therefore, our lathing pitch should be 160 mm, and the required number of beams is 104, which, together with the reserve, will be 130 pcs. There are 416 beams in 1 m3. Therefore, we need 0.35 m 3 of timber. It’s good to make a template in advance equal to the pitch of the sheathing.

Using a template for sheathing under tiles makes life much easier for the craftsman

Our roof has no valleys or ribs. But to strengthen the slopes and the ridge, you will need a certain amount of edged pine boards 30x150x6000 - no more than 0.5 m 3. And roofing felt for the ridge. You will also need about five kilograms of stainless steel screws.

Having made inquiries about average prices this season and in the Moscow region, I compiled the data into a rough table.

Table: cost of materials for shingle roofing

Position	Name	Specification	Quantity	Unit price, rub	Price, rub
1	Round timber	Pine, 480x6000 mm	6 m 3	8 500	51 000
2	timber	Pine, 40x40x6000 mm	0.35 m 3	8 200	2 870
3	Edged board	Pine, 30x150x6000 mm	0.5 m 3	9 500	4 750
4	Nails	Galvanized, 1.8x50	14 kg	60	840
5	Tech-Krep screws	Galvanized, plasterboard-wood, 4.8x100 mm	5 kg	190	950
6	Ruberoid	RPP 300 S2	No more than one roll - 15 m	250	250
8	Bitumen or oil paint		In small quantities
9	Nails	Galvanized, plasterboard-wood, 2.5x100 mm	In small quantities
Total					60 660

As we can see, the price turned out to be very reasonable.

Required Tools

We will need:

• saw - two-handed or circular;
• axe;
• a machine for cutting wood chips or a special long cleaver;
• template for installation of sheathing;
• plane;
• screwdriver;
• hammer;
• level;
• scissors for cutting roofing felt;
• mittens.

Installation of shingle roofing

The complete sequence of installation of a shingle roof is described below, starting with the manufacture of plates and ending with the installation of the ridge element.

1. We cut logs into logs.
2. We trim them from the sapwood.

   
   We clear the churak from the sapwood. On the overhang and in the ridge part of the shingled roof, you need to make a continuous sheathing of two or three boards, depending on the number of layers of coating

3. We begin to lay the chips from the bottom up so that they hang 40 millimeters over the edge of the sheathing. It wears out faster on an overhang, so we lay one more layer there. We calculated the thickness of the board so that, compared to the thickness of the timber, it will leave room for an extra layer on the overhang.
4. For the first row we use shorter plates - 350 millimeters long in three layers.

   
   The first layer is laid from shorter chips

5. We place the first plate at an angle of 15-25 o in relation to the base (board). To achieve this, we place a small sliver of wood under it and secure it with a nail. Then we place the second one on the first chip with an overlap of 25-30 millimeters, and it already turns out to be with the correct slope. Each plate is nailed separately. The first layer is placed from left to right, the second - vice versa, the third - like the first, etc.
6. Cover the first three layers with one layer standard length with the direction opposite to the previous layer. He's already moving to the second row. All four layers should have the bottom edge aligned. This is achieved using a temporary board, which is attached so as to create a stop for the ends of the plates.
7. We lay the second row in the opposite direction to the previous layer so that it overlaps the previous one by two-thirds of its length (about 15 millimeters). We fix each plate.

   
   The direction of laying chips in each next row must be reversed

8. We continue installation according to the same principle. At each point of the roof we will have three layers.
9. We lay a ridge row, also from short plates.
10. We repeat all previous operations with another roof slope.
11. We cover the ridge with a strip of roofing material about 30 centimeters wide.
12. We prepare a wooden gutter from two boards, for which we plan them with outside and nail it at an angle. If the angle should not be straight, then first remove the excess with a plane.
13. We place the gutter on the ridge on top of the converging chips and nail it with long nails. Then we paint oil paint in several layers or impregnated with molten bitumen.

    
    A ridge gutter made of two boards crowns our roof.

Installation features for more complex roofing structures

Certainly, ideal conditions, considered by us, are almost never encountered in life. Let's briefly look at possible difficulties.

Video: this is what a finished chip roof looks like

A hand-laid wooden roof, if done well, requires almost no maintenance. Just sweep away the leaves and snow from it in time early spring- and you're on for many years free from worries.