Cedar Shakes Repair

Yesterday I got to work at a beautiful home in the Hillsboro area of Nashville. The street is full of homes from the 1920's or so with most of them being restored and updated (and quite expensive).

The home's back porch had previously been renovated as finished space inside. The outside was updated, but done poorly and had some gaps that made the kitchen quite drafty. With the temperatures in the 30's lately the homeowner was ready to get it repaired.

It was a fairly straightforward fix that involved taking off the exterior cedar shake shingles and the sheathing. We stuffed R-19 insulation in all the gaps, which were numerous, and covered the wall with 3/4" plywood.

The best part was replacing the Cedar Shakes. I'm not sure why, but I've always loved the look of them, and it was fun to install them. I think my favorite jobs are the ones that people actually see, like the shakes. No one will ever see the quality of my work inside the walls, but they'll enjoy the shakes for years to come.

Later we'll go back and stain them to match the rest of the house and finish the job.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com