Woodburn Company Stores Exterior Covering Project
In 1999, The Cedar Guild dipped #1- 5 x 16" sidewall shingles in TWP 500 Series translucent stain for part of the exterior covering on the Woodburn Company Stores. This factory outlet mall is located just south of Portland, Oregon on the I-5 corridor.
The shops are laid out in five separate units. High steepled skylights cover some of the walkways between sections to protect shoppers from Oregon's rains. A deep overhang above the outside storefronts allows people plenty of room to walk on dry protected sidewalks.
There are several roof styles with different elevations used throughout the complex. Each of the different styles and levels is covered with a different kind of roofing material. The variety of hips, ridges, turrets and gables gives the complex a fairyland look. This is especially true when Christmas lights are shining.
The red cedar shingles were hand-dipped in TWP 515 Light Cedar, a warm brown tone with golden highlights. The pigment protects the shingles from UV damage, yet is translucent enough to allow the full range of natural cedar colors to show through. Our manual dipping process allows us to completely immerse shingles in protective paint to coat all surfaces. When the installers cut a shingle to make it fit he brushed on more TWP to restore the protection.
Dipped shingles are a great texture complement to rock and painted stucco. Tasteful palettes of earth tone colored paints enhanced the natural Pacific Northwest look of the buildings. The round turret-like second story on the north end of the complex uses shingles laid in a stepped pattern that embellishes the end of the building.
The entrance archways that open into the main buildings and to the exterior walkways of the interior part of the mall are covered with dipped shingles. The outside corners of the arch’s pillars have the shingles trimmed then overlapping from first the left side, then from the right side, a technique called a Boston Weave. This creates a tighter stronger corner than mitering the shingles on the underside to 45 degrees then butting them together.
The inside corners that abut the buildings first had one side of L-shaped galvanized flashing inserted behind the adjacent wall. Then a cedar 2" x 2", treated with TWP 515 Light Cedar, was fastened into the corner over the flashing. A bead of flexible silicone caulk was used on both sides of the L on the back of the flashing and in the apex of the outer corner before the 2" x 2" was pushed into place. This prevented moisture from getting into the wall covering.
Next, each row of shingles was butted up to the 2" x 2" corner board to make a tight and tidy job. The inside corner-board technique makes masking and painting adjacent walls a snap because you work with the straight line of the corner board. Without installing the corner-board, you have a 3/8" tapered zigzag up the adjoining wall that is hard to work with.
There are several advantages to using individual shingles on the sidewall rather than using pre-made shingle panels. The biggest plus is that the shingles are nailed to the underlayment, not glued. There is no way to have glue failure. The individually nailed shingles are much easier to do repairs on, should that be necessary. It is fairly simple to remove a few ruined shingles and slip in new ones to fix the damage. With factory prepared panels, the entire panel or possibly more panel units must be removed and replaced as it is impossible to remove and replace individual shingles on a panel.
An additional plus factor for individual sidewall shingles is that they are normally installed with three thicknesses. A 16" shingle can be installed 7-1/2" to the weather with each row following exposed 7-1/2". On most panels the shingles are 12" long and there are two thicknesses of shingles as the shingles are usually exposed 6". This means that individual shingle construction gives more protection to the underlayment. Increased shingle thickness also increases the insulation factor on the wall surface.
Dipped sidewall shingles are an economic alternative to dropped cedar siding. The shingles have parallel edges and square smooth butts. There are no knots and the vertical grain keeps the shingles from wanting to curl or split. Putting TWP 500 Series on all sides of the shingle keeps moisture from entering the wood so water cannot cause expansion and contraction as the wood gets wet then dries. You get maximum weather protection with a TWP coating on all sides.
Dipping shingles provides a sturdy prime coating which will need to have a top coat applied in a few years. This is easy to do: the siding needs no stripping, just cleaning and you are ready to apply a final coat.
Let the Cedar Guild quote you prices on dipped shingle siding for your next building or improvement job!