IIServices · The Trade
Cedar shingles and siding, the Cape grammar.
White cedar sidewall shingling is the Cape's own siding, and it has silvered on these walls for three centuries. Done by hand, coursing lined to the openings and corners fitted, it is the look people move here for.
Siding is the face of the house and its first defense against the weather. Here are the options and the details that decide how it wears.
Siding options
- White cedar shingles
- The Cape classic. Left unpainted, white cedar silvers to a soft gray in the salt air. Individually applied, it forgives an old wall and lasts for decades.
- Red cedar shingles and shakes
- A richer, warmer wood, thicker in shake form. Takes stain well and reads a touch more rustic than white cedar.
- Clapboard
- Horizontal boards for a more formal, colonial face, painted and crisp. Often paired with shingles on gables and dormers.
- Cellular PVC trim
- Not the siding but the trim around it: PVC corner boards and casing that will not rot, paired with cedar walls.
The details that make it last
- Coursing
- The horizontal lines of shingles, kept even and lined to the tops of windows and doors. This is what your eye reads as quality.
- Corners
- Woven by hand or fitted to corner boards. Woven corners are the traditional, hand built Cape detail.
- Fasteners
- Stainless nails, so the fixings never bleed rust down a wall in salt air.
- Weather barrier
- A proper water resistant layer and flashing behind the shingles, so the wall breathes and stays dry.
Natural silvering
Left unpainted, white cedar weathers to the gray you see all over the Cape, and it does it unevenly and beautifully. If you want it to stay pale or go a set color, it can be stained, but many owners let the salt air do the work.
How it is quoted
A site visit, a written proposal with the shingle grade and the trim named, and the coursing and corner detail spelled out. Priced to hold.
Put it in writing.
A site visit and a written proposal cost nothing. Scope, materials, schedule and price, in a document you can hold us to.