Bark Shingles

Saw this in the paper today.

A trophy home here in the western Maine mountains is being built w/ bark shingles as siding. It really is bark, from poplar trees, and is attached w/ regular common nails...they want rust lines to bleed on to the bark.

Neat.


http://www.sunjournal.com/story/287040-3...ewry_landscape/

Modern twist to a wigwam, Don. Tim

Hardin Creek Timber Frame and Millwork makes these. They are in Boone, NC. I met the guy at the Western confernece. They had a booth there. Really nice looking siding.

"Kevin Bedard of Kevin Bedard Contractor in Biddeford did the framing, roofing and the siding of the house, including the installation of huge timber trusses, which Bilinsky said were "quite a challenge to install after the house had been framed and roofed.""

Mr. Bedard has just discovered the reason I like to put the timbers in prior to the roof. I would bet he has a newly increased appreciation for a ship in a bottle.

Anyone put these up before? Are they heavy or light?

Do you need a solid substrate or can you install them like cedar shingles right over strapping?

Are they just for walls or can they go on the roof, too?

I'm thinking ice shack... big in these parts. We have contests and prizes. Really.

Gabel,

we posted w/in a minute or two of each other...

I found his construction method a bit odd, too. I hope he excavated for the foundation before framing things...

We've installed a few timbers in framed and roofed houses before. My favorite way to do the big stuff is to cut a hole in the roof and drop a strap through it from a crane. Otherwise it's usually no fun.

i have used those things a couple of times. the shingle are so pricey that the homeowner wanted to expose as much as possible to cover square footage but effectively nulled their siding capabilities. so we backed the building with bituthene. they say that if you install the bark with about half or less exposure then they are a fine product but they want to crack (a lot) and that makes me wary. they are very similarly installed to cedar shingle. they are two foot in length. i think that they are a nice accent but too much really is too much.

i've used both cedar and birch bark as exterior wall coverings, in conjunction with split cedar shingles. i think both look really nice. i applied both over tar paper into osb with copper nails. it was a handy way to fill in over the door and windows, and the barks looked pretty as accents against the cedar shingles, IMHO.

poplar bark shingles are news. i wonder what kind of poplar they're using and how to make them?

toivo,

The poplar that is being used is not a true poplar, it is yellow poplar (tulip poplar, tulip tree, liriodendron tulipifera).

You can peel a yellow poplar easily and the bark often comes off in one piece if you do it right. Then it is cut up into shingles 2' long by various widths.

Can you tell me more about your birch bark experience?
How thick was the birch bark-- Birch is one of those trees w/ layered bark. How wide of a piece can you put on before you have cupping issues, etc. Would a wide thin bark layer work glued down, or are narrow thick layers and nails a better way to go?

Don, I have no direct experience but do know that birch has a winter bark and a summer bark. I would imagine the winter bark would be the one to use, canoe builders used it. I have seen a Yurt roof covered with birch bark, it curled up and was replaced with cedar shingles with in a year. And I wonder what the insurance companies would think? Historically it has been used as a weather layer under trim and splices on clap boarding, et cetera.

Tim

I've seen birch bark used to wrap (outside in) timber ends going into masonry walls in the national cathedral reconstruction project in Stockholm. The restoration carpenter I talked to said that that's how the old guys did it, and that the beam ends and masonry were the only things to survive the fire. He further asserted that there was little to no deterioration of the beam ends at the walls - dating from sometime before 1780.

Thanks for the reply.
The winter bark is the inner, reddish stuff right? So I'd want to apply it reddish face to the weather, not the white side correct?

I really like yurts.

The curling that happened on that roof is why I was thinking about gluing it down to something...like veneer. Maybe use construction adhesive and a trowel.

I'm thinking about using it as siding on the top two feet of a wall. Maybe make "veneered panels" that I'd attach w/ copper nails or something.

That's fascinating. Makes perfect sense...

actually i used it both ways- some white out some darkside out, mostly for the accent effect. the applications above doors and windows saw little weather under the eaves so no real issues that way. very interesting to hear about the use of the bark to protect timbers. if you find a birch tree on the forest floor all the bark is still solid long after the wood inside is rotted.

in retrospect i think the custom in canoe building of putting the winter bark out makes sense, if only because it is smoother and doesn't peel off. the white side bark is above a door behind a light fixture (i thought it would reflect the light, and it does...) but the spiders like it too and have little bits to start their webs from and so it needs to be swept regularly. but it does look pretty.

the sheets start to roll straightaway, regardless of size when they're peeled from the tree (cut straight down and around the circumference and peel back with a dull axe). the sheets i harvested were about 1/4 inch thick, 3 feet long, and about 2 feet wide. if they're pushed down flat to dry they behave a bit better, but still like to roll as they were. i found it easiest to deal with the bark straight off the tree while its most pliable, nailed down in a fairly tight pattern (3inches -pretty effect too). it's pleasant to work with and smells good- minty. the sap is drinkable (the finns tap it and freeze it to drink straight- if you cut the top off a sapling in the spring when it's flowing you can suck it straight from the tree). this is the spiritual, lightening smell of the birch switch (koivu vihta) on the sauna stones.

i'm going to start experimenting with other barks now. wainscoting... door panels... ice house as mentioned... ???

Yes, the winter bark is darker and that is the reason for using winter bark, the contrast, the natives carved upon it. Attaining good quality bark is harder these days. I would contact someone cutting birch and strip it prier to the harvest, spring makes the most sense. Sounds like an interesting medium, and some installments, historic.

Tim

The original Bituthene...natural materials always make sense. Finding bark is a bit of a challenge for some of us. It would be easier to get some once a tree is freshly felled, I suppose (I'm only so tall, ladders are a pain, etc.)

I've put the word out to friends/family. We had a couple bad ice storms this winter that claimed many birches. I know some firewood dealers too..


toivo, got some pictures you could post of your handiwork?

i'll do this! nice of you to ask.

just harvested some more birch bark. actually this was from the top of the same tree that i harvested from last summer and had girdled. still full of sap though, even with no apparent life in the top.

this was the first birch to hew and it worked really nice. was able to chop up some braces out of the limbs without scoring even- cut like buttah

Interesting...

I've found some bark finally and will be stripping it this weekend. Downed tree on someone's lawn...

looking forward to your pics

i found a pic of some cedar bark as wall covering. i'll have to take some of the birch bark. detail of sauna front.

this reminds me that this window has to be made. lots to do and the sun is shining. i'm out!
cedar bark

wolves and moose create a picture w/ lots of energy.

very interesting...

Thought this fit this discussion - http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/bark-shingles.php?smid=FBTRH-FBS-ART