Yes, welcome Dan. Glad to see someone from PTF here. How's the Abyssinian coming along?


Speaking of "board roofs," that really is a fascinating thing to ponder. Never heard of them before. But makes sense that they'd have been used on the out buildings of poor homesteaders. Not sure I buy them being used in town on homes, but there is much we don't know about history.

Shiplap does make sense, as does tongue & groove, board & batten, etc. What might be most problematic would be hiding/covering nails as exposed nails will always leak water.

Tongue & groove allows "blind nailing"...but exposed boards would move and shrink in the weather considerably...must have been a loosing battle. I thought early roofs in the "New World" were often thatched.

Would be interesting to see if anyone could find and post a reference to plain old "board roofs"

Hi Dan and Everyone;

An earthfast barn! That makes three...I have heard there are still two of thse in Saint Mary's City, MD.

Board roofs were common on all types of buildings including houses, though probably most common on outbuildings. I have seen some good photos of these, but I could not find one to post. The boards were sometimes set with the edges on a thin batten or protruding nail to force a U shape and then the top edges covered with a batten. Even if they were not forced into a U shape, they curled that way naturally with the sun beating down on the top surfaces. There could also have been two layers of boards without battens.

I was just reading about the Stanley-Lake barn which is an ancient (pre 1718?) barn in Topsfield, MA on the Ipswitch River. It, like the Giddings-Low barn in Essex, MA (before 1702) have common purlin roofs and may have been "single boarded and battened" as is a reference to "The 1667 Nelson barn in Rowley...". Most of this information is from the linked article by Robert Blair St. George. http://departments.umw.edu/hipr/www/resource/pva1stgeorge.pdf


Jim

More thoughts;

Some board roofs probably did develop leaks (but only when it rained) and were soon shingled over.

Please keep an eye out for vertically boarded roofs which appear weathered, especially if there is evidence of a batten applied to the edges of the boards, that is if the edges are less weathered than the middle part of the boards.

Also, a barn near me had closly spaced common purlins and could have been shingled directly onto the purlins with no sheathing, but was vertically boarded whin it was disassembled a few years ago.

Jim

Dan - Glad you’ve piped in…

Gabel - Not having heard of such a roof before, I was envisioning, and thought we were discussing something more akin to a clapboard roof , only of riven boards, (A common product here in colonial times) and being on the cheap, maybe “seconds”, something that split out with a slight taper but with so-so grain, not worth dressing/planing into an a-class clapboard.

Jim – Good stuff as always. I have not seen such a batten ghost, though I have stripped more than a few Purlin roofs down to their original sheathing. But I will keep an eye out. Should be easy to spot, as I’m guessing though such a roof would only buy you a few years before it needed proper roofing lain over it, I’m also guessing the weathering between the battens, would be deep and distinct, as compared to the protected surfaces below the battens. Nor have I seen a Purlin roof sheathed RB&B style, though it is a common sheathing/siding methodology for early barns, and I’m guessing it would be a much more durable board roof than one with a batten over.

As far as close spacing of Purlins intentionally for shingles. That would be a tough one, I have lain a number of “board shingle” roofs on bridges, (Cedar ½” X 6 X 3 times the length of exposure - Common to bridges in that they have a long service life and are exceedingly light) but these still require nail-base at every exposure (11” being typ) and I’ve not seen nor heard of a board shingle being longer than 48”, which would require Purlins @ 16” OC

That's a great article, Jim. Thanks for posting. I haven't finished it in its entirety, but can't seem to find a reference for "board roof." Looked for both "roof," "boarded" and "purlin" in the PDF search window--all came up zero. Perhaps I'm missing something? Do you have a page # for the "single boarded and battened" reference?

Enjoying the topic.

Sorry Don, there is not a reference to board roofs in that article.

If you google "board roof" or "plank roof" you will find some info.

Jim