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Aging shingles


firef2005

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Most of you have heard about my ongoing nightmare, The Queen Anne. Well, this week I think we are on the same page. Yeah! Anyway, she's going to be the old 'haunted' house on the corner that all the kids in the neighborhood are afraid to go to. I have the exterior paint started using a crackle finish (Elmers glue). I want the shingles to match the aging on the house. I wouldn't mind if they were a bit curled and rotten looking. Any ideas on how I could accomplish this? Seems silly to have rotten wood on the walls, and a perfectly shingled roof!

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Use a glue gun to attach the shingles. You can leave some of them sitting up a bit and some pressed flat to get an uneven look to the roof. Also, you might dump some of them in water for a bit to get them to curl. I wouldn't do this to many, just enough to give the roof that "uh oh, need a new roof" look.

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Kathie,

Thanks! My last batch of shingles I used shingle dye and it worked beautifully. The directions for the house say to use a 'wash' of 1/2 paint and 1/2 water after the shingles are applied. Will this do too much damage? Seems much easier than dyeing them before I put them on.

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There are some problems with painting with a wash or stain after applying the shingles.

  1. It's difficult to get the stain between the shingles, which may result in some light spots showing.
  2. The stain/wash will not adhere to any little blobs of glue, also resulting in some light spots.

Now, if you were going to use an opaque paint instead of a wash, the glue blobs wouldn't be that much of an issue, but you'll still have to really scrub the brush in between the shingles to get complete coverage. And depending on how close together you put the shingles, you may want to paint the underoof a similar color so it won't show through.

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Soaking some of the shingles to get them to warp & curl is a great idea, and once they're dry you can mash on some of those with a hammer to get them to split and crack realistically.

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my experience with wooden shingles tells me if you want a nice new looking roof, then apply as normal and they will curl all to heck by themselves :) however, I know you can get an awesome weathered grey dissolving steel wool in vinegar, it is used to age cedar singles if you have to replace some so they match the rest. Any moisture at all seemed to curl the wooden shingles on my brookwood so I think these guys are right on the money. Personally I would make them out of paper clay, then you can control which ones curl and which are flat, texture them at will, and generally go beautifully OCD over the whole thing

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Watery acrylic washes worked for me...and the application of moss. :D

I painted the base surface black, then glued on the bare shingles. After that, I used a watery mix of paint. I had more buckling than I wanted on the first round, but it all worked out in the end. Just use more or less water to get the amount of warping you want.

http://www.otterine.com/blog/blog1.php/roof-shingling-part-4

To get more interest, you can add other colors -- I did that around the chimney:

http://www.otterine.com/blog/blog1.php/chimney-attachment-trim-and-eave

The moss:

http://www.otterine.com/blog/blog1.php/mossy-roof

You can even put holes in the roof:

http://www.otterine.com/blog/blog1.php/portico-completed

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Ok! Thanks guys, as always, great stuff. Now I have something to work with. I haven't decided on a color for my roof yet, with this build, I seem to be 'told' what it needs as we go. I will post pictures soon of my progress on the exterior. The glue crackle worked great, some cracks came out fairly large, but I like the look of it so far.

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Can I ask what you mean by glue crackle? Does it go on under or over the paint? how do you get it to crackle? I know that you are the one with the question, but I am intrigued! Lol

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Here's one site that tells about it,Kari. I've played with this technique myself on scrap wood and it's really cool!

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/crackle-finish-with-elmers-glue.html

Ed.: Here's the instructions from Elmer's Glue:

http://www.elmers.com/diy/project/crackle-finish

BTW,I used plain old acrylic craft paints for my mini experiments-worked great!

Edited by kat57
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I will definatly be trying this crackling method...the stuff you buy is too expensive

and I do not always get the results I am looking for with it....thanks,,,

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