Envelope and protection · Roofing
Wood Shingles and Shakes
This entry explains what distinguishes a sawn shingle from a riven shake, why the covering is laid so that every unit can dry on both faces, and what that open construction means for the supports beneath it.
Educational reference entry. Suitability depends on the complete assembly, substrate, exposure, installation method, manufacturer documentation, local requirements and qualified professional review.
Overview
What wood shingles and shakes is
A shingle is a small tapered timber unit sawn from a block, with two flat, machined faces. A shake is split from the block along the grain, so at least one face follows the natural line of the wood and is rough and irregular. The distinction is not cosmetic. A sawn face cuts across the grain and leaves the ends of the wood fibres exposed on the surface; a riven face follows them, so water runs along the grain rather than into it. That is why a shake and a shingle of the same species, laid on the same roof, weather and shed differently, and why the two are not interchangeable ways of describing one product.
The covering is laid in courses, each unit lapping those below and breaking joint with them, so that water crossing a gap between two units meets solid material beneath. Because the units are small, the covering is made of thousands of individual pieces, each fixed with a small number of fasteners near the head where the course above will cover them. Nothing in the assembly is sealed: it works by overlap and by gravity.
What sets this family apart from other small-unit coverings is that the timber has to dry. The units are laid on spaced supports or on counter-battened boarding rather than directly onto a closed deck, so air can reach the underside of every piece. A shingle that can only dry from one face stays wet on the other for far longer, and it is that trapped moisture, not rain on the surface, that does the damage. The open construction is therefore the point of the assembly rather than a detail of it.
Species and treatment vary, and so does how the covering ages. Naturally durable timbers and preservative-treated ones behave differently as they weather, and most untreated timber roofs silver over time as the surface greys. The same unit is also used vertically as wall shingling, where the exposure, the drying and the way the covering weathers are quite different from a roof's, and where it is a cladding decision rather than a roofing one.
Terminology
Common names and aliases
These names describe the same thing. The library keeps one entry per material so that an acronym, a trade name or a regional spelling never becomes a second, thinner page.
- Timber shingles
- Wood shakes
- Cedar shingles
- Riven shakes
- Sawn wood shingles
Applications
Common applications
Where this material is typically encountered. A typical application is not a statement that it suits your project.
- Roofs of small and ancillary buildings — garden rooms, studios, porches, summerhouses and shelters.
- Roofs in settings where a timber covering is customary and its weathered appearance is part of what is wanted.
- Curved, swept and irregular roof forms, where small units follow a shape that sheet material cannot.
- Wall shingling on gables, dormer cheeks and upper storeys, where the same unit is hung vertically.
- Roofs of towers, spires and turrets where the covering has to run round a changing plan.
- Repairs and renewal of existing shingle or shake roofs where the covering is being matched.
Consideration
Where it is commonly considered
- Where the underside of the covering can be ventilated and the supports arranged so every unit dries on both faces.
- Where a roof form curves or sweeps and small units are the way to follow it.
- Where the weathered, silvering appearance of a timber covering is intended rather than tolerated.
- Where someone with direct experience of laying shingles or shakes is available for the work.
- Where the difference between a sawn shingle and a riven shake has been discussed and one has been chosen deliberately.
- Where the building is small enough that the labour of laying thousands of small units is proportionate.
Professional review
Where additional professional review is especially important
These are the situations where the answer depends on the specific building, and where a qualified professional should be involved before anything is decided.
- Where the units would be laid directly onto a closed deck with no way for the underside to dry.
- Where the roof is heavily overshadowed or permanently damp and nothing has been considered about drying.
- Where fire is a consideration for the building or its setting and nobody has raised it with a qualified professional.
- Where the pitch, the exposure and the amount each course is laid to the weather have not been designed together.
- Where the species, its durability and any treatment are unknown.
- Where the covering meets flashings, valleys or abutments and those junctions have not been detailed for small timber units.
Properties
Key properties to discuss
Qualitative topics worth raising. Measured values, classes and grades come from the manufacturer's technical documentation for the specific product, not from a reference page.
- Moisture behaviour
- The whole assembly is arranged so that each unit can dry from both faces. Where that drying is prevented — by a closed deck, by trapped debris, by heavy shade — the covering stays wet, and that is the condition that matters rather than the rain itself.
- Substrate dependency
- Spaced supports or counter-battened boarding, rather than a continuous deck, are what make the drying possible. The spacing, and how it relates to the amount each course is laid to the weather, is a design matter for this particular roof.
- Weathering and exposure
- Untreated timber greys and silvers, unevenly and at different rates on different elevations. A riven face and a sawn face weather differently from one another, and species and treatment change the picture again.
- Installation dependency
- Thousands of small units are laid by hand in courses that break joint, each fixed near its head where the next course covers the fasteners. Fastener material, and the amount of movement each unit is left free to make, are part of the craft.
- Repairability
- Individual units can be removed and replaced without disturbing the whole covering, which is one of the real advantages of small-unit construction. Matching a weathered covering with a new unit is the difficulty, not the mechanics.
- Fire-related questions
- Reaction to fire for a timber covering, and what any jurisdiction requires of a roof in a given setting, are matters for qualified professionals and the relevant authority. This page states none and no treatment is described here as conferring any.
- Maintenance
- Debris in the gaps between units, moss and growth in shaded positions, and the condition of the fasteners are the recurring subjects. Cleaning methods matter because pressure washing a soft timber surface damages it.
- Appearance
- The covering reads as texture and shadow rather than as a smooth plane, and riven shakes read far more strongly than sawn shingles. Colour changes continuously over the first seasons and is never uniform across a building.
Exposure
Exposure and environmental conditions
- How much sun and wind does this roof get, and how quickly will the covering dry after rain?
- Is the roof overshadowed by trees or buildings, so that parts of it stay damp for long periods?
- Do trees drop needles and leaves that will lodge between the courses?
- What is the pitch, and how does it bear on how much of each unit is laid to the weather?
- Is the setting one where fire in relation to the roof covering has to be discussed with the relevant authority?
Assembly
Substrate and system dependencies
What this material sits on, is fixed to or depends on. This is usually where performance is won or lost.
- Spaced supports or counter-battens are what let the underside dry, and they are part of the covering rather than an optional refinement.
- Any underlay used beneath has to be compatible with the intention that the units dry on both faces, so it is a design decision rather than a default.
- Ventilation of the space beneath the covering belongs to the design of the roof as a whole.
- Fasteners are chosen for contact with timber that may be treated and that will be wet and dry repeatedly.
- Valleys, hips, ridges and abutments are formed for small units, and those details are drawn rather than improvised.
- Where the same unit is used as wall shingling, the supports, the exposure and the detailing are the cladding's rather than the roof's.
Appearance
Appearance and finish considerations
- Riven shakes give a coarse, irregular shadow line; sawn shingles give a flatter, more regular one. The two do not look alike.
- Untreated timber silvers over the first seasons, and the rate differs sharply between elevations.
- Individual units vary in colour and figure, so a new covering is a range rather than a single tone.
- Replacement units in a weathered covering stand out plainly and take a long time to blend.
- Hips, valleys and swept eaves are where the craft shows, and they read as the most worked part of the roof.
Durability
Durability questions
Questions to raise rather than a service life to expect. No material has a universal lifespan — it depends on the assembly, the exposure and the upkeep.
- What species is this, and what is known about its durability in the position proposed?
- Has the timber been treated, and what does the documentation say about that treatment?
- How does the underside of the covering dry, and what arrangement makes that possible?
- What fasteners are being used, and how will they behave in wet and treated timber?
- How exposed is this roof, and how much of each unit is being laid to the weather?
Upkeep
Maintenance and repair considerations
- How will debris be cleared from between the courses, and how often will anyone look?
- What cleaning is appropriate, and what does the supplier say must not be used on the surface?
- How would individual damaged units be replaced, and by whom?
- Have spare units been kept aside, and where are they being stored?
- How will growth in shaded areas be dealt with as the covering ages?
Installation
Installation dependencies
What the installation depends on — not how to do it. Method belongs to the manufacturer's instructions and the trades carrying out the work.
- Courses break joint with those below, and setting that out correctly is what makes the covering work.
- Each unit is fixed near its head so the course above covers the fasteners, and the number and position of those fixings is part of the craft.
- Units are left free to move as they take up and give off moisture, so nothing is fixed rigidly.
- Handling and storage before laying matter, because timber that has been stacked wet or dried unevenly will not lie flat.
- The laying is slow and manual; the programme reflects the number of units rather than the area.
- Where the covering meets metal flashings, the contact between the two materials is considered rather than assumed.
Documentation
Documentation to request
Ask for these in writing, for the specific product being proposed, and keep them with the project record.
- The species, the grade offered and whether the units are sawn or riven.
- Details of any preservative treatment, including what was applied and by whom.
- The supplier's guidance on the supports the covering is to be laid over and the ventilation it needs.
- Guidance on fasteners appropriate to the timber and any treatment applied to it.
- Whatever is said about handling, storage and conditioning of the units before they are laid.
Conversations
Questions for qualified professionals
Bring these to the relevant qualified professional, manufacturer or authority. Requirements vary by project and location.
- Are these sawn shingles or riven shakes, and why has that choice been made for this roof?
- What is the arrangement beneath the covering, and how does the underside of each unit dry?
- What species is being used and what is known about its behaviour in this exposure?
- Has the timber been treated, and what has been applied?
- How much of each unit is being laid to the weather, and what pitch is this roof?
- What fasteners are being used, and how do they suit treated, repeatedly wetted timber?
- How are the valleys, hips, ridge and abutments being formed?
- Does anything about fire in relation to this covering need to be raised with the relevant authority for this building?
- Who has laid a shingle or shake roof before, and on what kind of building?
Blind spots
Commonly overlooked points
- A shake and a shingle are not two words for the same thing; the split face and the sawn face behave differently.
- The covering is laid open so that every unit can dry on both faces — closing the underside in is the usual way of shortening a timber roof's life.
- Shade and overhanging trees matter more here than on almost any other covering, because they prevent drying.
- The same unit used vertically on a wall is a cladding decision with its own exposure and detailing, not a roof decision repeated.
- Laying is slow and manual, and the labour follows the number of units rather than the area covered.
- Keeping spare units aside at the time of laying is what makes a matched repair possible later.
What this page does not do
- This page states no fire performance for any timber covering or treatment, and no pitch, exposure or fixing arrangement; those are project-specific determinations for qualified professionals.
- A covering of small overlapping units does not make a roof weathertight in isolation: the pitch, the supports, the laps and the detailing at every junction determine that.
- Preservative treatment is described here only as something to establish and document, never as conferring durability, safety or any performance.
- Local requirements govern what may be used as a roof covering in a given place and setting, and they are confirmed with the relevant authority.
Component forms
Building components commonly formed from this material
Elements this material is commonly used to make, named by the position they occupy in an assembly rather than by what they are bought as. This states common practice only — it is not a statement that this material suits any of these components in a particular building.
Inspiration
Related Ideas Library pages
Design directions where this material commonly appears.
Preparation
Related planning checklists
Owner-side preparation before the conversation where this material comes up.
Go deeper
Related Build Design Hub guides
Planning guidance and neutral comparisons behind the decisions on this page.
Roofing Materials & Systems
Reference entries for roof coverings and roof waterproofing — tiles and slates, shingles, sheet and standing-seam metal, single-ply and built-up membranes, liquid systems and green roofs.
Browse all roofing entries →