KEYWORDS:

SHORT DESCRIPTION:

• Shingles are used to cover pitched roofs (and quite often walls) on a supporting grid of bamboo or wooden laths. The appearance is typically a fish-scale structure, but some types of bamboo shingles rather resemble Spanish tiles.

• Appropriate lengths of bamboo culms or timber logs are cut and the shingles are split off these vertically, whereby bamboo culms are split into quarter or half sections, and wood shingles are flat tiles cut with a special knife and hammer.

• For fixing bamboo shingles, pre-drilled holes are needed for nailing or tying with a tough string. Quarter-cut bamboo shingles can also be made with splints which are hooked onto the lathing.

• Timber shingles are nailed onto the battens, whereby the curvature of the shingles after drying must be taken into consideration.

• The minimum roof pitch for shingles is 45°. Pressure impregnated timber and bamboo can have lower pitches, but are no/recommended: higher costs; chemicals are gradually washed out and become ineffective; rainwater cannot be collected from the roof.

Further information: "The Shingle Roofing Manual" (available from the Forest Products Research Centre, Box 1358, Boroko, Papua New Guinea); Bibl. 00.19, 23.24.

Bamboo Shingles with Splint or String Fixing (Bibl. 23.24)

Bamboo Shingles as Spanish Tiles (Bibl. 23.24)

Wood Shingles (Bibl. 23.24)