A friend of mine, who is a home builder by trade, approached me one day and commented how he wished there was a better way to apply a backer, fascia board and shingle band to roof rafters.
He complained how tedious this job was because it required buying three pieces of lumber, making three sets of cuts and having to climb up a ladder to affix the backer, come down, put up the fascia board, come back down, and then go back up the ladder to nail up the shingle band.
"There has got to be a simpler, better way to do this job," he said.
For those of you who may not be familiar with these terms, a fascia board is a band of material that covers the rafter ends and sides when it goes up the rake.
A shingle band (also commonly called a rake board) is a trim board that is attached at the top front of the fascia board to support the overhang of the roof shingles and to step out and protect the fascia from water drips.
Traditional wood-framed construction methodology requires two separate pieces of lumber and a two-step application process to apply the fascia board and shingle band over the backer board.
Having done this up-and-down the ladder fascia board, shingle band routine a few times myself, I understood what my friend was talking about.
This got me to thinking; a one-piece fascia board / shingle band seems to work nicely for metal or vinyl siding applications, so why not make one from wood? And that is exactly what I set out to do! For those of you who may not have read any of my previous articles, I am the founder and president of Cedar Knoll Log Homes.
While the main focus of Cedar Knoll Log Homes is the design and development of log homes, I am fortunate to have some very talented engineers on staff who are always up to a good specialty design challenge.
So off they went to the machine shop to create a set of custom knives that would produce a one-piece fascia board / shingle band.
I got back in touch with my friend and asked him to give the prototype one-piece fascia board / shingle band a try on his next job.
He happily agreed.
After he finished the job, he called me up and said, "While I doubt this new one-piece fascia board / shingle band will cause snow in July, it did make this job much easier and saved me several hours back up on a ladder.
At $1.
49 per linear foot (made from white pine or $2.
49 per linear foot in white cedar), this new time-saving product also allows home builders to save up to 30% off materials cost to purchase separate fascia boards and shingle bands.
This means that home builders who use this one-piece fascia board / shingle band can either pass the savings on to their clients or keep the saving to enhance their profits.
Either way, the time savings means that builders are working smarter instead of harder and the time saved can be used to get a jump on other tasks.
He complained how tedious this job was because it required buying three pieces of lumber, making three sets of cuts and having to climb up a ladder to affix the backer, come down, put up the fascia board, come back down, and then go back up the ladder to nail up the shingle band.
"There has got to be a simpler, better way to do this job," he said.
For those of you who may not be familiar with these terms, a fascia board is a band of material that covers the rafter ends and sides when it goes up the rake.
A shingle band (also commonly called a rake board) is a trim board that is attached at the top front of the fascia board to support the overhang of the roof shingles and to step out and protect the fascia from water drips.
Traditional wood-framed construction methodology requires two separate pieces of lumber and a two-step application process to apply the fascia board and shingle band over the backer board.
Having done this up-and-down the ladder fascia board, shingle band routine a few times myself, I understood what my friend was talking about.
This got me to thinking; a one-piece fascia board / shingle band seems to work nicely for metal or vinyl siding applications, so why not make one from wood? And that is exactly what I set out to do! For those of you who may not have read any of my previous articles, I am the founder and president of Cedar Knoll Log Homes.
While the main focus of Cedar Knoll Log Homes is the design and development of log homes, I am fortunate to have some very talented engineers on staff who are always up to a good specialty design challenge.
So off they went to the machine shop to create a set of custom knives that would produce a one-piece fascia board / shingle band.
I got back in touch with my friend and asked him to give the prototype one-piece fascia board / shingle band a try on his next job.
He happily agreed.
After he finished the job, he called me up and said, "While I doubt this new one-piece fascia board / shingle band will cause snow in July, it did make this job much easier and saved me several hours back up on a ladder.
At $1.
49 per linear foot (made from white pine or $2.
49 per linear foot in white cedar), this new time-saving product also allows home builders to save up to 30% off materials cost to purchase separate fascia boards and shingle bands.
This means that home builders who use this one-piece fascia board / shingle band can either pass the savings on to their clients or keep the saving to enhance their profits.
Either way, the time savings means that builders are working smarter instead of harder and the time saved can be used to get a jump on other tasks.
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