Factory Direct (Day 193 of 273)

For the last 6 months I've been watching an ad on Craigslist (not a masseur) for sawn cedar shingles. We plan on siding the front of the house with shingles and I had calculated that we have about 2400 sq. ft to cover. As with all shingles, they are sold in bundles, 4 to a square (nominally at 100 sq. ft). So we'd need 24 squares. But its a little more complicated. For cedar shingles, the minimum exposure for each shingle is usually 5", which gives 100 sq. ft to square. However, if you run the exposure at 6" the coverage goes up to 120 sq. ft per square. 6" exposure will look better on this house because its rather tall and will have a coarse rock belt line below the windows.

Therefore, we needed 20 squares (80 bundles) to cover the front and south sides of the house. We'll use Hardiboard planks (lap style) on the back side since they paint up well and handle moisture pretty well. I ordered 200 pieces from Carl's the other day, which should cover 1400 square ft. The price on this material works out to about $1/sq. ft, which is cheap for almost any kind of siding. Anyway, back to the shingles. Carl's best price on the shingles (all No. 1, blue label, blah, blah, blah) was $220 + tax for a square. That works out to almost $240 a square, but delivery is included (3 miles).

The Craiglist ad is for the A&A shake mill in Forks, WA, about 120 miles west of us and deep up in the rainforest of the Olympic Mountains. Interesting little town, currently known as the setting for the teen-flick Twilight, but I digress. Anyway, these little mills are on the brink of closure with wood demand and prices down almost 25% the last few years. They're dealing to stay alive. Their current price as $130/square (down from $145 last year) with no tax (don't ask) and 2% off for cash. Delivery would be about $280 from Forks, which works out to $14 a square. So my net would be roughly $145/square straight from the mill, no middle man. It was a deal I couldn't turn down. The garage of the new house is full of shingles and cedar trim now. Paint (stain) is on hand, so the brushes will be coming out soon.