Smarter cedar shingle hangs high and dry

While there was no shortage of buzz at this year's Traditional Building show, Atlanta inventor Bryan Kirkey's booth grabbed more attention than most.

That's because his new Ecoshel system makes the arduous task of installing cedar-shingle roofing or siding into a breezy DIY project.

Well, comparatively breezy. It still helps to understand vapor barriers and capillary action. But Ecoshel's engineering and ingenuity certainly simplify the process.

The system includes 4-foot long strips of full-sized kiln-dried red cedar shingles, bound together by thin fiberglass mesh strips. Each strip includes a removable adhesive ruler with numbers you match up from course to course to ensure expertly placed, perfectly spaced shingles.

The system also comes with installation brackets that hold the strips in place while you nail each individual shingle in place with two fasteners (required by code). After that, just peel off the ruler, and move on to the next strip.

Traditional wood shingles eventually fail, usually due to moisture getting behind them and starting a cycle of decay. To prevent this from happening, Ecoshel's built-in ventilation allows any behind-the-shingle moisture to escape, enabling the shingles to fully dry out. In addition, the company pre-finishes the shingles with whatever oil or sealant the customer specifies.

When a storm comes along with heavy wind and sheets of rain, a wall that can't breathe will stay saturated and eventually give rise to rot. Kirkey claims his product's design allows that water to escape.

"There comes a time in every structure's life," says the inventor, "when the walls have to perform like a roof."

Good thing for Kirkey, most roofing doesn't make such handsome siding.