Cedar Shingle Siding on Cape Cod, MA

How we approach cedar shingle siding on Cape Cod

Siding is the skin that keeps Cape Cod weather out of your framing. When it fails, the damage is rarely visible until the sheathing behind it has rotted. On the Cape, siding fails for predictable reasons: salt air corrodes ordinary fasteners, wind-driven rain finds gaps at windows and corners, and shaded walls stay damp and grow mold. We replace a lot of siding that was installed without housewrap, without flashing, or with nails that rusted through in a decade.

Our siding work always starts with the wall assembly. We strip to the sheathing, replace anything rotted, install housewrap and flashing at every window, door and corner, and then install the siding itself with stainless or coated fasteners. We work in white cedar shingles, fiber cement, vinyl and clapboard, and we help with historic district review where the town requires it. The result is a wall that sheds water, breathes properly and looks right for the neighborhood.

White cedar shingles are the Cape Cod exterior. They weather to a silver-gray, they suit every style of house from antique Capes to modern shingle-style homes, and in most historic districts they are the material the committee wants to see. A cedar shingle wall done right has housewrap and a rain-screen gap behind it, consistent exposure course to course, tight-fitting corners and stainless steel nails that never bleed. We install natural white cedar that will weather on its own, or factory pre-stained shingles for homeowners who want a specific color and a longer finish life.