Revamp Your Home's Exterior with Our How-to Guide to Installing Siding Shingles

To prepare the exterior walls, apply building wrap for a water-resistant barrier beneath the shingles. Apply self-adhesive flashing tape to corners and around windows and doors. Take special care not to crease the wrap or flashings.

Install exterior trim around the windows and doors as needed. Be sure to choose a wood stain or material for the trim that will complement your new shingle siding. If you plan to weave the shingles at outside corners (see steps 6 and 7), you don't need outside corner trim.

Use a story pole to lay out courses and help you avoid using narrow pieces above or below windows and doors. You may choose to raise or lower the bottom course to achieve the desired layout (see step 10) or use the swing-stick method to keep the layout consistent. Mark the layout all around the house.

Install inside corner trim pieces. Ideally, these should not be too visible, but they must be wide enough to provide room for caulking after the shingles are installed. A 1x1 board ripped from 5/4 cedar decking is often the ideal size. Hold up several layers of shingles to make sure the trim is thick enough.

Install the first starter-course piece at a corner. It should run past the corner by about 1 inch. Use a small level to hold it plumb and attach with two nails or staples. Less-expensive, low-grade shingles can be used as the starter course.

Install a piece on the other side of the corner butted against the first piece. Use a utility knife to roughly cut the first piece. Slice once or twice, then snap the shingle apart.

You may need to touch up the split for a smooth edge. Use a small block plane or Surform tool to trim the shingle edge flush. When building a corner, trim and plane each piece before moving on to the next course.

Make a jig (as shown) as a quick, failsafe way to keep the courses even. Use a straight 1x4 as the guide and 1x2s as the hangers. Check that it's level and fasten it with 3-inch screws.

The starter course is made of two layers of shingles. Attach the second layer so its joints are offset at least 1-1/2 inches from the joints of the underlying layer. You will likely need to cut the last pieces in each row.

Build up the corners. The bottom course (which is on top of the starter course) may be anywhere from 1 to 4 inches above the starter course, depending on your layout. To maintain correct exposures, use a homemade exposure guide. Drive nails or staples about 1 inch above the exposure so they will be covered. Be sure to check your layout marks every few courses. Trim and plane a corner board before you install the next course.

Build the inside corners. Follow the same steps you used for the outer corners. However, you will not need to plane any shingle edges.

Once you have built up the corners by about 10 courses, snap a chalk line to mark the bottom of the next course. Attach vertical pieces to a long, straight guide and attach to the wall as shown. Place shingles on the guide board and fasten them, offsetting joints by at least 1-1/2 inches.

Continue installing your shingle siding around windows and doors. To accommodate corners, install wide notch-cut shingles. Avoid having a joint closer than 1 inch from the corner.

The shingles above windows and doors require special attention since they're not layered on top of other shingles. To ensure a consistent look, you will need to cut and install strips of the correct thickness underneath the row of shingles. That way, the full-thickness pieces installed over them will be correctly flared out from the wall.

Work around your home's exterior features, such as spigots. Turn off the water and remove the hose spigot. Use a drill and a hole saw to cut a neat hole in the shingle. The hole should be large enough that there is at least a 1/4-inch gap between the pipe and the shingle to avoid damage from condensation. Caulk the gap before replacing the spigot.

Set a scrap of wood on the roof and use a T-bevel to capture the angle for cutting along a gable. Where possible, install the angled pieces first, then fill in with full-length pieces.

Along a roof, install flashing. Then install shingles 1 or 2 inches above the flashing. To cut a series of shingles that follow a roofline, align four or five of them on a worktable and snap a chalk line across them all, using the T-bevel as a guide.

Once all the shingles are installed, apply caulk at all the trim joints. To finish your shingle siding, apply two or more coats of sealer or two coats of primer. If desired, paint the shingles, taking care to cover all surfaces evenly.