Cedar shakes and an old spooky house

Hey everyone,

Heres the scene: remember that roof job I was talking about? Well those same people decided to hold off on the roof because I said I'd have to take the whole thing off. However these same people have asked me about 2 issues. For one they wonder if there is just a fairly quick way to stop the roof from leaking. The only thing I can come up with is putting plastic on the roof in a large perimeter around the spots inside where it leaks, and seal it with roof tar around the edges. Either that or just go up there with tar i.e. asphalt, and go crazy with the stuff on any crack or hole I see. They just want to stop big leaks when it rains, temporarily until they really redo the roof. Any suggestions other than what I've mentioned?
You should see this house. its like there's all these other houses next to it with ticky tacky vinyl siding and fake flowers, and then their house has these cruddy shingles and an old flower pot with a little sculpture of a metal bat (the animal) on the end of a long rod stuck into the dirt. It's truly funny and kinda cool. What happened was they bought the house a few years ago ( looks like its from the 20s or 30s or soemthing, maybe 40s) and it had cedar shakes on it that were kinda sunburnt and in bad shape (she showedf me a picture) and they took those off. Now what's left is these atypical old brick colored long shingles in really bad shape (like the roof). under that is what appears to clapboard siding type deal or maybe those are the actual sheathing, just boards nailed onto the frame. They want to possibly reshingle it with regular 3 tab shingles or with shakes.

1. Should I take off the shingles or put the shakes over them?

2. Is it ok to use the same 3 tab asphalt shingles id use of a roof ( or architectural shingles) on the side of the house?

3. any tips on putting up shakes, thats one thing I haven't had the pleasure of doing yet.

5. If i get just unprimed wood shakes is there some pretreatment they'd have or do I have to do some weather sealing of them before putting them up?


Thanks,

Will

I think I'll reply to myself here since nobody else did.

Yeah Will, what you want is to install the shakes or the shingles over the sheathing itself, not over old cruddy shingles. it of course depends somewhat on the condition of the underlying siding or sheathing. If its clapboard or board and batten type, put felt paper over it as a vapor barrier and use preasure treated wood shingles or shakes or pre primed ones. The shiplap of the siding should be enough to create ventilation for the back of the shakes. Shingling is best done from a clean slate whether its on a roof or a sidewall.
You mentioned a long time ago that the roof under thsoe layers of asphalt shingle was composed of wood shakes so you probably oroginally had a house that was clapbaord with a somewhat primitively installed shake roof, since you didn't say they were installed on spaced sheathing but rather the rafters themselves. My recommendation for doing the roof is to take all the old layers off and resheath with plywood if youre gonna use asphalt shingles and with 1x4 spaced sheathing members, spaced at the same distnace on center as the shingle or shake weather exposure, if you're gonna do cedar shakes.

Will