World's Stupidest Question

I have always wondered this question. If we use wood shingles and shakes how come we never see roofs with wood planks? I hate to admit how little I know sometimes

The Indian house is at the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge in an area that Lewis and Clark had noted visiting one. Initially I was disappointed when I heard it was going to be built, because other than a couple of weeks during goose season, the place is deserted. Once built though, I was glad to see it.

Last time I was up there, they were replacing a couple of the planks on the roof using a crane. This surprised me because when they originally built it, they weren't supposed to use any power tools to be authentic, but they must have gotten an exception since they didn't have a whole tribe of Indians handy to do the heavy lifting.

The original buildings housed several families, each occupying space along the walls. There is a firepit in the center that provided heat, cooking and light for the windowless building but no chimney. Smoke filtered out through the roofing.

They have been run vertically as well.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/FortRoss-chapel-reconstructed.jpg/284px-FortRoss-chapel-reconstructed.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ross_State_Historic_Park&h=151&w=227&sz=1&tbnid=aEMhd4SCG6_XGM:&tbnh=151&tbnw=227&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfort%2Bross%2Bmuseum%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=fort+ross+museum&usg=__gUWJz5jEfI0VCLovyz1Oyn8xyhs=&docid=ygoaD7p4XxY0aM&itg=1&sa=X&ei=SMHkUanTKcXHigKf24CwDg&ved=0CHwQ_B0wCg

What goes by the name of "barn shakes" gets you half way there also.

Beautiful job, woody. Tell me more about that one if you would.

I see roofs with wood planks all the time. They just have shingles on top of them. :laugh:

The wood tends to split along it's grain as it ages and dries, which makes it unsuitable for that purpose. Roofs done like that tend to constantly develope leaks.

I believe you'd get a separation in the seams. Of course then you'd just make more overlap.

Then again, it might be because of quality, i.e. Knots.

Not sure really.... :blush:

NW Indians used cedar plank roofs on their longhouses for hundreds of years. This is a reproduction one by me.