Covered Bridge Progress

I've made some progress on the covered bridge. First I added the siding on the ends (portals). I had to do this before adding the pieces that made up the gable, which had to be done before I added the roof laths.

I used scrap western red cedar sawn into 1/16"x 3/8" strips for the siding. the lower section, I glued on vertically. the upper horizontally, just for looks. A little trim makes the end portal look sharp too. I will add two more peices under the eves.

The roofing will be cedar shingles. Today I put laths down on the roof joists. I do it like real wood shingle roofing for the same reason; I want the air to get to the underside of the shingles to let them dry out.

I also cut a cedar tree that had broken in the ice storm for use as shingles. I started sawing them up into shingles on my band saw. They look pretty good, but I will let the wood dry a bit before cutting more...the wet sawdust clogged my bandsaw.

I like the looks of the Western Red Cedar and may just leave it to weather naturally. I will "weather" it with a little soot above the portals though.