Bark Shingles: A Green Product

Bark House® shingles are a “Super-Green” product and Highland Craftsmen Inc is the premier purveyor. From procurement, to processing, to maintenance, to end of life disposal, we want you to understand the why and how. When green includes a cultural, social and economic context, bark house shingles bring the house down.

Procurement: Bark House shingles are a by-product of the forest industry. We do not cut trees to harvest the bark. Before Highland Craftsmen Inc., the bark from the tree was left in the woods to decay, skinned from the tree at the saw mill or chipped into undesirable low grade mulch. Because we do not get the bark at sawmills, this product is technically not re-cycled, but a 100% reclaimed, high grade siding shingle.

Processing: The manufacturing of Bark House shingles is a very energy efficient, low consumption and a no-waste process. The use of hand axes, peaveys and spuds means the main source of energy used to produce our shingles is human energy. Dry kilns are fired with propane and final squaring occurs on a standard table saw. Water is not used to reconstitute anything. Simplicity (with exacting measures) is the beauty of this process. All the waste generated is burned in furnaces to create steam to heat an off-site plant. 

Maintenance Free: Paint, stain, sealers nor any other chemical treatment is required to maintain Bark House shingles. They are maintenance-free and last up to 80 years. That means there are no expenses and no environmentally caustic agents added for the lifetime of the shingle.

Disposal: After an 80 year life cycle without paint, stain, sealers or other chemical additives, Bark House shingles can be disposed of with no environmental consequence. Because they are all-natural, man-made chemicals will not leach into the soil as this product degrades.

Cultural Context: The predecessor of the poplar bark shingle is the shingle made from American chestnut bark. It is original to Linville, NC and was introduced by the same architect that designed the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., Henry Bacon. When the chestnut trees died over 70 years ago, no-one manufactured the shingles until HC re-introduced them. This cultural and architectural reclamation story can be read in the forthcoming book, (a story never told nationally before) Bark House Style: Sustainable Designs from Nature, authored by the co-founder of Highland Craftsmen, Chris McCurry.

Social Context: The mission of Highland Craftsmen Inc since its inception in 1990 has been “to produce a product line that is harmonious with nature (green) and minimizes the impact of construction” in an area of the Blue Ridge Mountains where development was expanding quickly. We recognized that development would increase; we wanted to offer green, indigenous, building products that were historically appropriate to the area to create more harmonious, balanced living spaces and be socially responsible. Today we maintain the same mission and have expanded our scope. We sell Bark House Elements for the Whole Home™ in over 32 states and see our role as a part of the larger whole.

Green Economy: It is most important to know that HC has not only produced other green friendly products, but has also created over 500 green collar jobs directly and another 300 at least through our primary vendors. This is money exchange that did not exist prior to HC implementing The Bark House movement. HC, a small company contributed over 2.5 million dollars to the local economy last year. Our manufacturing facility is located in a tier one economically depressed county in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina.