Manufacturer Questions

Not All Bark Siding is Created Equal,
Not All Companies are the Same

This year, bark siding celebrated its 110th anniversary thanks to its reintroduction by Highland Craftsmen® after over 60 years of dormancy. People know that Highland Craftsmen means quality. We have dedicated more than 16 years specifically to production, installation, design application and customer education of Bark House® Shingles. The Bark House is our sole focus. We are the industry leaders doing hands-on laboratory testing, field research and providing top quality time-tested product education. It remains and always will be central to our mission to ensure the public receives researched and substantiated information regarding bark shingles.

Bark siding is a wonderful product. Bark House shingles are known for their timeless beauty, longevity, and green-ness. Siding is the armor that protects the single greatest investment people make. If the siding fails, the home is vulnerable. Why gamble with an inexperienced manufacturer? Be informed when making costly decisions.

Proper Manufacturing of Bark Shingles is Step One

Questions to ask about the Manufacturing of Bark shingles:

Are the shingles graded for thickness, width and quality?

The thickness of a bark shingle affects longevity and installation procedures. If the bark is too thin or too narrow, it simply does not provide enough structural integrity. Thin or narrow bark can curl between nails and create bulges on a wall and cracks between shingles. Cracking can also occur when nails are driven in to the bark. It has less strength to properly hold a nail. The poor structural integrity of thin bark means that failure of your siding is probable. If the bark is too thick, trim around windows and doors may not be thick enough to be aesthetically correct. If the bark varies in thickness widely from piece to piece, your installer will have extra labor costs creating an even flow from one piece of bark to the next.

Highland Craftsmen has a multi-phase grading process that begins in the woods where the tree grows. Our vendors are supplied with specification sheets that dictate what is good enough to come to our intake yard. The grading process continues when our intake crew culls out bark for issues like mud, cracking, thickness width and limb holes. After the shingles are dried and squared there is a final cut to determine what shingles become HC® Bark House Shingles. Grading ensures that you are getting the highest quality with consistent thickness in your bark shingles.

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Are the shingles brown scaly bark?

Brown scaly bark occurs when the bark on the tree has made ground contact and is in the rotting process. It does not have adequate structural integrity to last and does not perform like Bark House Shingles.

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Are the shingles clean and free of mud?

Bark shingles should be clean and free of mud. If the shingle has gone through a drying process with mud on it, the mud is impossible to remove. This is a highly undesirable characteristic.

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How are the shingles dried?

Proper kiln drying ensures that your bark shingles will not shrink and leave cracks when the siding is applied. Heating the bark to proper levels also ensures that the shingles are sterilized. This is critical so that no mold spores, fungi or insects are transferred to your home. Black colored mold on the back of shingles is not acceptable. Ask the manufacturer what moisture content their shingles have and then ask them to use a moisture meter to randomly show you the moisture level of their pallets of bark. Ask the manufacturer how many days the bark sits on the yard prior to sterilizing in the kiln.

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At what point in the manufacturing process are the shingles “squared”?

Manufacturers skip steps by squaring the bark before it dries. This saves THEM money. Bark shingles are unstable until dry. They shift dimensionally or shrink more in some areas than others. “Squaring” the shingle before the kiln drying process means that the shingles aren’t really square. Your builder will have more time cleaning up the edges to get a proper fit, costing you extra money on the installation.

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What storage facilities are provided?

It is important that bark shingles remain in a controlled dry environment after kiln drying and before being installed on your home. Bark that sits in the weather for extended periods prior to being installed will wick moisture from the environment. That means that the bark will swell or expand and when drier conditions exist, the bark can shrink on your home exposing cracks. So over time some of the benefits that were gained from the kiln drying are simply lost.

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Is the species of bark time-tested with a proven life span (longevity)?

Yellow Poplar Bark Shingles, Birch, Cedar and Chestnut were used historically to clad structures. The durability of bark from other trees is completely unknown. A well known weathering research lab states that it takes 1 year of testing in their lab to duplicate 5 years of wear in the field. It would take 15 years of lab testing to know if the bark from other trees will stand the test of time like Yellow Poplar Bark.

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What empirical evidence does the manufacturer have that Poplar Bark Siding lasts?

Has the manufacturer had their shingles tested in a weathering research laboratory or do they monitor any historic structures that would provide evidence that Poplar Bark Siding lasts? If not, where are they getting their information from?

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Are chemicals added and why?

Some manufacturers dip or spray their bark with Borates. Take the time to learn about the characteristics of any chemical additive. Has the manufacturer followed guidelines put out by the chemical company that lead to any true benefit with chemical additives? Is there a real benefit to additives in the first place?

The Borate Story: Borates are used as wood preservatives. According to “Borates as Wood Preservatives” by Mark J. Manning and Len T. Arthur (a publication circulated by a major borate manufacturer), “To obtain the required core retention, typically a six week diffusion period was needed for a 50mm… thick timber… Boron compounds in current use as wood preservatives are susceptible to leaching under certain conditions as they are not chemically fixed within the wood…” This means that just dipping or spraying the poplar bark with borates as some other manufacturers do is not a suitable means to obtain any practical benefit from the product. According to The Journal of Light Construction and Remodeling Magazine, “...borate-treated wood is not recommended for exterior use or ground contact, since constant wetting will leach it away from wood and decrease effectiveness.”

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What experience does the seller have with manufacturing and installations?

To sell a product and provide the customer with all the tools they need to properly use the product, the seller has to have a good source of information. In order to have a full understanding of a product, it is best to have first hand knowledge and experience. Time and experience do make a difference. At the very least, the seller should be able to provide written guidelines the customer can understand and use.

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Does the seller provide any other support services?

By providing technical and customer support, sales people can help architects, builders, and homeowners make the best choices about bark siding options, design applications and installation. Having guides and installation support, from someone with experience who cares how the product is installed makes a huge difference. Personal consultations via the phone or on the job-site solve real-world construction issues.

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Does the seller do installations or provide a guide from the manufacturer?

Proper Installation Finishes the Job

Whether you are working with a builder or installing yourself, proper installation helps increase the longevity of the shingles and ensures a more appropriate look. Can you imagine the moldings in the interior of your home having huge gaps in the joints? What if your floor had cracks wide enough to fall through? This would be unacceptable. Poor bark installations are just as unacceptable and much more costly as your home’s exterior sheathing dictates your home’s integrity, resistance to water, bugs and numerous intruders.

Wall prep is essential

Whether your job is a replacement of existing siding or a new project, ensuring that the proper substrate is used is very important. If the material that your siding is nailed to is not sufficient enough to nail to, there will eventually be product failure and impaired home integrity.

Stay out of the water

Wood shingles of any kind should not come in direct contact with the ground, roofing materials or any area that water stands. Proper flashing is paramount.

House wrap should be applied to create a breathable water resistant barrier. An adhesive backed ice dam membrane seals the edges of window and door trim to the house wrap. Using a roofing membrane between rows of bark will double insure that no water ever gets behind the bark and degrades wood.

Let the air flow

A kicker strip should be used on the first row. The tilt of the shingle that follows allows proper amounts of air to move around the shingle.

Consider the lap factor

Each particular house site is unique as to rain, snow, ice, humidity, wind etc. Bark shingles should be lapped no less than 2” in any situation for an exterior application. Ice damming and wind factors will impact how much lap is recommended for your particular situation.

Nail, and nail properly

The basic structure of bark is that the back edge is flat and the front edge is ridged and has much more surface area. If left unattached or improperly attached, bark will curl in on itself and assume a tighter cylinder shape than when on the tree. On a house, this means the bark will bulge away from the home and its integrity will be compromised. A full head chisel point spiral shank bright gun nail is recommended if using a nail gun. Poplar bark is not acidic enough to cause bleed or long-term nail decomposition. Nail heads will eventually rust and blend into the field. Galvanized nails or staples will shine brightly in the light.

Mind your corners

For outside corners, there are two application techniques. A bark wrapped corner uses an alternating wrap pattern. Wood corner styles are another method. No matter which method is chosen, corner joints should fit tightly without gaps. Caulk is not necessary with a proper cut and fit. Make sure your installer has good instructions for dealing with inside and outside corner treatments. Gaps here lead to impaired home integrity.

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Other Considerations

Each job is unique. The guidelines listed here are applicable in every situation. Some specific issues may present on your particular job. Being able to trust your manufacturer and installer to deal with general and specific issues is paramount to good home integrity and product longevity.

When considering building or purchasing a house that has bark siding on it, take the time to learn where the builder got the bark from, know that the manufacturer is reputable and can answer the questions above providing evidence of their answers.

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