Ought Shingled Roofs To Be Painted?

%pkhipugirgtisi If it is an economical practice to paint Hiiy otherrpart of the arehitectural stmcture, most assuredly it is a goinmendable practico to paint shingles on tto rooi'. Every intolligent buildor is aware of tlie fuec that shingles and Biding, when not .painted, will wmr out very muoh sooner than if they hád - been prottcted by a generous eovoring of paint. Henee, reaBoning i'vom ft seltish policy, it is botter not to paint shingles, because the paint will proloog thrir durabllity, and whatever promotes their durability tends to diruinish the labora of tho craft, and thuè Ourtail the revenue ot' civil arohiteots. The house in which the writer was bom was oovered with Bhaved.pine shinglos in the year 1805, at which time the roof received a generoua coat of oil-pfint made of linseed oil and Venetiau ted. After twenty years had elapsed, nnother coat of paint very nearly black, was ap. plied. Since thit period no paint has hoon applied, and it is now a good root' for an old one. It doos not leak, and the onlj repairs on it have consisted of a shingle added here and there, wliero a portion of a poor shingle was worn out. If tho roof had not boen painted the butts of most of the courses would have been worn cntirely away ; and if such lona: periods had not been allo wed to mtetvene between the times of painting, the roof wouki have been a good one, oven al'ter the lapso of 100 yeare, Soine one once suggostod that, if the roof is painted, tho paint will cause the water to back up beneath the next course of shingles above, which will thoroughly satúrate the two courses, and thusthedecay of the roof will be hastened. That is unmitigated nonsense. There is not a word of truth in the&ssuniption. On the contrary, when the surface is painted, the water will glide away so quickly that it will -not .be drawn back between the eóurses of shingles half readily as it vrill bo when no paint has been applied. The true way to paint a roof is to ap ply paint of some kind to both sidos of the shingle. It is quite as important that the under side of every shingle be oovered with paint ;is the surface, to prevent the water froni being drawn up between the courses by capillary attraction. If good. shingles are painted on both sidos, and good paint be applied to the roof once in ten year?, it will continue leak-tight for more than a htindred years. When it is not desira blo to save the waUr for Arhikirtg, eofil lar is an I lent and cheap paint for preserving shingles. and it will pay well to smear the roof with this material once in four or ftve years. When roofs are not painted, moss is liable collect at the butts of eveTy course of shingles, which prouiotes their deeay more rapidly than altérnate rain and sunshine. When oil paint is used for.painting shiigles it is always bettef to "mploy some light color rather than black, as the apartnients of the attic story, beneath á black roof', are liable to be uncomfortably hot in the sumuinr; and more than this, as black paint absorbs more heat than any ether color, noither the paint nor the shingle will endure as long as if the roof had been cover. .'d with light-colored paint. A metallic roof covered with light-coloied paint. will last much lönger than if it had been painted with a black paint. The most economical paint for a roof is a generous coat of coal-tar once in a few years ; but coal-tar will color the water for five years Hftpv the coa.t is ATtnliod to the root'. -