Helpful Hint
Number 23
(Easy Roof Covering)

By
Larry Dick

OK, my first 22 Helpful Hints weren’t that good, so I’m going to try and make amends with this sure to please tip on how to fabricate an easy roof covering for your outdoor structures.  Having completed a passenger/freight station for my railroad, the always annoying and troublesome question of how to cover the roof reared its ugly head.  I needed something that would both look relatively real and would stand up to the elements.  

At first, I was resigned to cover the roof with precut  “dollhouse” wood shingles.  For me, the problems with this method were threefold.  First, my two layer sub-roofs were approximately 40 inches long by nine inches wide, which meant that it would take me approximately eight months to glue all 8,362,567 shingles to the sub-roof.  It would probably look very good, but I just could not fathom the amount of time needed to glue each tiny piece in place.  Second, even though I use Tightbond 2 ‘weatherproof’ wood glue, I have found that most weatherproof products are anything but.  After the third rain, I would expect the shingles to start falling off the sub-roof faster than butter on a hot ear of corn.  Third, there is no place to buy doll house shingles in the Salem area.  

I build my structures out of PVC sheets, which when properly covered with primer, should stand up to the elements fairly well.  After giving this some thought on how best to cover my roofs, I decided on using a combination of primer, textured stone spray paint enamel, and outdoor spray enamel.  This combination would work equally well on primed and sealed wood or plastic.  All three items are available at most hardware and home improvement stores (See Figures 1, 2 and 3).  
   
 
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
 
I began my masking off the roof portions, and then brush painting a coat of Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer Sealer on the PVC sub roofs.  After the primer/sealer had dried, a uniform coat of Plasti-Kote Fleck Stone paint (any color - I used blue) was applied directly over the primer coat (See Figure 4).  Lastly, two coats of Krylon ‘Antique Bronze’ Outdoor Space Textured Finish was sprayed over the Fleck Stone (See Figures 5 and 6).
     
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
 
I’m very happy with the results (See Figures 7 and 8). This method is relatively easy to apply and the textured roof looks appropriately real.  This method can be applied to any structure on your railroad.
       
Figure 8
       
 
 
 
 
 
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