On 2005-07-21, wrote:

I can cut the shingles to the right length and nail them in to the
missing row, but then the nail heads will be showing. Is there
any other way to reattach cedar shingles?

I'm not clear on why you have to cut the shingles in length--did you
completely remove each shingle that you took out? There's a tool made
for slipping under a row of shingles and pulling out the hidden nails
from the row underneath, I believe it's a long flat bar with a hook on
the side. Maybe it is necessary to trim the shingles slightly to
avoid the nails from the row above.

Anyway, to answer your question, I believe it is done like this,
although I haven't yet tried it myself: you insert the last row of
shingles and hold them back an inch, so their bottom edge is an inch
lower than you want it to ultimately be. You nail them right below
the row above, at an upward diagonal. Then you knock the shingle and
nail up the remaining inch by taking a block of wood against the
bottom edge of the shingle.

Cheers, Wayne