Shingles are wood?!!

Shingle - in English is also used to describe a beach of stones rather than sand, so I asumed that the shingles for a roof would be like slate, some form of mineral or a smooth flat stone.

Without some form of preservative, and an advanced one at that, wood would just rot, split, curl up and drop off in our climate.

I did remember a bit more of that song
every single little dream
is a shingle or a rafter,
we will paint the house with laughter
when we build our little home.

It came from the film Roman Scandals made about 1935

I think that our doctors and dentists etc talk about 'putting up their plate' which is actually an oblong of brass engraved with their name and qualifications. Surgeries with a lot of members have doorways that gleam in the sunlight.