Opt For A Cedar Shake Roof If You Are Willing To Engage In Added Maintenance

By Author: Lewis Benjamin
Total Articles: 33
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A Cedar shake roof blends extremely well with natural surroundings and provides a warm and premium look to a house. However, this material is quite costly to purchase and install, and also requires frequent inspections and maintenance to ensure it lasts for a longer period of time.

Common Problems affecting roofs made of Cedar Shakes

Most Canadian roofs use Western Red Cedar in shingle or shake form. Shakes are thicker and sturdier than shingles, and offer better protection from harsh weather, especially hailstorms. Cedar is also naturally resistant to decay due to the presence of natural oils in the wood.

However, once exposed to the hot sun as well as precipitation, cedar undergoes weathering that can result in a change of color. In case your roof is silver-gray then you can expect the color to change to darker graphite-grey in the first year. Constant exposure to rain and sun also causes expansion and contraction in cedar, which in turn causes cracking and a way for microorganisms to enter the wood and begin damaging your roof from the inside.

Debris from broken tree branches as well as moss can ...
... also accumulate on your roof and cause your cedar roof to split, curl, crack, and can also lead to leaking, which in turn further aggravates the problem.

Maintenance for Cedar Roofs and Alternative Materials

Your cedar roof will require frequent inspections as well as cleaning by way of a brush and water to remove accumulated debris. You need to focus on removing debris and moss in valleys and around chimneys as well as clean all visible keyways. You may need to also use a pressure wash or hire a maintenance contractor to clean your roof at regular intervals, which in turn can be a costly affair.

You may also need to engage in chemical treatment of your cedar roof to ensure mold, fungi, moss, or mildew do not get a foothold and spread to the rest of your home. You may also need to go for preservative treatments to increase the life of your roof or at least make it last till the promised period of time. All these maintenance and preservation processes cost a lot in terms of time, effort, and money.

An excellent alternative to cedar wood for your roof is metal cladding. A metal roof possesses several advantages over cedar including a long life, around 50 years, negligible maintenance, wide choice of colors and finishes including the look of cedar wood, excellent thermal efficiency, reusability, and decent savings in insurance and tax payments.

The key to extracting the best out of your metal roof is to allow an experienced and proficient roofing company in Canada to install and maintain your roof so as to enjoy decades of protection without any worries.

While a Cedar shake roof can enhance the look of your home, it does have a limited life thanks to the harsh Canadian weather and requires a lot of love and care, both of which cost a lot of money. A green alternative is to opt for a metal roof made with rust-resistant alloys that can also mimic the look of a cedar roof, last for decades, and hardly require any maintenance during its long life.

About the author :

Lewis Benjamin is a self motivated, energetic individual. He enjoys challenging himself and experiencing new things. He has travelled a lot since his childhood and is fascinated with various types of housing designs and architectures. In this article, he highlights on roof repairs and cedar shake roof.