Inspecting Cedar Shake Roof

A simple visual inspection twice a year will help you maintain your roof identify issues early and extend the life of your roof.

Inspecting cedar shake roof. The home has a cedar shake roof. Widespread splitting has reduced sidelaps to less than 1 inches over a large part of the roof. Asphalt shingle in 2020. Cleaning vital to cedar shake roof lifespan.

Avoid getting on the roof if the condition is bad. A roofing inspection can extend the life of your cedar roof. Inspecting your cedar shake roof. Be careful as dry wood roofs in good condition can be tricky.

It s not ideal but not uncommon to have an asphalt roof installed over cedar shakes. The roof on your home is the first line of defense against the elements. The roof guy post author june 25 2017 at. The roof looks rough from the ground although looks like high quality shakes.

If you do get on the roof try to walk across the roof not directly up and down from the eave to ridge. A 3 ply roof can be installed over either spaced board or solid roof sheathing. The shingle bureau points out that the gap observed between shingles or shakes on a wood roof will vary depending on ambient moisture conditions as moist wood shingles or shakes swell which is why we need a. Once the wood roof is properly cleaned the infestations and moisture are removed allowing the shakes to breathe again and stay dry.

Your roof is protecting the rest of your house and taking a constant battering from the elements. I did a drive by on a house that i will be inspecting later today for the seller. The photo above shows a shake roof at the end of its useful life. For wood shakes the keyway should be 3 8 to 5 8 in width.

The gap or space between adjacent wood shingles should be between 1 4 and 3 8 in width. Harsh chicagoland elements like wind rain snow and hail are known to affect the roof of homes but however a well built properly maintained roof will reduce the effect of atmospheric elements to the barest minimum. Generally after 10 years exposure to weather one third of edge grain and two thirds of flat grain shakes and shingles will have splits. Three ply systems should never be used on roofs with a slope of less than 4 12.

Wood shingle or shake keyways or gaps. It s the original roof about 32 years old 15 40 life expectancy. While the removal of original shakes is the best way to go from the roof integrity ventilation preventing termite infestation moisture problems and rotting of the wood and engineering perspective maximum weight that your roof trusses can support it can be. Why should i be inspecting my roof.

At this point many homeowners believe that a new roof is needed when in reality a good cleaning will often solve the problem. Shake roofs installed using the 2 ply method in which the roof is covered with two layers of shakes at any given point in the roof system must have interlayment installed.