Cedar shakes

[William Slade]

Hey guys... does anyone know if Colorado still allows cedar shakes? I haven't seen a new roof with these for a long time...b

[James Kiser]

Probably has to do with the price of Western Red Cedar now. than being allowed
roofing companies still advertise them in Colorado

[CHARLIE VAN FLEET]

HEY BUTT HEAD

yes they are, but the city of hairy arm pits and many marijuana parlors--BOULDER. doesn't allow them--you have to kiss alot of arse there to get it passed

your master

[Bruce Breedlove]

Probably has to do with the price of Western Red Cedar now.

Not exactly. It has more to do with fire hazard. After the Hayman Fire in 2002 Colorado Springs banned new wood roofs. The last time I talked to someone at Pikes Peak Regional Building Department about wood roofs I was told that they allow replacement of up to 25% of a wood roof in a calendar year. After I pointed out that an owner could replace 100% of his wood roof after 4 years (at 25% per year) he said they would have to close that loophole.

[William Slade]

Congenial as usual Chaz.... I called roof brokers and they said they are still around...just not too much call for them... and of course Boulder wouldn't allow.... they do come from trees and most of those folks only hug trees...b

[John Kogel]

said they are still around...just not too much call for them... Same here, and this is the land of Cedar, or, it used to be. For shakes, you need old growth and we can only cut 800+ year old Cedars once in about 15 lifetimes. :confused:
I laid Shakes on roofs all through the 70's, "the only way to go". Split shakes from salvaged blocks for my own places in the early to mid 80's. In 1989, had a roof fire, lucky it was put out by volunteer firefighters. I eventually tore off the shakes and installed plywood and fiberglass shingles. No more spontaneous leaks. :)
Then the pile of scrap shakes caught fire, another near crisis! Thank you, volunteer firefighters!

In the dry parts of the country, fire insurance goes through the roof :) for shakes. There were a lot of homes lost to wildfires in BC recently, lots of old shake roofs were involved.

They need to be treated with retardant to be used in parts of California.
I think you need to be retarded to use them, period! :)