Cedar Shake Roofing in Edmonton

Cedar is the most demanding roofing material Edmonton Roof Pros works with in this climate, and the one most likely to be chosen for reasons that have nothing to do with performance. That is a legitimate choice. A cedar roof on the right house looks like nothing else, and a well maintained one is genuinely beautiful.

But it should be chosen with the maintenance understood, because cedar in central Alberta asks considerably more of an owner than asphalt or metal does.

What This Climate Does to Wood

Cedar is a natural material that moves with moisture. It absorbs water, swells, dries, and shrinks, and it does this continuously through a prairie year.

The difficulty is our freeze-thaw pattern. Water absorbed into the wood expands when it freezes, and our winters cycle above and below freezing repeatedly rather than staying uniformly cold. Each cycle works at the wood a little more, which over years produces the splitting and cupping that ends a cedar roof’s life.

Add strong summer UV, which greys and degrades the exposed surface, and hail, which damages cedar in a way that is harder to assess than the bruising it leaves on asphalt.

None of this makes cedar unworkable here. It does mean a cedar roof needs to be installed to breathe and needs periodic attention, and an owner who wants a roof they never think about should be looking at asphalt shingle roofing or metal roofing instead.

Installing It So It Can Dry

The single most important thing about a cedar installation is that the wood must be able to dry from both sides. Cedar laid directly onto a solid deck with an impermeable underlayment traps moisture underneath, and trapped moisture rots the wood from the back while the visible surface still looks sound.

So cedar goes over battens or a purpose-made ventilated underlayment that holds an air space beneath the courses. That air space is what lets the underside dry after every rain and every thaw, and it is the difference between a cedar roof that reaches a respectable age and one that fails early for reasons the owner never sees.

Fasteners matter too. Stainless steel is the correct choice, because cedar’s natural oils are corrosive and ordinary fasteners bleed rust down the roof and lose their grip.

Repairing Existing Cedar

Cedar fails unevenly, which works in your favour. Exposed slopes and areas under trees deteriorate faster than sheltered ones, so a roof with sound wood across most of its area can often have the failed pieces replaced selectively rather than the whole roof stripped.

That work needs a light touch, since new pieces have to be woven into existing courses without disturbing the ones above, and it is worth doing on a roof that still has life in the bulk of its area.

When Cedar Stops Making Sense

At some point the honest answer is that the roof has reached the end and replacing cedar with cedar is not the best use of the money. That is a common conclusion here, and there is no shame in it.

Modern asphalt laminates and metal profiles both produce a heavy, textured shadow line that reads similarly from the street at a fraction of the cost and maintenance. We will show you the comparison and price both, and if you still want cedar, we will install cedar properly. The point is that you decide with real numbers rather than being sold either way.

What's Included

• Cedar shake and cedar shingle installation
• Repair and selective replacement on existing cedar roofs
• Ventilated installation over battens or a breathable underlayment
• Honest assessment of cedar versus a cedar-look alternative
• Conversion to asphalt or metal where cedar no longer makes sense

Other Services We Offer in Edmonton

• Roof Replacement in Edmonton
• Roof Repair
• Hail Damage Roof Repair in Edmonton
• Asphalt Shingle Roofing in Edmonton
• Metal Roofing
• Roof Leak Repair