Cedar Shake

Cedar shake roofing is made from cedar wood, most often western red cedar, split or sawn into individual shingles and installed in overlapping courses much like asphalt shingles, though with a thicker, more textured profile.

There are two distinct types worth telling apart. Hand-split shakes are literally split along the wood's grain rather than cut, which leaves a rough, irregular, deeply textured surface that reads as rustic and handcrafted. Sawn cedar shingles are cut on a saw instead, giving a flatter, more uniform, tapered profile that still shows cedar's natural grain but with a cleaner overall look.

Cedar's appeal is largely about how it ages. A new cedar roof starts out a warm honey-brown, and over a period of years it weathers naturally to a soft silver-gray as the wood is exposed to sun and rain, a transformation that is part of the material's character rather than a flaw.

That natural material also comes with natural maintenance needs that asphalt and metal simply do not have. Cedar can develop moss or algae in shaded, damp conditions, and periodic cleaning and, on many installations, a preservative treatment are part of keeping a cedar roof performing well over its life.

Fire resistance is a real consideration with untreated cedar, since wood is naturally combustible. Cedar shakes and shingles can be factory-treated with a fire-retardant coating to achieve a meaningfully better fire rating, and in some fire-prone regions that treatment is required by code rather than optional.

Cedar is a genuine material commitment: a distinctive, natural look that ages the way real wood ages, paired with an upkeep routine and fire-rating question that asphalt and metal roofs simply do not carry.