A shake roof is usually one of the best you can get for your home in the Portland area. But sometimes we get calls at Roof Life of Oregon that a homeowner’s shake roof is failing before its time. There are usually three main culprits: bad shake, poor maintenance, and a harsh environment.
Bad Shake & Maintenance
Twenty to thirty years ago there was a housing boom. Loans were easier to get and people had the money to invest in upper-level homes. Shake roofs were a popular choice for those more expensive homes. The problem is, there was a shortage of shake. Good shake was really hard to come by. So all these homes were installed with bad quality shingles that just weren’t made to last.
Nowadays we can go up to Vancouver and there’s a ton of beautiful shake just lying on the floor of the woods that needs to come down anyway. But they didn’t have that twenty to thirty years ago. All the homes were installed with sub-par wood and, even with the best maintenance program in the world, you’d be lucky to get twenty good years out of it. Thirty is a major stretch. You need to be doing heavy maintenance every five years to get extra life out of it.
Environment
Your environment is also going to have a huge impact on your shake roof. Before you choose your roof, you want to have an inspection so we can check out your environment and make a suggestion for the best type of roofing materials to use.
Not one type of roofing is great for all environments. How many trees are directly overhead? How much wind and rain hits your home? If you live in a harsh environment, you need the right roof and the right maintenance to withstand it.
The good news is, if you work with Roof Life of Oregon from the beginning, we can help you choose the best roof for your environment, we’ll install it with only quality materials, and we’ll put you on a maintenance plan to help that roof last its full lifetime.