Fighting Fire With Faux Cedar Shakes

After watching wildfires leapfrog from one tinder-dry rooftop to another in an onslaught of flame that destroyed nearly 1,000 homes in 2003, San Bernardino County Fire Marshal Peter Brierty had seen enough California homes go up in smoke.

The county soon banned exterior wood on houses.

In particular, the target was highly combustible cedar shake shingles. "Wood shingle roofs have a horrific history of real fire problems," Brierty said. He describes cedar shakes as "burning Frisbees," as intense heat and winds lift shakes off roofs to scatter embers and flame to nearby houses.

Fire issues aside, cedar shake roofs have long been the darlings of homeowner associations that mandate a common appearance from home to home. Cedar shakes have had little competition as king of the rooftop. Imitations looked thin and flimsy without the patchwork variety so evident when shingles are nailed on one at a time.

Some recent shingle innovations, however, may knock cedar shakes off the pedestal. At a recent builder trade show, visitors saw faux cedar shakes that passed the all-important appearance test. Few building pros could tell the difference between the real and unreal from a scant few feet away.

At least one company, DaVinci Roofscapes, attracted builder and consumer attention with a twin of a shake shingle made of engineered polymer. Unlike previous shake contenders, this five-eighth-inch-thick shingle answers the aesthetic test along with fire- and hail-resistant features that plague real wood.

The shingles carry a Class A fire rating, meaning the polymer will not ignite easily. If anything, it will melt slightly, then char. Homeowners may find that a better option than a fast-moving wood-fed fire.

Lake Arrowhead, Calif., roofer Mike Copp says this new product resolved his doubts that any manufactured shake could catch on in his area where weather extremes, in addition to fire, are tough on any shingle. Although the product is new, Copp has already installed it on numerous homes. .

DaVinci ( http://www.davinciroofscapes.com/ ) packages five widths of shingle in bundles that are nailed on singly just like real shakes to ensure the random pattern similar to wood roofs.

Yet, Copp knows customers buy on appearance and curb appeal. "They use a mold that replicates, pretty darn close, what the natural shake looks like," Copp said. "My customers like that."

The new shingles have something else in common with real wood: high cost. Copp says the installed price for both wood and polymer is $600 to $900 per 100 square feet. That means an average roof can cost more than $20,000, a far cry from asphalt shingle roofing.

Some gated communities are starting to take notice of the polymers as an option that still protects the visual continuity.

Homeowners using the polymer shingles can expect to see better protection from hail. John Humphreys of DaVinci said this is attractive to insurance companies that shell out millions annually to replace dimpled or split wood roofs.