Many of our area’s most beautiful homes are protected with wood roofs. Natural wood roofs have been protecting homes for centuries. Wood shingles are esthetically pleasing. At one time, the vast majority of homes in America were protected with natural wood. Problems with combustibility, reduction of the old growth cedar forests, competitive products and shipping expense have completely changed this one-time market domination.

Wood Roof Breaking Up
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The quality of wood roofing has changed drastically. In earlier times, the old growth cedar, with its very tight growth ring pattern, was stable and lasted extremely well. But the old growth became rare and expensive and the wood roofing industry moved on to utilizing younger 2^nd growth trees. These younger trees are much less stable in the Texas heat and they just don’t last as long as the old growth. Wood shingle roofing right now is lasting about 13 to 17 years.

Curling Fragile Wood Shakes
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After the Plano Fires in recent years, area wood roofing shingles were required to be impregnated with fire retardant resins. However many wood roofs that were installed in the 80’s and early 90’s were never treated. Wood shingles have lost their market share because of this vulnerability to fire and the loss of reliability due to the scarcity of old growth cedar. They have also become much more expensive to produce and ship from Canadian Mills.

And of course, wood shingles are at the mercy of the roofing mechanic putting on the roof. Great wood roofing products when installed poorly create a poor quality roof. The exposure or required distance between each row of shingles is not always correct. Different qualities of wood shingles each require a different exposure.

Bad Wood, Bad Vents
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There is increased risk of fire when a home is covered with a combustible roofing product. This is probably impacting your homeowners premiums.

Also, you might have noticed that your shingles are twisting and curling. This might not be a serious water shedding problem and sure can be esthetically displeasing. These cured and twisted shingles are more vulnerable to hail damage and damage by foot traffic.

Hail comes in the spring. Foot traffic can come any time of year. The painter, the chimney sweep, the Christmas Tree light installer, the neighbor kids retrieving their airplanes, kites or cats, can break up fragile shingles with their footsteps. Falling or blowing tree branches, flying footballs and bouncing basketballs and baseballs are another source of breakage problems. Wood shingles will split under impact and destroy the carefully woven effect of overlapping shingles to shed water.