What Do NJ Roofers Recommend for Cedar Shake vs Wood Shingle?

The Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau assigns wood shingles a 30-50 year rated life against cedar shakes' 20-40 years, so the evidence favors the sawn shingle for a longer rated range and the hand-split shake for a thicker, textured plane.

The Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau also grades the cedar itself: the top grades use all-heartwood, edge-grain stock, and cedar shakes divide into hand-split-and-resawn and taper-sawn grades. The InterNACHI life-expectancy chart, by contrast, lists a single 25-year 'Wood' row covering both shakes and shingles, so the CSSB grade distinction is what separates a top-grade cedar roof from the chart's flat average. Both products are the same western red cedar, prized for its natural decay resistance, and the split-versus-sawn face is the defining difference the bureau records.

NPS Preservation Brief 19 governs the historic recommendation, directing that a replacement on a contributing historic structure match the original size, shape, texture, and exposure rather than an aged appearance. The brief's guidance, paired with the CSSB grades, is why a formal colonial reads correctly under flat sawn shingles while a Craftsman bungalow or rustic colonial reads correctly under split shakes that cast deep shadow lines across the roof plane.

Installation to the Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau and NPS Preservation Brief 19 decides whether a cedar roof reaches its rated life: the deck carries at least 1.5 inches of air space for drying, and the fasteners stay corrosion-resistant.

The air-spaced deck lets each course dry from underneath after rainfall, the detail that holds back the moisture-driven cupping, edge splitting, and rot beneath cupped shakes that mark a shake roof's failure modes, per the Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau and NPS Preservation Brief 19. The fasteners are hot-dipped zinc-coated, aluminum, or stainless steel, never copper, because a chemical reaction between cedar and copper shortens the roof's life, per NPS Preservation Brief 19 — the opposite of the copper that slate and clay tile take, so the fastener choice tracks the covering rather than the building.

Fire-retardant treatment is the path to a fire class where fire-zone code applies: cedar shakes and wood shingles reach Class B or Class C only as pressure-impregnated products under the CSSB Certi-Guard program, and a Class A exists only as an assembly of Class B fire-retardant shingles over a fire-retardant cap sheet, since no single shake or shingle is Class A, per the NAHB and the Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau, with fire class set by UL 790 and ASTM E108 testing.

The common mistakes that shorten a cedar roof are copper fasteners, skipping the fungicide-algaecide cycle, ignoring north-facing moss and algae, and assuming untreated cedar carries a fire rating. Each runs against the CSSB and NPS Preservation Brief 19 guidance that sets the roof's rated life.

Skipping the fungicide-algaecide cycle forfeits the maintenance that holds the rated life: periodic treatment at $0.15-$0.60 per square foot every few years, per HomeGuide, plus prompt replacement of cupped or split units. On north-facing, shaded Essex County slopes, both products accumulate moss and algae as prolonged moisture drives biological growth, per the InterNACHI chart and NPS Preservation Brief 19, so the shaded plane is where deferred maintenance costs the most service life. A UV-inhibiting preservative reapplied with that cycle also slows the silver-gray weathering as UV degrades the untreated surface, per HomeGuide.

Assuming untreated cedar carries a fire rating is the standards mistake the CSSB flags: untreated cedar shakes and wood shingles are nonclassified and unrated for fire, not Class C, per the NAHB and the Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau, with fire class set by UL 790 and ASTM E108 testing. A flex test settles a worn unit's condition, since a cedar unit that cracks under light bending shows advanced degradation regardless of surface, per the InterNACHI chart.