Shake Roof

I am roofing a shake roof and would appreciate the pros and cons of roofing over the shake with decra.

The pros: you dont have to tear off old dusty moldy shakes. There is probably some benefit to the end user in R value of the shakes and the fact that they arent paying you to throw thier old roof in the dump.

The Cons: Unless you hand nail the counter battens down with 20 commons, your counter battens wont grab the existing roof structure so the roof will look wavy. Your extension cords and hoses will keep snagging the shakes while the batten work is being done.

Other than that its just work. Better check with the building dept. in case they have something to say about it. Like they may make you tear it off. and that would suck if you already did the battens.

i wood tear off the cedar shake.

gweedo.

cedar needs to breathe or it dryrots,itd be a shame to see your new roof on the lawn because the nails didnt have anything to hold onto,now wouldn`t it??----rip it off!

Are you the roofer or the property owner (or manager…)?

From an investment viewpoint, I wouldn’t buy a house that was shingled over cedar because let’s say you have the house for another 10 years & then put it up for sale. A buyer will possibly think that THEY might need to replace it & pay extra for a redeck or other work. OR they might anticipate their difficulty in making a sale knowing the roof system has less of a lifespan to THEIR buyer (of course, this is going a bit over the national average of someone living in a house for around 7 years before moving on).

One last thing, if there’s a leak anywhere in the roof’s future, it’s got more potential for a difficult diagnosis & / or repair.

the only good thing about going over cedaris that cedar absorbs the water and swells to keep out water(in the very beginning anyway-predryrot)

Remove the cedar. Do it right the first time and not worry about it. Some staes will not even let you go over cedar from what i hear.

Hi,

Are they shakes or shingles?