Is cedar shake worth the cost long-term?

Cedar is part of the streetscape in Oak Bay, the Uplands and the older blocks of Fairfield and Rockland, where Tudor-revival and Arts-and-Crafts homes were built with shakes and many still carry them. Owners there are usually deciding between cedar again, a laminate that mimics shake, or a shake-profile metal shingle, and the answer turns on how much shade the roof gets: a south-facing Uplands roof in open sun can justify cedar; a north slope under a Garry oak cannot.

Outside the core, the rural interface changes the question. Highlands, Metchosin and parts of Sooke sit in forest, where untreated cedar is both the mossiest choice and the one some insurers and wildfire-interface guidance look hardest at. Homeowners replacing shakes in those areas increasingly move to metal for the second roof, keeping cedar for the siding and the look rather than the roof.

Two things moved. Old-growth harvest restrictions after 2019 tightened the supply of the clear, edge-grain cedar that premium shakes are cut from, and a BC roofing guide reports material up 40 to 60% since then. At the same time fewer crews install cedar well, and a shake roof takes longer to lay than laminate because every piece is placed by hand with the right gap and overlap. The result is an installed range of $14 to $26 per square foot in that guide and $14 to $28 in our model, above metal.

The second cost is upkeep. Cedar in shade holds moisture, grows moss and rots at the butts; maintained roofs last a decade longer than neglected ones, and that maintenance is a recurring bill.

There are houses where nothing else looks right, and conditions where cedar performs.

• Heritage or character homes where the shake texture is central to the design, especially in Oak Bay and the Uplands
• Roofs with good sun and wind exposure on most slopes, and trees kept well back
• Attics with proper ventilation and a breathable underlay so the shakes can dry from below
• Owners who will schedule cleaning and treatment rather than wait for moss
• Grade 1 (No. 1 blue label) shakes or shingles, not lower grades, for the wet coast

Three substitutes cover most of the ground. A heavy laminate shingle in a shake profile gives the shadow lines at a third of the price and is what most crews are installing on former shake roofs across the region. A shake-look metal shingle costs about what cedar does but lasts twice as long and ignores moss. Composite shakes exist but have a thin local track record and few installers. Whichever you choose, the tear-off of old shakes and the decking work underneath (skip sheathing usually needs plywood) are the same and should be priced explicitly.

Use the compare view in the calculator to see cedar, laminate and metal priced for your own roof rather than a generic house.