Selling Your Home with a Cedar Shake Roof?
When thinking of selling your home with a cedar shake roof it is important to know the condition of the roof and whether it needs to be replaced or not. More often that not it does not actually need to be replaced and can quite happily be cleaned and returned to a beautiful condition that will help convince the buyers this is the house for them.
Are you in the process of selling your home with a Cedar roof?
I have had a number of cedar roof cleanings where the home owner that was selling their home was told they needed a new roof. When you put your cedar shake home for sale in most cases there is a home inspection. Many home inspectors are not roof inspectors per se. When it comes to cedar wood roofs many times the inspector will base their inspection more on the age of the roof than on the condition. Rule of thumb is if a cedar roof is twenty years old it is near replacing which is based solely on the age. Given many home owners do not understand the design and function of a cedar roof they just assume they must need to replace the roof if the inspector says so. What many home owners and even home inspectors don’t realize is twenty years for a cedar roof, in most cases, is just half-life.
Do You Need Your Cedar Roof Replaced or Cleaned?
I have cleaned hundreds of cedar roofs and also I am a certified roof inspector with the National Certification and Roof Inspection association. Our policy is we will not clean a cedar roof that is in need of major repair or replacement.
I just cleaned a roof where the home inspector told the home owner and buyer that the cedar roof had maybe one to three years life left. I was called and asked to review the possibility of cleaning this roof. At first glance the roof looked bad having that dark brown to black color and that worn out look. I inspected this roof and the underling or what we call roof felt was in good condition and the shakes didn’t have a lot of vertical cracking or missing shakes nor cupping and curling. The cedar roof had never been cleaned and had mildew and brown rot fungi and was holding moisture. Over time these infestations will leach the life out of the shakes. cedar cannot decay on its own. Only when infested with algae, moss, mold, mildew, lichen and fungus, white and brown rot will they hold moisture and thus deteriorate the shakes. What one needs to understand is with a cedar roof the underling or felt protects the roof or home and is the water barrier and the shakes protect the felt. In most cases a simple cleaning will resolve the issue and place the roof back in its normal functioning condition.
How Much Can Be Saved Cleaning vs Replacing Your Cedar Roof?
The buyer wanted the homeowner to replace the roof or lower their sale price based upon this home inspection at a cost of $25,000.00. I have since cleaned this roof at the request of the new buyer for less than 5% of the replacement cost. In six to eight years we’ll clean it again.
In most cases, a cedar roof that is in the twenty-year-old range doesn’t need to be replaced but a simple cleaning will return it to its normal functioning state.
This example is classic of a situation where the cedar roof could have been replaced prematurely. Whether selling your cedar roof home or not, do your research have it inspected by a cedar roof expert, and consider having it cleaned. Cedar is wood and organic and needs to be maintained. Like your teeth which are organic also and will last a lifetime if you do what, maintain them. If maintained cedar roofs can last anywhere from 40 to 60 years which is subjective on weather conditions, location, and tree cover around the roof. We clean cedar roofs throughout Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, and the greater Midwest. Review the rest of this website the videos, photos, and customer reviews. Don’t replace your roof when we can clean it!
