Restoring Old Homes: The Timeless Cedar Shake

One of the common materials used in building old homes was the cedar shake.  It was light weight, weather resistant, and aesthetically appealing.  However, as old growth cedar has been mostly harvested, the price has increased significantly and made cedar roofs much more expensive.

Nevertheless, cedar also has useful applications as siding.  Many old homes have dormers, porches, or gables that are sided with cedar shake.  My home is such an example.

Here is an example of a stairway I built for a rental property.

The OSB board is used to cover the 2X4 studs but is really unsightly.  The property was built in 1910 and the sheeting is really not very appealing.  I needed to cover it with something but vinyl was too ugly and paint would just look terrible as well.  I decided to go with a traditional cedar shake siding.  Here is the result:

That looks alot better.  There is still some trim work to be done but this compliments the rest of the buildling.

So what do you do when the surfaces you are working with don't fit together?  We ran into this problem with a home we restored at 2670 Jefferson Ave. years ago.  Here is a snapshot:

As you can see, this house was in really bad shape.  It also was a series of additions that were constructed over decades.  The roof behind the sunporch had a strange parapet that I had to fabricate a metal overlay for.  The roof beyond that was put on in the 1970's.  The dormer was OSB board.  Very strange and difficult to tie together.  Yet, with the power of the cedar shake, we were able to pull it all together.

If you are looking for some cedar shakes in Ogden, Utah, the best place is ABC Roofing on 21st Street.  They are on the south side of the road just before Flying J.  Call in advance because they often have to order them in.  They are about $50 a bundle right now. 

So now that you know, get out there and start shaking your siding.