Cedar Roofing in Bayside, NY

Cedar is one of the best-looking roofs you can put on a Bayside Colonial, and there are still original cedar roofs on some of the older houses here. When it’s time to replace one, the questions are what kind of cedar, how it breathes, and whether composite shake makes more sense for you.

Cedar on Bayside Colonials

You see it mostly on the older Colonials and Capes in Bayside Hills, around Crocheron Park and toward Little Neck. Cedar ages to that silver gray everybody likes, but under those trees south of the LIE it holds moisture, and moss and rot start on the north slopes. Near the water, the wind dries it out and the edges curl. So the condition is different on every house, and I look at it before we talk about anything.

Shakes or shingles, red or yellow cedar

Shingles are sawn, smooth and uniform. Shakes are split, thicker and more rugged. Western red cedar is the classic, and Alaskan yellow cedar is harder and holds up longer, but it costs more. I’ll show you both so you can see the difference in person. Installed, cedar runs about $2,000 to $2,600 a square depending on the grade and the shape of the roof.

How cedar has to breathe

Here’s the part people skip. Wood needs air underneath it, or it rots from the bottom up. So we install cedar over a breathable underlayment with ventilation space, use stainless fasteners, and get the ridge vent right so the attic doesn’t cook the roof from inside. Ice and water shield still goes in the valleys and at the eaves. It’s more work, but it’s the difference between a cedar roof that lasts and one that doesn’t.

When composite shake makes more sense

If you love the look but not the maintenance, composite shake gets you close for about $1,200 to $1,800 a square. It won’t rot, it won’t grow moss, and it carries a long manufacturer warranty. For a lot of homeowners under heavy trees, that’s the better call. Either way, you get one price in writing, a 10-year workmanship warranty from us, and pricing that usually runs 25 to 35% less than the big companies.

What a Bayside cedar job looks like

First, I look at the cedar on your roof with you, and from the attic side if we can get up there. If the boards underneath are dark and wet, that tells us the roof wasn’t breathing, and we fix that before anything new goes on.

On the job, we strip the old cedar down to the deck and replace any soft or rotted boards. Three to five sheets of plywood are in the price, with extra sheets at $110 each. Ice and water shield goes in the valleys and at the eaves. Then a breathable underlayment and a ventilation layer, so air moves under the wood. The cedar goes on with stainless fasteners, correct spacing between pieces so it can swell and shrink, and new flashing at every wall and chimney. Then the ridge vent, so the attic stays cooler.

A cedar roof takes longer than shingles, usually a few days on a typical Bayside Colonial. We clean up every day and walk the roof with you at the end. Treat it right, keep the moss and leaves off, and a cedar roof put on this way will give you a lot of years and look better every one of them.