The next house we are building will be a shake roof. The requirement where we are building is either shake or tile and here in the NW tile doesn’t do too well (lots of crap get blown up in to all the crevices) and it’s expensive. Our plans require a sheathed roof instead of skip sheeting.
We’ll use Cedar Breather http://www.benjaminobdyke.com/html/products/cedar.html
Does anyone here have experience with this product? Or heard anything about it?
Incidentally the roof will be stickframed, 2×10 or 2×12 and is a 12-12 roof.
Replies
I use the equivalent of cedar breather, but a different brand (don't recall off hand).
Lumbermans carries it and most any yard should have the equivalent.
(NW guy, too. Wish I could come up with a device to keep doug fir needles out of the gutters and roof valleys.)
Tim, I've used it several times with sawn red cedar shingle roofs; it's very easy and seems to work well. Just don't forget to install it--something about it being black, on black tar paper, that makes it too easy to forget it until you've run a couple of courses. Of course I've never done that, but it could happen ;)
Mike
Stuff we use is yellow....
Used it behind sidewall cedar shakes and poplar bark siding. Don't know if it works, only know the manufacturer says it does.
Although, I wonder after you've nailed everything down hard if there's really much room left behind it for air to flow and do what it's supposed to. It seems to "collapse" very easily.
Tile roof might look alot cheaper after pricing cedarbreather
under shakes.....
I have cedar breather on my roof, it's been there about two years now, I'll let you know in 50 to 90 years if it's worth while.
In theory it should work, I do know that without cedar breather you'd best get up on the roof and do skip sheathing, lacking that your nice cedar roof can start to rot in 10 years or less and it will need total replacement inside 20 years..
Not a very nice end for a tree that may have taken several hundred years to grow to it's currant size (assuming it's old growth stuff)..
Frenchy,
The reason I asked about the Cedar Breather is because this house has to be sheathed with ply. If it didn't we would just skip sheathe with 1x6. Here is a couple of houses we did this time last year that we skip sheeted
http://pic9.picturetrail.com/VOL293/2163851/6440753/92626478.jpg
http://pic9.picturetrail.com/VOL293/2163851/6440753/92626691.jpg
Thanks for the comments on the cedar breather by the way.
Tim, Andycliffordbuildz used it on
his house, if I remeber correctly,
and I believe he really liked it.
Maybe he will chime in
He had something like 30 squares on his roof.
yeh
I'll chime in....I like it a lot.
Its expensive but all in all its worth it.
Did probably over 40 sq of cedar roofing last summer with it.
One thing I can tell you is not to install it on the entire roof all at once cause you CAN NOT walk on it unless you consider suicide.
Its real slippery.It works,,,100%
As does skip sheeting but a whole lot easier.
One other option is to use wood lathe but personally I theink the breather is the way to go....it works
Be well
a...The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides,
I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you
and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.
Andy,
I too have it on a major portion of my house, however I believe in the 100 year rule (luddite that I am) that is if a product proves itself over 100 years then it's worthy of consideration.. The really shallow portion of my roof (only a 10/12 pitch) I'm using the more proven skip sheathing method. I'm using the cedar breather in the portion of my roof that is 27/12 and 17/12
Tim- I've had good success using (1x3) furring strips over solid sheathing. Quite a bit cheaper than cedar breather and in my estimation, easier to install.
I did a cedar shingle roof about 20 years ago using this method. Two houses down, another company was doing cedar on plywood at the same time. The cedar was torn off and asphalt shingles installed about 7-8 years ago. My cedar roof is still kickin'. We had to replace some ridge caps last winter when 80 mph winds took a couple off.
I'll have it done right on schedule...................Mine.
Greencu,
Thank you very much for the comments. I'm not a roofer, so I don't know all the pros/cons of any of the methods. We've always skip sheathed, but we can't anymore on a lot of homes, probably all of them since we adopted the IRC, so we have to sheathe the roof.
I will certainly pass along your comments and do some further research. Thanks again.