I have a question for the New Englanders, I know you use whites a lot. What’s the life expectancy for a white cedar shingle at 5″ exp? As long as a western Red? Shingles are going to be left untreated over Typar housewrap. Thanks.
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no, nit as long as western red. For one thing, the whites are typically not as thick as the reds, and they do not have as much volatile oils to protect the wood.
While we are on the subject of volatile oils, it has been discovered that the tannins in cedar will cause the tyvek to disintegrate within ten years so tarpaper is the preferred choice of underlayment here.
For the shingles life - I reshingled a couple hundred squares on one here that had been built in 1896. I did my job in about 1991.
Those old white cedars had apparently been 9/16" butts originally, whereas they are 3/8" nowdays from most places, but the ones that were moderately sheltered ( under the 32" soffit or back in a corner or under a porch or behind where a cedar hedge had grown most of that time) they still had integrity.
But in places where a lot of water had been coursing over them, like at the base of a thirty foot tall wall or facing the windy side, they were worn thin as paper and a few exposed ends missing altogether.
They will be functional for a lifetime if installed right, but whether this is an acceptable lifetime is up to opinion, depending what degree of aged appearance is acceptable to you. Some would say only 20-30 years.
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One the subject of housewrap, I read an article sometime ago that said typar was ok under cedar. Tyvek is of course not. So is either typar or felt an acceptable underlayment?
You are referring to some of the testing/writing that Paul Fisette has done that showed Typar did not have the same problems as Tyvek.
http://www.umass.edu/bmatwt/publications/articles/housewraps_feltpaper_weather_penetration_barriers.html
Jeff
Edited 10/2/2007 11:06 pm ET by Jeff_Clarke