Cedar Shake Siding

The beautiful, aromatic properties of cedar wood have attracted attention since ancient times. It has been made into furniture, boxes and chests for thousands of years. Cedar shingles are used for covering the exterior, or “cladding” buildings and roofs and were used by early American settlers on the East Coast. Cedar wood was also used extensively by Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest and Canada for boats, musical instruments, and medicines.

Cedar shake houses can be seen all over America, from the Pacific Coast to Nantucket Island. Shakes cover all manner of buildings, from mansions to geodesic domes. It’s even possible now to buy vinyl siding that looks like cedar shakes. However, the properties of real cedar shake siding have many adherents who will have nothing less on their homes.

Cedar has inherent resistance to the effects of sun, rain, storms, and pests. It has a high content of oil that keeps it looking good over time. If left unpainted, time and the elements will turn the shingles a magical shade of silver-grey-white. However, should different colors be desired, most cedar takes to paint and stains both semi-transparent and opaque in shades from dark spice brown to ultra-white, to olive, grays, blues, and plum; even black.

The cedar trees used in the production of shake siding are the Western Red, Western White, Eastern White, and Alaskan Yellow. All tree harvests now have had rules in place for replanting and sustainability, to insure that cedars will be in abundance in our forests of the future.

The Western Reds and Whites actually belong to the cypress family. They are evergreen confers and thus not true cedars. They grow in perfusion in the Pacific Northwest, and the Western Red Cedar is the provincial tree of British Columbia. They are both highly aromatic, and the wood is disease resistant.

The Eastern Whites are a slow growing evergreen that is the lightest of all commercial woods. They grow extensively in the Great Lakes region and Maine. The heartwood of the white cedar is resistant to termites and decay. This wood looks very well when it is “dipped” into stains and then kiln dried, so its natural grain and texture are allowed to show through.

The Alaska Yellow Cedar, because of the short growing seasons in Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska, has very tight growth rings that makes it a heavy wood a third denser than the other cedars. It also has a higher oil content that makes it very resistant to decay. These qualities makes yellow cedar shingles nearly impervious to the elements, but it also makes the wood resistant to paints and stains. They weather naturally into the white-silvery color over time.

As cedar wood is given to great versatility used as shakes of different types and fabrications, they can take many different kinds of homes and buildings and give them a totally new and beautiful aspect. As both coasts of the country are known for their fierce winter coastal storms, cedar shakes are used to provide some protection from cold, rain, snow, wind, not to mention the hot sun.

As cedar wood shingles are a natural, organic product, over the years some deterioration can occur. Proper, preventive maintenance will forestall any damage and will keep your cedar shake house a thing of beauty.