When you consider a roof for your home, you should not just go with the first option or the most readily available roofing material. While asphalt shingles are one of the most common and least expensive roofing materials on the market, they are not necessarily the best value. Asphalt shingles will only last for around fifteen to twenty years. If you want to reduce your costs, you can buy a longer-lasting material. Cedar shingles are a good value for many reasons.

Why Are Cedar Shingles a Good Value?

When you buy cedar shingles, the key is to get the shingles cut from the right part of the tree. If you get shingles from the sapwood of a tree, it will not have the same concentration of the naturally occurring chemicals that help cedar to reduce rot. If you get shingles cut from the heartwood of a tree, you will have longer-lasting more rot resistant shingles. While the heartwood can cost more, it will last longer.

The Benefits of Long-Lasting Shingles

If you buy red cedar, heartwood shingles for your home, you can expect them to last for around fifty years. This is three to five times longer than asphalt shingles will last. Because you will replace your asphalt shingles around three times before you replace your cedar shingles even once, the overall cost of a shingle roof will be much more than the cost of your cedar shingles. Thus, in the long run, a cedar roof will be less expensive and a better value. 

Care for Your Cedar Roof

As a natural material, your cedar roof is susceptible to moss and insect damage. If you want to protect your roof from moss, you will need to install a piece of copper flashing along the ridge line of your roof. As rainwater hits the flashing, it will wash a copper derivative down your roof, and this derivative will kill moss before it even has a chance to start growing. The copper flashing is a solution that you don't have to reapply, so it will cost less money in the long-run than spraying moss killing chemicals on your roof.

Cedar roofs can be beautiful, long-lasting, and a great value. However, just like anything else, you need to take care of your roof in order to get the vest value from it. While there are many choices of roofing materials available for you to choose from, you should at least consider whether a cedar roof could be right for you. For a small price, cedar roofing can offer long-lasting value. Talk to a professional like Roofing Samra Bros for more information.