Cedar shake, concrete and clay tile, and flat PVC membrane — the three systems most Eastside roofers would rather not touch.
Cedar shake, tile and flat membrane roofs each fail differently from composition, and each needs a contractor who has worked on them. Top Line installs, repairs and replaces all three across the Greater Eastside and the Puget Sound region — including the flat porch, dormer and addition sections that sit on otherwise conventional homes.
Cedar is the traditional roof on many established Eastside homes and it is still one of the best-looking roofs you can own. It is also the least forgiving of a wet, shaded climate.
Concrete and clay tile is a very long-lived roof material sitting on a much shorter-lived underlayment. The tiles themselves may still be sound at forty years while the underlayment beneath them has failed completely — which is why most tile work is a lift-and-relay rather than a replacement.
Almost every Eastside home has a low-slope section somewhere — a covered porch, a dormer, a flat-roofed addition, a garage. Those sections cannot be shingled, and shingling them anyway is one of the most common defects we find.
We repair and replace cedar shake and tile roofs in Medina and Clyde Hill, and across Bellevue, Redmond, Sammamish and Seattle. Both systems fail differently from composition, and both call for installation and detailing specific to each system.
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It depends on how much of the failure is surface and how much is structural. Cedar that is cupping, splitting and thinning across whole slopes is at the end of its life.
Because the tiles are not the waterproofing layer — the underlayment beneath them is, and it has a much shorter life. On an older tile roof the answer is usually a lift-and-relay: tiles carefully removed, new underlayment installed, tiles put back.
No, and nobody should. Asphalt shingles rely on gravity and overlap to shed water and they are not rated below a minimum slope.
Never. Pressure washing erodes the soft wood between the grain, opens the surface to further moisture and takes years off a cedar roof.
The part you stop seeing the day the job is finished is the part that decides how long it lasts.
The right grade of cedar rather than the cheapest bundle, underlayment specified for the weight and life of a tile roof, and membrane at a thickness that matches the exposure instead of the thinnest sheet available. Specialty systems are unforgiving, and they punish a cheap material choice faster than composition does.
Material warranties are conditional on installation. Get the fastener pattern, the flashing detail or the ventilation wrong and the coverage behind the product is gone. We install to the published specification, so the warranty you paid for stays intact.
Roofing, gutters, repairs, cleaning, new construction — one materials policy and one standard of detail, whether it is a full replacement or a single flashing repair.
★★★★★ Rated 5.0 on Google · Licensed, bonded & insured · WA reg. TOPLILR822NG · Premium materials only
We get on your roof, photograph what we find, and tell you whether you are looking at a repair, a cleaning or a replacement. No charge and no pressure.
Premium materials only, on every job — installed to the manufacturer specification so the warranty stays intact.
Licensed and insured Washington roofing contractor serving the Greater Eastside and the Puget Sound region.
12505 NE 116th St, Kirkland, WA 98034
Eastside · Snoqualmie Valley · Seattle metro
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week
24/7 emergency roof repair
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WA Contractor Registration TOPLILR822NG · WA UBI 604-316-316 · Licensed, bonded & insured