Cedar roofing · Metro Vancouver & the Fraser Valley
Cedar roofing in Metro Vancouver: keeping a cedar roof, or converting it
Most cedar roof enquiries in this region end in a conversion rather than a new cedar roof. Not because cedar is a bad material — it is a beautiful one — but because a cedar shake roof on the wet coast asks for maintenance for its whole life, and most owners decide they would rather not sign up for another thirty years of it.
If you are converting, there is one fact that changes the whole quote: there is no plywood under your cedar roof, and putting a new roof on means building a deck first.
The honest starting point
Why most cedar roofing enquiries here end in a conversion.
People call about cedar roofing for one of two reasons: the cedar roof they have is failing, or they love the look of the one next door. In both cases the conversation goes to the same place, and it is worth having it honestly before anyone measures anything.
Cedar is a living material that is being asked to survive in the wettest populated corner of Canada. It works by drying out between soakings. Everything that stops it drying — shade, overhanging branches, needles trapped in the courses, moss rooted between the shakes, a gutter that has not been cleared since the last owner — shortens its life, and on many Lower Mainland lots all of those conditions are present at once.
A cedar roof kept properly is a fine roof. A cedar roof that is not kept properly fails early and unevenly, which is why so many of them come off before anyone expected to be replacing them.
So the real decision is not aesthetic. It is whether you want a roof that needs looking after. Owners who enjoy that, and who have a lot with enough sun and enough distance from the trees, keep cedar and are right to. Owners who want twenty-five years of not thinking about it convert, and are also right to. What goes badly is converting by accident, halfway through a quote, without having understood what a conversion involves.
The single most important fact on this page
A cedar conversion always includes a full new plywood deck.
There is no solid deck under a cedar roof. Cedar shakes and shingles were installed over spaced strapping — narrow boards run across the rafters with deliberate gaps between them, sometimes called skip sheathing. The gaps are not a shortcut. They exist so air can reach the underside of the wood and dry it out, which is the only thing that lets cedar survive at all.
Strip the cedar off and you are standing on a ladder looking down through those gaps into the attic. There is nothing continuous up there.
Asphalt shingles need a continuous surface: they are fastened at a precise point on each shingle, and the underlayment and peel-and-stick beneath them need something unbroken to bond to. Metal panel clips need the same thing. Neither can be installed over strapping.
So every cedar-to-asphalt or cedar-to-metal conversion we do includes a full new plywood deck laid over the existing strapping, across the entire roof, before any roofing goes on. It is not an upsell, it is not conditional, and it is not something that gets discovered on day two. It is a stage of the job, and it is in the quote from the beginning.
Two things follow from that, and both are worth knowing before you compare quotes.
A cedar conversion quote is not comparable to a re-roof quote. If one quote for your cedar roof looks dramatically lower than another, check whether the deck is in it. A conversion priced as though there were plywood up there is not a cheaper version of the same job. It is a different job that cannot actually be built.
It takes longer. A cedar tear-off produces far more waste volume than an asphalt one, and the deck is a whole extra stage between stripping and roofing. Budget two to four days rather than the one to three a standard replacement runs.
The upside is real: you end your conversion with a brand-new structural deck under the roof, which is something an asphalt-to-asphalt replacement almost never delivers. The rot conversation that comes up on about one asphalt tear-off in ten does not apply, because the whole surface is new.
The other side
When keeping cedar is the right call.
We are not against cedar and we do not think every cedar roof should come off. Several conditions point towards keeping it, and when enough of them are true, cedar is the better answer.
- The lot is open and gets sun. A roof that dries between rainfalls behaves completely differently from one that never does. Exposure is the biggest single variable in how cedar ages here.
- There are no trees over the roof. Overhanging conifers are the main delivery system for the needles and shade that kill cedar. A roof with clear sky above it has a real chance.
- The failure is local, not general. Sound wood across the field with a problem at a valley, a chimney or a section of flashing is a repair, and cedar repairs work well. Individual shakes can be replaced.
- The house is the reason. On some heritage and architect-designed houses the roof is not a component, it is part of the design, and replacing it with something else diminishes the building.
If you are keeping cedar, three things matter more than anything else.
Keep it clear. Debris out of the courses and the valleys, branches cut back, gutters cleared. This is most of the maintenance and it is the part people skip.
Never pressure wash it. Pressure washing a cedar roof strips the weathered outer surface, drives water deep into the shakes and opens the grain. It looks transformative for a season and takes years off the roof. Moss on cedar comes off gently or it does not come off.
Get the details rebuilt when you repair. Valleys and flashings on old cedar roofs are often original, often undersized, and often the actual source of the leak that everyone is blaming on the shakes. Custom 26-gauge metal bent for the roof outlasts whatever came off it.
And before committing to new cedar, check the fire-rating requirement for your address. Rules on wood roofing are not uniform across Metro Vancouver, and it is a question for your municipality rather than an assumption from what the neighbours have. The City of Vancouver sets out its process on its building permits pages; other municipalities publish their own.
Moss
Moss, shade and the wet coast.
Moss is not a cosmetic problem on a cedar roof. It is the mechanism of failure, and understanding why explains most of what happens to cedar here.
Environment and Climate Change Canada's published climate normals put annual precipitation near 1,160 mm at Richmond, around 1,505 at Abbotsford, 1,537 at Vancouver Harbour, 1,668 at Chilliwack Airport and above 2,500 at the Capilano station in North Vancouver. More useful than the totals is the pattern: months of continuous low-intensity rain, mild temperatures, and very little drying between.
Those are ideal conditions for moss, and cedar gives it exactly what it needs. The wood is porous, the surface is textured, and the gaps between courses hold the organic debris moss roots into. Once established, moss sits against the butt end of each shake and keeps that end permanently wet. Wet wood does not dry, and wood that never dries breaks down from the underside where nobody is looking.
Moss also lifts. As a mat thickens it wedges shakes apart, opens the courses, and lets wind-driven rain get into the roof rather than across it. That is why a mossy cedar roof can start leaking years before the wood itself looks finished from the ground.
The same climate is why moss removal matters on asphalt too, but the stakes are different: on asphalt, moss lifts tabs and holds water at the edges. On cedar, moss is slowly eating the roof.
North slopes go first, everywhere from West Vancouver to Mission. If your cedar roof is green on one side and grey on the other, that is not a cleaning problem with one slope. That is two roofs of different ages on the same house.
The third option
Brava composite shake, worth asking about on the west side.
There is a middle path between another cedar roof and giving up the look entirely, and it comes up most often on the Vancouver west side and in West Vancouver, where the cedar appearance is part of the street.
Brava composite shake is a moulded composite product designed to reproduce the depth, thickness and irregularity of hand-split cedar. It is installed over a solid deck in much the same way a shingle roof is, which means a conversion from cedar to composite involves the same full new plywood deck described above.
It is a product we install. It is not a credential and we do not present it as one. The manufacturer publishes the technical specifications, the fire and impact ratings and the product warranty terms on its own site, and those are the documents to read before deciding — not a roofer's summary of them, including ours.
What we can tell you is where it fits. Composite shake sits above asphalt in cost and above cedar in how little it asks of you afterwards. It does not grow moss the way wood does, it does not need the clearing regime cedar needs, and it does not thin and split. If the reason you are reluctant to convert is that you do not want your house to look like it has an asphalt roof, this is the option to put on the table.
The alternatives are worth naming alongside it. Designer shake-look asphalt shingles get closer to the cedar profile than standard architectural shingles do, at a lower cost than composite. A 26-gauge snap-lock metal roof is a different look entirely but the strongest answer to moss on a shaded lot. Whichever you pick, the deck underneath is the same job.
Where we work
Cedar roof replacement near you, from West Vancouver to Chilliwack.
Cedar clusters in this region. West Vancouver and the Vancouver west side have the most of it, followed by the older parts of North Vancouver, Deep Cove, Anmore, Belcarra and the character streets of Burnaby and New Westminster, with pockets through Maple Ridge, Mission and the rural edges of Langley and Chilliwack.
Those are also, largely, the shadiest and wettest lots in the Lower Mainland, which is why so many of those roofs are at the decision point at the same time.
We handle cedar roof repairs, cedar tear-offs and cedar conversions across Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, North and West Vancouver, New Westminster, Langley, Delta, Tsawwassen, White Rock, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Abbotsford, Mission, Chilliwack and Anmore. We are WorkSafeBC registered, carry five million dollars of liability insurance, are GAF certified, and belong to the ICBA and the BBB.
Questions
Cedar roofing, plainly answered.
Should I replace my cedar roof with cedar again?
Most owners here do not, and the decision usually comes down to maintenance rather than money. Cedar on the wet coast needs the moss kept off it and the roof kept clear of overhanging debris, for its whole life, or it holds moisture and goes. Owners who want that relationship with their roof keep cedar. Owners who want to stop thinking about the roof convert. Both are legitimate; what matters is that the choice is made deliberately rather than by default.
Why does a cedar roof conversion need a whole new plywood deck?
Because there is no solid deck under a cedar roof. Cedar shakes and shingles are installed over spaced strapping, usually narrow boards with gaps between them, so that air can reach the underside of the wood and dry it. When the cedar comes off you are looking down through those gaps into the attic. Asphalt shingles and metal panels both need a continuous surface to be fastened to, so a full new plywood deck goes over the strapping as part of every conversion. It is not an upsell and it is not optional.
How long does a cedar roof last in Metro Vancouver?
Less time than the same roof would last in a drier climate, and the number depends almost entirely on exposure and maintenance. A south-facing cedar roof on an open lot that gets cleaned and kept clear of debris does well. A north-facing cedar roof under a big-leaf maple on the North Shore holds moisture more or less permanently and will not reach the same age. Shade and debris, not time, are what age cedar here.
How long does a cedar roof replacement take?
Two to four days rather than the one to three a standard asphalt replacement takes. A cedar tear-off produces a great deal more waste volume than an asphalt one, and the new plywood deck is a full extra stage of work between the tear-off and the new roof going on.
Can moss be cleaned off a cedar roof?
Yes, carefully, and it should be. What must not happen is pressure washing: it strips the weathered surface of the wood, drives water into the shakes and takes years off the roof in an afternoon. Moss on cedar is removed gently and the conditions that grew it are dealt with, which usually means cutting back overhanging branches and clearing needles out of the valleys.
What do you replace a cedar roof with?
Most conversions go to an architectural asphalt shingle over the new plywood deck, and the designer shake-look shingles are worth looking at if the cedar appearance is what you are attached to. Metal is the other common answer. Brava composite shake is the third, and it is the one that keeps the cedar look most convincingly.
What is Brava composite shake?
A moulded composite shake designed to reproduce the depth and irregularity of split cedar, installed over a solid deck the same way a shingle roof is. It is a product we install, not a credential we hold, and it is asked about most often on the Vancouver west side and in West Vancouver, where the cedar look is part of the street and the budget for keeping it is there. The manufacturer publishes its own specifications and product warranty terms.
Is a cedar roof worth repairing?
If the failure is local, yes. Individual shakes can be replaced, valleys and flashings can be rebuilt, and a cedar roof with sound wood across the field and a problem at one detail is worth repairing. Once the shakes are splitting, curling and thinning across whole slopes, repair is a holding action and the conversation should move to replacement.
Does a new cedar roof need a fire-rated product?
It is the first question to ask your municipality, because requirements for wood roofing differ across Metro Vancouver and are not something to assume from what a neighbour has. We check the requirement for your address before quoting new cedar, and the answer sometimes changes which product is on the table.
What warranty comes with cedar or composite work?
Ten years on our workmanship for cedar, composite, shingle and metal roofs. The product manufacturer's warranty is a separate document with its own term and its own conditions, registered in your name. The two are never added together or presented as a single number.
Next
Find out what your cedar roof would cost to replace.
Type your address and we measure the roof from satellite imagery, then price the conversion properly — cedar tear-off, the full new plywood deck and the new roof over it — so you are comparing a job that can actually be built. The number is on the screen before we ask you for anything.