5 Benefits of a Cedar Shake Home Design

When it comes to designing your dream home, there are many different materials to choose from. More homeowners are using cedar shakes within their design.

A cedar shake home design is unique and beautiful and offers many practical benefits. But, traditional cedar shakes are expensive and incredibly heavy and require special consideration to install them on the roof of a home.

1. It's a Stable Material

What has made cedar so popular for roofing is that it is a very stable material. Unlike other woods commonly used for home construction, cedar is able to better withstand varying humidity levels more easily without excessive expansion or contraction.

However, traditional cedar will still expand and contract to some extent depending on the season and humidity levels. If the shakes are not properly installed, this can become a serious and costly issue, with the shakes pressing into each other and overlapping. This can lead to the shakes becoming damaged, especially after repeated incidents.

2. More Durable

Durability is another essential factor–why choose a material if it is not going to stay standing for a long time? You want to select roofing and siding materials that are durable enough to stand up against things like moisture, insects, and the sun's damaging UV rays.

While there is no denying the cedar is durable–it has been considered one of the toughest American woods for a long time–but, they are not the most durable material out there. For one, they are still susceptible to impact damage like hail and falling branches, which can lead to unwanted, costly repairs. Beyond that, unless you apply a special treatment, cedar is not fire resistant.

3. Insulation

No matter what climate you live in, insulation is something essential to every home. A well-insulated home helps to keep it at the optimal temperature for every season. The better insulated your home is, means that you will not have to spend more on heating or cooling your home, which can save you hundreds on your electricity bill.

Cedar is a great insulating material–as long as it is installed correctly. The heavy weight of a cedar shake roof means that extra steps likely have to be taken to ensure the home’s structure can actually support all that weight, making it even more expensive.

4. Enhances Home's Appearance

Features like durability, stability, and insulating capability are all essential, and so is appearance. Everyone wants their house to be beautiful, and cedar shakes are a fantastic choice to achieve a beautiful and durable home exterior, especially with their unique appearance. But, it is, again, an expensive material that while many people desire, few can afford.

5. Increased Home Value

There is another great benefit that results from a cedar shake home design: an increased home value.

Cedar shakes are considered a premium material. When you use them in your home design and do it well, it can help to add extra value to your home. This means that should you ever decide to sell your home, you can ask a higher price.

3 Cedar Shake Home Design Ideas For Inspiration

There are many different possible ways to incorporate cedar shakes into your home design. Here are three simple ways to use their synthetic cedar shakes that can make for a truly stunning home:

1. Pair Dark Shakes With a White House

Possibly the simplest design idea is to choose your cedar shake roof in dark gray or black and pair them with a white house. This is a color combination that creates great contrast and can help your home stand out. It is an especially great design idea for colonial-style homes, as it draws on that classic look very well.

2. Use Them as Accent Siding

You are not limited to using cedar shake shingles only on your roof. You can also use them as siding for a really interesting home exterior. If the idea of using them all over is a little intimidating, then consider having an accent area on the front of your home. You can cover a small section of siding with the shakes to help a particular part of your home stand out from the rest and create more visual interest.

3. Cover Your Whole House

Of course, you can also go a little more extreme in your use of cedar wood shakes as siding. Instead of limiting yourself to an accent area, you can have the shingles as your entire siding. It will undoubtedly create a stunning look and help your home to stand out as something unique in the neighborhood. You can go with dark shingles paired with white trim to add a more classical element to the overall design.

Fortunately, there is a new alternative to consider: CeDUR Synthetic Roofing Shakes. These shakes maintain the realistic look of real wood, but have much more to offer homeowners in terms of benefits and features. Here are some of the great benefits to CeDUR, that help make it even better than traditional cedar shakes.