Mansard roof material choices, replacement

[tim1198]

I have an old house with a mansard roof with a flat roof. The mansard is covered with Cedar shake shingles, which I've successfully replaced about 5 squares out of the 17. It is slow and tedious work, and very very expensive for materials and time.

It looks good, but the thought of replacing the rest of the rotted cedar and then painting it is killing me....... (17 squares on the second floor, 20' up)

I'm strongly considering vinyl or metal roofing, or hardi so I don't have to keep it up as often. I've seen some commercial buildings that have metal, and look ok. Except my wife hates the industrial look. I've seen the hardi that is a shake copy, but they look fake and cheap. Either way, it's going to be expensive, probably in the $500-600 per square (or $10k), which is about the same price as the cedar shakes... Any ideas or pictures would be helpful.

thanks, tim1198

[tim1198]

With pictures:

I have an old house with a mansard roof with a flat roof. The mansard is covered with Cedar shake shingles, which I've successfully replaced about 5 squares out of the 17. It is slow and tedious work, and very very expensive for materials and time.

It looks good, but the thought of replacing the rest of the rotted cedar and then painting it is killing me....... (17 squares on the second floor, 20' up)

I'm strongly considering vinyl or metal roofing, or hardi so I don't have to keep it up as often. I've seen some commercial buildings that have metal, and look ok. Except my wife hates the industrial look. I've seen the hardi that is a shake copy, but they look fake and cheap. Either way, it's going to be expensive, probably in the $500-600 per square (or $10k), which is about the same price as the cedar shakes... Any ideas or pictures would be helpful.

thanks, tim1198

[marson]

i still think cedar shakes are your best bet. i don't believe there is any vinyl or hardi product out there that isn't going to look fake. i'm assuming you have considered asphalt shingles, which would be much less expensive. i don't think the shakes need to be so time consuming. do you have a pneumatic stapler? that would help a lot. can you screw a ledger down for each course so you don't have to set each shake by hand?

[tim1198]

Marson, Yes, I've considered asphalt, but since I"d have to deck it (currently has 1x4 behind the shakes), it would be costly. Also, the asphalt would probably look fakish.

The ledger is a good idea for straight shake application, but this design alternates the height between every other shingle. It's a 1" drop down on every other shake. I have a stapler for this, so it goes pretty quick, but it's still one piece at at a time. It takes about

6-8hrs to do a square.

Tim

[tim1198]

Update: I had a couple of bids on replacing with the cedar shake look using hardi board. From the pictures, it would look good and last nearly forever. But OUCHY, the cost is about $1200 per square (0ver $20k for my house). The siding material alone is $400 per square which is about

4 times as much as standard Hardi lap siding.

Of course, this does include striping the cedar, re-decking, housewrap. I'm hoping my wife can go with other Hardi products to reduce my material and labor costs.... tim1198

[tbasc]

House wrap? Roofing Felt might be a better choice for a sloped surface. TB