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Western Red Cedar
Roofing Shingles
From
Highest quality
shingles available worldwide!
18” Perfections,
#1 Blue Label,
100% 2 pack not
available from any other mill.
18” Tapersawn Shakes
Custom dimensions, custom packing and grading available.
24" Lengths are not available at this time.
Western Red Cedar provides the best raw
materials for roofing, with a durable and attractive finish.
The shingles provide excellent thermal
and sound insulation, plus they are lightweight requiring less
support structure, no sheathing or membrane,
no specialized tools for installation.
Wood is the only roofing material that
is sustainable and renewable, of the wood species Western Red Cedar is the most
durable.
Compared with other materials like
slate, steel, ceramic and asphalt, Western Red Cedar is one of the most durable
products available, and again,
wood is the only one that is a renewable
resource. It literally grows on
trees, and after harvesting the wood, new trees
grow to replace it, using 100% renewable
and clean solar energy and removing Carbon Dioxide greenhouse gases.
Cedar shakes and shingles in this area are usually
only harvested
from dead trees, killed by fire, wind or other natural processes, or as
a byproduct of logging, recycling waste from logging. The removal of the dead trees opens new
ground for new growth.
These green areas stabilize soil and slopes with their root systems and wind breaks, and the canopy regulates water flows to
prevent both drought and
flooding.
Ceramic, slate, steel and asphalt all
require stripping the land of green areas and exposing the underlying
structures.
The earth is ground up and hauled away,
either to be processed in huge coal and oil burning
smoke machines,
or as waste to be piled in huge mounds of dead ground, with
no green growth on it to stabilize water flows or slope,
dead ground which has no benefit to the environment, actually decreasing the amount of area available for life.
Both in mining the ores and disposing of the wastes large areas are left devoid of vegetation.
Asphalt requires hot mopping molten tar
with a propane burner directed onto your roof, not exactly safe, or clean.
Ceramic and slate require drilling and
cutting hard and brittle materials, which often crack or break, but
anyone can swing a hammer, even if you
don’t have a hammer a nice round rock would suffice to drive nails
through a shingle,
a sharp rock could even split them to size to fit in the contours of the roof. So easy a cave man could do it. Literally!
Easy to install as the cheapest materials, as durable as the most expensive, better all-round performance than any of them.
Sustainably harvested wood products are
clearly the best solution for those concerned with protecting the environment,
or saving money in the long term.
So knowing wood is the best choice, there are many mills producing it. Which one has the best product?
Port McNeill, B.C., V0N 2R0
Why we're selling directly to you;
Everyone is aware of the difficult times we're in, with rising unemployment, economic downturn and a crisis in confidence. It is increasingly difficult to market products profitably. We sell all of our products to another mill, which in turn sells them at an increased price, raising the cost slightly for the consumer.
Even this small increase might cause some consumers to select different materials, or a lower quality shingle. I don't want to take business from my buyer, he has a reputable mill with a wide assortment of high quality products, but for those who want to save a few dollars yet have the best quality I want options available, and we have to insure our own survival.
How it benefits you;
Reduced costs; one way I am reducing cost is by providing alternatives to the middle man in the marketing of our shingles. This web site is only costing about $12/year to
operate, there really can't be a cheaper way of reaching the consumer, plus you have all the information available that you might need. This savings is passed on to the consumer, as there are no offices to maintain or employees.
We have further reduced prices to totally cut out our profit, so each of our employees works only for wages, the wood is sold for the cost of manufacturing, transportations and wages, there is no profit for the company other than the jobs created. Until the economy strengthens we will continue to make our products available at cost, just to keep our highly valued employees available for when the market strengthens.
Why was it not available before?
We have such high quality that a single buyer usually takes all of our products, regardless of market condition, so that we don't look for alternatives when the prices drop.
He has a steady supply of extremely high quality materials, and we have a market which is stable.
We agreed to sell to him exclusively so
that his competitors never have access to such high quality materials with which
they could compete for high end markets.
With the fall of the market, however, he is unable to market the materials at a rate to keep up with our production, along with his own. Both his yard and ours are full of shingles.
We are now considering selling directly to the consumers, reducing the consumers cost and clearing out our yards to make room for continued production.
If we continue to stockpile wood we will increase our costs, and the consumers, to expand our storage facilities, which won't even be used when the market stabilizes.
The alternative is lay-offs, in which we might lose the employees which are so conscientious in the quality control, and are really irreplaceable.
This
means more work for us, with marketing and sales, but also means we
can continue production.
Meanwhile, we are
selling the shingles below the brokers
best price, saving money for the consumer.
Buy
directly from our mill and save money, while getting the highest quality
materials available anywhere in the world.
Is it the right product for you?
Though
there are independent agencies tasked with maintaining quality control in the shingle
industry, and they do very well at that, we have far surpassed those standards
and maintain the highest standards anywhere in the industry.
Our
quality so far surpasses the competition that we have pushed to have a new
grading regimen incorporated to separate us from the rest, creating a new
standard of perfection. Not surprisingly, there is some reluctance on the part
of other manufacturers to endorse this idea.
Not
to say that others products are defective, they maintain the standard of
quality set out by the grading agencies, but the lowest quality premium
shingles we have, we put in the same category as their highest quality
perfections, and habitually pass inspection with that product 4.5% above the
standard.
Our
targeted product is exclusive, nobody else makes it. It is #1 shingles, in a
20" wide bundle instead of the usual 18", and with no more than two
shingles on a row. Normally a row can have 2, 3, 4 or even 5 shingles in a 20"
frame, so the average size is quite small. On average it is maybe 6 inches in
the competitors product, and a
maximum of 12". With a 20 inch frame and 100% two pack we have many
shingles 14" to 16", and an average size of about 9".
How does this quality affect you?
This
means the shingles are often twice the size of the average, covering double the area with the same number of shingles.
Fewer
shingles means fewer nails, less fitting and trial and error to cover gaps
because there are fewer gaps, not as many gaps also mean fewer weak points
where wind and rain can penetrate, faster coverage and lower labor costs, and a
more durable roof.
Plus,
the icing on the cake, a beautiful roof with uniform thicknesses, straight and
square shingles, smooth surfaces on every face, no defects anywhere on any
shingle.
The best part of putting up a roof or any other project is when you're done and you say to yourself, "that was a great job, I'm proud of the work I did", and with these materials you are sure to say that.
Recently a roofer applied our shingles to three houses, he was amazed that after so much wood he threw out only one shingle, which had been damaged on site. He commented that he usually throws out 20% and sometimes 30% of our rivals wood, this in their special order, high quality production! This was not even our top product, but second grade!
Of course he is buying exclusively from us now, and will never complain about paying 10% more, because he knows that not only will he get 20-30% more useable product, it will be so much easier for him to apply it he will make tremendous profits from the time savings!
A comparison of typical roofing installations, if the roof is 2000 square feet it would need about 10000 of a competitors shingles, but it would only need about 5760 of the 20" 100% 2 pack. This means 4240 fewer shingles to cover the same area, or 6000 fewer nails to drive into the roof. With the competitors you never know what you will get either, there will be culls, or sub-grade shingles mixed in, and it could be 100% 3 pack, even with a bunch of 4 pack mixed in. Imagine the nightmare of trying to nail 15000 4 inch wide shingles on your roof before a storm moves in!
With guaranteed 100% 2 pack you know exactly what you will get, every time, in every bundle, consistent high quality large shingles.
With our 5/8" Tapersawn Shakes in 20" frames, 100% 2 pack, this would need only 3840 shakes, 10320 fewer nails. I know my wrist would be tired after that many nails. Even with modern conveniences like air and battery powered nailers, just the time saved in 10000 fewer nails is of immense value, especially if you're busy and don't want to spend your spare time pointlessly driving nails when there is an alternative.
The
way we maintain such high quality is by maintaining control of every step of
production, from surveying the areas to find high quality raw materials,
operating our own salvage crews, flying, loading transporting, processing and
packaging the finished shingles, all in-house.
Each employee is highly trained and skilled, most with 15 to 25 years or more in the industry. For example, the first shake block I split was when I was 11 years old, 26 years ago, just about ten miles from where the mill is now.
Experience, however, is not the key factor in recruiting workers
here.
They
are selected for their competitive nature, a desire to be the best at
everything they do, and that philosophy is reinforced by friendly competition
with their coworkers.
We are very selective in the materials shipped from the bush, and maintain that level of perfection throughout every step of the manufacturing process.
To have large shingles is not so much a matter of different production techniques at the mill, but how the blocks are made in the bush. Frequently people split the logs smaller to
make it easier to lift, but you can't make a big shingle from a small block. What it takes is skill on the part of the cutters, to make straight cuts even in twisted and flared logs, and to know where and how to split the logs to remove waste without damaging the good wood.
It is also important to have confidence on the part of the loading crew, knowing that no matter how big a block is they can get it on the truck. For example, there is a bit of video showing me lifting a water logged green block onto the deck, nowhere else would this block make it to the mill in one piece, few people will even try to lift 300 pounds over their head, even fewer will do it hundreds of times in a day.
I have compiled all of the inspection reports for our mill, performed by the licensing agency, and including every report ever made we have an average of 105%, or 5% above the required coverage, with no inspection ever failed for any product.
The
Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau maintains a web site where you can find detailed
grading information; Certilabel
|
RED CEDAR 18”
PERFECTION SHINGLES |
No.1 Grade |
No.2 Grade Red Label |
No.3 Grade Black
Label |
No.4 Grade Green
Label |
|
|
WOOD: |
Clear Area |
All |
11” |
6” |
Butts Sound |
|
|
Sapwood |
None |
1” |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Flat Grain |
None |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Checks/Cracks |
None |
2” (to
16”) |
2” (to
16”) |
Yes |
|
|
Defect Size |
None |
3” |
3” |
3” |
|
|
Total Defect |
None |
½ width |
2/3 width |
No Limit |
|
LENGTH: |
Maximum |
None |
None |
None |
None |
|
|
Minimum |
17” |
16” |
16” |
14” |
|
|
Exposure Line |
5 ½” |
4 ½”
|
4” |
n/a |
|
WIDTH: |
Maximum |
None |
None |
None |
None |
|
|
Minimum |
4” |
4” |
4” |
2 ½” |
|
|
Undersize % |
10% |
20% |
30% |
No limit |
|
|
Min. Undersize |
3” |
3” |
3” |
No limit |
|
|
Off Parallel/Square |
¼” |
3/8” |
3/8” |
3/8” |
|
THICKNESS: |
5 butts, measured
together to equal 2 ¼” |
||||
|
COVERAGE: |
4 bundles per square |
635 lineal inches on
grade per bundle |
|||
|
PACK: |
18" wide frame |
20/20 pack |
|||
|
|
20" wide frame |
18/18 pack |
|||
What do you get?
Our
targeted product is 20” 2 pack. These are #1 shingles, or perfections, in
a twenty inch wide bundle, guaranteed to be 100% two pack.
One
square is enough shingles to cover 100 square feet of roofing. So if you
have a roof which is 2100 square feet you would need 21 square to cover it.
We
also have available perfections or #1 shingles in an 18" wide bundle
with 100% two pack, this provides slightly smaller shingles at a reduced
price,
We
have a product similar to the competitions, an
18" wide bundle which is only 50% two pack, the remainder may be three
shingles to a row. This is our most economical product in the premium
quality grade, and is similar to what you might find at other mills. This style
provides the smallest shingles, with a maximum of about 12". The
difference is that we typically pack the shingles tighter so you get more in a
bundle, and we have more stringent grading rules than those applied by the
Cedar Shake and Shingle bureau or any of our competitors.
We also have #2 and 3 grade shingles available.
We do have available for custom order 18" Tapersawn shakes, with 5/8" butt thicknesses.
The advantage of the Tapersawn shake is the robust dimensions, being 5/8" thick they can have more of the shake exposed yet still perform well in weather.
Instead of 5.5" exposure there is 7.5". This means fewer shingles are required to cover a roof.
Environmental Impact;
The
company is ISO certified and adheres to strict guidelines for environmental
management.
In
addition to this standard, the wood we harvest is 100% salvaged/recycled
material. No trees or wildlife are harmed during any of our salvage
operations.
The
trees we cut are typically blown down by wind, erosion or left over from
previous logging operations.
The
majority of our cutting is in old logging settings where trees were harvested
60 to 120 years ago, we return to these sites and take the waste products,
trees which were not of good enough quality, too hard to access or just too big
for yarding. We remove these trees with no
damage at all to the environment by cutting them by hand into manageable sizes,
then flying them in slings out of the forest with a helicopter.
I
have personally worked as a fisheries guardian for the Canada Department of
Fisheries and Oceans, a fisheries consultant for salmon enhancment socities, hatcheries
and logging companies, a hatchery technician, electrofishing
technician and surveyor for salmon habitat assessment and stream
classification surveys.
I
take my responsibility to protect the environment very seriously, and I see the
cedar salvage industry as a valuable resource to this end.
The
harvesting is very low impact, and can even open up areas for new growth, the
waste produced from our mill is recycled for soil or used as a fuel, the
product is very stable, 100% natural and completely safe for the
environment.
Shipping;
The buyer is responsible for all
costs associated with shipping. After payment has cleared the product usually
ships the next business day.
Payment;
It
is best to use a certified bank draft, moneyorder,
credit card, cash or paypal instant transfer. This
avoids unecessary delays while waiting for checks to
clear. personal checks will be accepted, but please
understand that we can not expedite this process, and for our own protection
must insure that the funds are cleared before shipping.
Warranty;
The
shingles are regularly inspected by an unbiased professional third party to
ensure quality. They are guaranteed to be compliant with the Cedar Shake and
Shingle Bureaus standards.
If any bundle of our shingles ever falls below industry standard, in either quality or quantity, we will replace it for free or refund the cost for that portion which is substandard, whichever is preferred by the buyer.
Any questions or comments can be sent to
Vancouver Island Shingle by clicking on the picture below.
