This is not how to get kids to go into engineering...

BOb wrote:

I FINALLY got rid of the shakes... g
cedar shakes that is.

In the wealthy areas surrounding Kansas City, most of
the upscale homes are being constructed with 'em.
In some subdivisions, they are/were required by
home owner associations.

Another triumph of aesthetics over engineering.

The number of new roofs constructed of cedar shakes has declined
substantially here in North Texas. Dunno if it's the rather spectacular
house fires or regular occurrence of hailstorms that is the motivating
factor. A few years ago there was a live broadcast of a chain-reaction
housefire that destroyed three $500K+ houses (IIRC).

My and my neighbor's houses were built by the same builder at the same time
in 1983. I replaced the original shake roof with composite in 1999. This
last April, a hailstorm swept through our neighborhood annihilating every
skylight in the neighborhood (peach-sized hailstones). My roof (and I
think every other roof in the neighborhood) was damaged enough to require
replacement, although it is still holding and leak-free (plan to replace
soon). My neighbor's original 20 year old shake roof merely slightly
delayed the hailstones before they proceeded to penetrate the ceiling
sheetrock. He has a new composite roof now. :-)

Russell "INCOMING!" Kent