Cedar Shake Tiles Triumph against Wildfires and Freeze-Thaw

Colorado homeowners face many challenges. Protecting their cherished homes from potential wildfires, heavy snowfall and freeze/thaw situations makes the selection of a roof one of their most important decisions.

For one resident of Avon, Colorado, who lives in a home high up on Beaver Creek Mountain, that decision was gut-wrenching. While his existing real cedar shake roof was failing, he loved the cedar shakes. However, his insurance company was getting nervous about continuing to provide coverage on a wood roof in an area known for wildfires.

“[We recommended] a DaVinci Multi-Width Shake roof,” says Jake Borah, owner of Umbrella Roofing Inc., Eagle, Colorado. “This is a Class A fire resistant roofing product. With the right underlayments, it fulfills the insurance requirements. In addition, the roof doesn’t suffer through freeze-thaw situations, so there’s no leaking. Based on years of experience with installing DaVinci on these mountains we know it holds up very well in Colorado conditions. And, the Black Oak color the homeowners selected for their custom home looks extremely natural in the wooded setting.”

Protection with Snow Retention

To assure safety from avalanching snow off the roof, the Umbrella Roofing team turned to Rocky Mountain Snow Guardsfor snow retention system products. A combination of RG16 snow guards and a No-Flash II – 2-Pipe fence-style snow retention system was recommended to reduce the chance of melting snow sliding off the roof.

The Rocky Guard RG16 is 16 inches in overall length, and is designed for installation on new natural and synthetic slate and shake roofs. A minimum of three ring-shank nails per snow guard are required for installation. For snow guard placement on shingle style roofs less than 6/12 pitch, the distance between the butt end and the pad face must be a minimum of 3x the thickness of the roofing material. For roofs greater than 6/12 pitch, the distance between the butt end and the pad face must be a minimum of 6x the thickness of the roofing material.

The No-Flash 2-Pipe snow fence system is used on new or existing roofs where fastening into roofing support structures may not be possible and on products where flashing standard Drift Series snow fence bolt-down brackets is not practical. The No-Flash snow fence bracket system is comprised of 2 parts: 2 or 3 Pipe Aluminum or Copper Upright, and Galvanneal or Stainless Steel Baseplate

The baseplate replaces a shingle or is installed between shingles depending on the type of shingle. Thicker shingles may be trimmed to fit over the base plate while thinner shingles may be replaced by the baseplate. Baseplates are located as indicated on the snow retention plan provided by Rocky Mountain Snow Guards. Generally, the snow fence system will be 12 inches from the eave edge. The baseplate is positioned with the attachment holes at the top. The baseplates are fastened into place with four fasteners of the type recommended for the specific job conditions.

To install the 2 or 3 Pipe Aluminum upright, slide the upright over the upright studs. The sloped end of the bracket faces down the roof. Tighten the supplied stainless steel nuts.

Made of 100% virgin resin, DaVinci composite shake tiles—like metal roofs and several other roof types—are smooth. The surface doesn’t have anything for snow to “grab” onto, so as it melts, snow blankets can shift and slide off the roof. The snow guards and fences stop and break up the snow exiting the roof, slowing down the process. The combination of installing snow guards and a snow fence system will help prevent that situation and keep the family safer.

The tiles thick construction, deep grooves and realistic grain patterns combine to create dramatic shadows and visual richness. “Both the DaVinci and Rocky Mountain Snow Guards products allow Umbrella Roofing to present a dependable, functional and top-quality roofing system for our clients,” says Borah. “While vastly improving the aesthetics of this home, this new roofing system also gives the homeowners peace of mind for decades into the future.”

Award-Winning Project

The Avon home features a complex roof system with a large variety of dormers, nooks and crannies. There are many lower sloped valleys with large facets that slant into them. The entire project required craftsmanship, dedicated skill and experience to complete.

For the exemplary work done in re-roofing the challenging low-slope home, this project from Umbrella Roofing was named as a winner of a 2023 DaVinci Masterpiece Contractor Project of the Year Award. Additionally, it was a Grand Prize Winner in the category of “Outstanding Residential Project Snow Retention System” in the 2024 “Show Us Our Snow Guards” Contest hosted by Rocky Mountain Snow Guards.

Ask the Installer

We have done maintenance on this roof over the years, so we specifically designed a copper eave melt plan for problem areas, which minimized the linear footage of heat tape used and is much more aesthetically pleasing. 

During the initial estimating process, we discussed options with the owner along with upgrades and functions. Once we got the okay to proceed, we set an agreed-upon schedule and stuck to it. We used in-house labor for this job and started with an eight-man crew. We removed the roof in sections and dried-in as we went. We always dry-in what we expose daily. Once the dry-in and flashing was completed we began installation. Because we had masons involved, we had to work in areas where they weren’t to ensure the new roof would not be damaged. Once they completed their scope on the stone on the chimneys we kept at it until the project was finished. We did not replace the existing copper turret roof due to owner preference.

We did have to coordinate masons to remove and reinstall stone around all the chimneys, so we could build proper curbs, crickets and ensure that we installed a properly flashed, watertight roof system. We are used to coordinating with other trades and for the most part work well together

High altitude roofing comes with its own set of problems; we had large snow loads and over 100 freeze/thaw days annually, which creates large ice dams. Add in a very cut-up roof with multiple low-slope cricketed areas that we custom designed and fabricated copper panels for. On top of the normal issues we deal with in this climate there is a breeze way to access the driveway, so we couldn’t load the roof the traditional way or get a roll-off into the driveway. We used a telehandler and our equiptors to load the roof and to haul away the old roof system.

For high mountain homes built on the side of a mountain where the front of the home is one story and the rear of the home is three to four stories, we are always keeping our eye on our crews and their safety. Our number-one goal is to send everyone home healthy and happy at the end of every day. One thing we do that is unique to us is install double D-ring hidden safety anchors that are strategically placed and painted to match. This is a good habit and safe practice for any and all trades that will need to access the roof for maintenance, etc.

Deric Barton, owner, Umbrella Roofing Inc., Eagle, Colorado

TEAM

Roofing Contractor: Umbrella Roofing Inc., Basalt, Colorado, (970) 704-9130

MATERIALS

Fire-Resistant Roof Protection: VersaShield, GAF, www.gaf.com

Roof: Multi-width composite shake roof, DaVinci Roofscapes, www.davinciroofscapes.com 

Snow Guards: RG16 snow guards, Rocky Mountain Snow Guards, www.rockymountainsnowguards.com 

Snow Retention System: No-Flash II – 2-Pipe, Rocky Mountain Snow Guards

Underlayment: SolarHide, Eco Chief Products, www.ecochiefproducts.com

Underlayments: Resisto Ice and Water Shield and Grace Ultra, GCP Applied Technologies, www.gcpat.com