The decision

The homeowner had been planning a real cedar shake replacement when we walked the roof. The instinct made sense. The architecture rewarded cedar’s visual depth, and a flat commodity shingle would have taken something away from the house.

The project record also showed tree cover over the rear elevation, copper gutters worth protecting, dormer transitions, and a north-facing valley with ice-dam history. Those details changed the comparison. Brava synthetic cedar kept the cedar profile while avoiding another real-cedar maintenance cycle.

The scope drivers

  • Protect the existing copper gutter system during tear-off and installation.
  • Rebuild valleys and sidewall metal as project-specific details, not patched stock pieces.
  • Use full ice-and-water shield in valleys and eave returns where the roof had a documented ice-dam history.
  • Rebalance ridge ventilation at the soffit before the new system closed up.
  • Rebuild the dormer flashing around the installed synthetic-cedar field.

What changed

The finished roof kept the architectural read the homeowner wanted from cedar, but the maintenance equation changed. Eight working days took the project from tear-off to final walkthrough. Progress photos documented the details before they disappeared under the finished system.

One small flashing item came up during the final walkthrough and was corrected. That is worth publishing because it shows the walkthrough found something and the team closed it.