Pick up any piece of wood and compare it with another – openness of grain, flat grain, straightness of grain – these are all aspects of quality, which in many uses are hidden and certainly never tested by the elements.
Take the average cedar shingle and place it on a roof slope at 20º for 50 years and quality becomes an essential element in its future.
As with many building products in the UK in recent years, demand and competition for shingles has forced prices down, resulting in lower quality materials being applied to roofs. If the current trend continues, the future of such a fine and well-proven product is at stake.
The Loft Shop Ltd (previously WH Colt (London) Ltd) is by far the longest established supplier, having introduced cedar shingles to the UK in 1926 and preservative treated shingles under its exclusive trade mark Colt Preceda in 1963. Managing director Peter Stedman said: “I have been buying cedar shingles since 1978 and the key element in our buying strategy has been to maintain quality. In almost 20 years we have only purchased from two mills because this way we have ensured that what we mean by quality is what the mill with which we work delivers”.
And what is quality in the case of cedar shingles?
Making the grade
The innocent will say that it means “No 1 Grade Blue Label” – as though this standard on its own will suffice. But many people do not realise some of the key facts behind grading.
It is not generally known, for example, that there are at least five grading agencies certifying “Blue Labels” for shingles and their standards and inspection rigour is not always consistent.
Nor is it known that for most mills quality inspection is not always independent and if it is, the regularity of inspection is often infrequent.
But the real problem is that between the top quality Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau Certigrade No 1 Grade Blue Label shingles and the lower end of the same grade, there can be a price difference of 25%.
The result is that all too often the long-suffering quality roofing contractor ends up wasting time sorting through bundles to find good widths, straight grain and, worse still, not attaining the recommended roof coverage as a result – while the ill-informed roofer applies the lot and the ultimate customer ends up with a maintenance problem five years later.
Misinterpretation
Grading of shingles is not a simple matter (the Canadian Standards Association grading rules alone run to 53 pages). Sometimes even the mills themselves misinterpret them.
In essence, there are four grades of quality – Certigrade No 1 Grade Blue Label, No 2 Red Label, No 3 Black Label and No 4 Undercoursing. However, 80% of most mills’ production is in the No 1 grade and it is this product that achieves the highest recovery from a log for the mill and hence the bulk of its profit. The temptation for the mill is to marginalise quality to achieve the greatest output of top value No 1s. When a mill compromises on quality in this way and when inspection is weak the low quality No 1s are sold at enticingly low prices. Once the product is ‘offshore’, it is unlikely to be rejected or returned and the importer sells on – unwittingly or not.
This, of course, paints the worst picture but it is important to remember that this process may occur in all ignorance by the parties involved who may pride themselves on having done “a good deal”.
When buying shingles, check your source’s history and knowledge and talk to the industry representatives such as the Shake and Shingle Association.
Above all, trust established suppliers whose key word is quality.
