A cedar shake roof does not show hail the way an asphalt shingle does. On a three-tab or dimensional shingle, a hit often leaves a bruise, a soft spot or granule loss that a homeowner can see from the driveway. On a shake, the wood tends to crack, split along the grain or lose a corner, and the split can look old even when the storm was last spring. That is why a walk that looks for dents will often miss what the roof has taken.
If you have a wood roof in St. Louis, this page is for the decision you are making now: what to photograph, what to leave alone and what to ask before anyone lifts a shake. It is written for a homeowner who has already seen the yard after a storm and wants to know what the roof is carrying.
Why dents are the wrong test on wood
A shake is split from a cedar block, so its face is rough and its thickness varies from butt to tip. Hail strikes the face and the stress goes into the wood fibers. A large stone can fracture a shake outright. A smaller stone can leave a split that starts at the surface and runs down the grain, often only a few inches long. Those cracks may stay tight for months, then open when the wood takes on water and dries.
Because the damage sits in the fiber rather than in a visible dent, a yard check will not settle it. You need someone on the roof with a camera and a tape measure, working each slope in a set order.
What fresh damage looks like
Fresh wood is pale where it breaks. Weathered wood turns gray over several seasons, and the break line picks up the same gray. A split that is light in color, with sharp edges and no gray film in the crack, is likely recent. A split that is gray all the way into the crack may have been there for years, and the photo should say so.
Check the edges of the shakes too. A chipped corner that exposes clean wood at the butt, or a shake with its tip broken off and the break still bright, belongs in the file. Note which slope each one is on. Hail often hits the windward side first, so the slope that faced the storm on the day of the hit tends to carry more marks than the others.
Photograph it before the crew lifts anything
Before anyone steps on the roof, take wide shots of each slope from the ground and from a neighbor's yard if you can. Then take close shots of individual shakes with a coin or a tape in the frame for scale. Shoot the nail heads as well. A nail that has pulled up and lifted the shake above it can point to a different problem than the split itself, and the two need to be separated in the file.
Keep the originals. Do not crop them down to the crack or send a screenshot in place of the file. A dated original keeps its metadata, and a cropped copy does not show where on the roof the shake came from. A homeowner who keeps the originals in one folder, labeled by slope, will have an easier time when the written scope arrives.
The freeze thaw problem
St. Louis winters move water in and out of wood. Water gets into a split, freezes, expands and widens the crack. A shake that was closed in October can be open by February, and the split will look larger than it did after the storm. This is one reason to get the first photos done before the first hard freeze, not after it.
The same cycle works on repairs. A shake that was replaced or re-nailed in the fall can lift if the freeze gets into the joint. Ask the roofer how the repaired shakes will be fastened and whether the crew will return to check the work after the first cold stretch.
Check the shade side too
Many St. Louis houses have a shaded slope under mature trees. Moss and algae hold moisture on wood longer than they do on asphalt, and that moisture can soften the surface before the next storm arrives. A split that sits inside a green patch of growth may be harder to see, and that slope may be where water gets under the shakes first. Photograph it with the moss in the frame so the record shows its condition on the day of the walk.
Spaced sheathing and what sits underneath
Many wood roofs were laid over spaced boards or strips rather than solid decking. The gap under the shakes gives them room to breathe and lets water drain. A roofer who lifts a shake to check a split should note what the sheathing looks like through the gap, and whether there is an underlayment and what condition it is in. A shake that is split on top may have a sound underlayment, or it may have a torn one, and the two lead to different repair decisions.
If the wood roof is going to be replaced with asphalt, the underlayment and deck questions come first. Keys installs Atlas and Malarkey shingles, and an asphalt replacement over wood has its own scope lines, which should be written out before the work starts.
What it costs
Repair on a shake roof is priced by the shake and by the area, and a single split can be cheap to fix while a slope with many splits is not. The cost climbs when the damage is spread across the roof and the crew has to replace shakes in whole courses to keep the pattern even. Ask for the count of shakes to be replaced on each slope, and ask whether that number includes the shakes that are cracked but still holding.
A replacement estimate should show the square count, the material and the underlayment as separate lines. A total that hides them makes it harder to compare two bids on the same roof.
What to ask
- Which slopes did you photograph, and which ones did you lift shakes on?
- How many shakes on each slope are split, and how many are cracked but still tight?
- Will you send the originals with the scope, dated and labeled by slope?
- What underlayment is under the shakes, and what condition was it in where you lifted?
- If the roof is replaced in asphalt, what does the scope say about the deck and the spaced boards?
- Who comes back to check the repairs after the first hard freeze?
Keys documents the damage, puts a written scope with photos and measurements in your hands, and attends as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer. A roofer cannot represent or negotiate your insurance claim under Missouri law (RSMo 407.725), so the claim conversation stays with you and your insurer.