Without question, many classic buildings wouldn’t be the same without wood shingles. Wood is a timeless building material that’s created stunning roofs and contributed to outstanding architectural details on private homes and public structures across America. There is no substitute for wood shingles and wood shakes. History has well established wood as the premier building material without any real peer.
You’d recognize wood roofing and wall products from a mile away. The distinguished silver-gray of classic red cedar or the rich coppery hues of exotic wallaba jump out from a façade and strike your eye. With the luxurious look of these attractive natural products, you probably wonder where architects, builders and high-end homeowners buy wood shingles.
Custom Shingles is America’s leading wood shingle supplier. Since 1982, we’ve led the market as a custom wood shingle company. With over 30 years of experience as a cedar shingle and cedar shake supplier, we’re perfectly positioned to help you select and install many forms of wood wall and roof products. To make your vision become a reality, turn to Custom Shingles for help in designing and installing your wood shingles fabricated from a sustainable source.
Wood Is a Sustainable Product
Early American buildings used wood wherever they could. If you look at New England colonials or Eastern cottage homes, you’ll see classic wood shingle siding and rooftops. Early builders didn’t select wood as an economical building product that was easy to work with. These craftspeople and artisans chose wood because it was sustainable. Wood products are long-lasting, and their source replenishes as they go through their lifecycle.
The Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau is North America’s industry-driven authority on wood wall and roof shingles. They provide fascinating facts on wood sustainability. Today, there are 20 percent more trees in the United States than 40 years ago. American forests are not only stable — they’ve grown by 2 million acres. These facts show wood remains a first choice for providing renewable and responsible building products.
Custom Shingles is proud to supply environmentally friendly and sustainable roofing materials. Cedar is our most popular wood and will remain that way for the foreseeable future. However, we can supply you with other woods you might not be as familiar with. Here are some of the exciting material choices you have through Custom Shingles.
Western red cedar: This outstanding wood is versatile and abundant. We source western red cedar from the Pacific Northwest, where the climate is perfect for growing enormous trees. It is a softwood tree, having top-notch water and rot resistance due to natural oils in the fiber.
Alaskan yellow cedar: As a robust and slow-growing tree, Alaskan yellow cedar is also a perfect material for roof and wall shingles. It’s not a true cedar, but a member of the cypress family that has similar properties to western red cedar.
Eastern white cedar: Smaller than Alaskan yellow cedar and western red cedar, eastern white cedar has exceptional grain, making it lightweight and long-lasting. Builders have used eastern white cedar for roof shakes and wall shingles since Europeans arrived in America.
Teak: You probably associate teak with boat and furniture making rather than roofing. Teak has tremendous structural and weather resistance properties, which lend well as an exotic roofing material that’s sourced internationally.
Wallaba: Here’s another high-end roofing product you might not know about. Wallaba isn’t North American like cedar products are. Custom Shingles sources wallaba wood from the South American nation of Guyana, where it’s common. Wallaba shingles naturally resist fire and decay.
Besides a diverse selection of wood materials, Custom Shingles can provide you with an array of shingle styles. Custom styles allow you to mimic historical designs or create something unique for your home. Consider these popular styles from our portfolio at Custom Shingles:
Shingles are smooth-sawn and tapered
Shakes are often split and have a rugged appearance
Fancy-Cutt™ shingles have arrow, diamond, sawtooth and fish scale shapes
Does Custom Shingles Supply the Shingles?
Yes. Custom Shingles is an all-inclusive wood shingle manufacturer and custom wood shingle company that supplies you with a wide range of roof and wall products. But, Custom Shingles is more than a wood shingle supplier. We work with you to design precise shingle shapes. Your goals may be matching historical materials on your existing building, or creating something entirely new.
In addition to being a custom wood shingle supplier, Custom Shingles also installs the products we make. Our trained and experienced crews have the proper knowledge and tools to install every type of wood shingle. We can also work with your team to advise them as they take on your project. Wherever you are across the U.S. or abroad, Custom Shingles can supply you with the finest wood shingles and assist you with installing them correctly.
We’ve built a network of trusted partners who work with us, and we also contract with leading builders and accomplished architects. As well, we directly partner with homeowners to design and produce shingles that add dramatic flair to every conceivable project. These are some of the beautiful building projects Custom Shingles has proudly contributed to:
We are exceptionally adept at the skill of creating bent cedar shingles. Our patented technology uses a steam process that lets us bend cedar shingles into almost every conceivable shape. Our Country Cottage Roof® is unique to the custom roof product industry and is perfect for curved roof applications. Steam-bent cedar shingles are one of many products and services Custom Shingles has available to you.
Our core expertise lies in manufacturing custom roof and wall shingles. Although we have a vast catalog of existing designs and completed projects, we’re never surprised when a client asks us to produce something brand-new and innovative. We gladly step up to the creative challenge and find a solution.
Custom designs incorporate a lot of ideas. Often, we start with an image you have, such as a photograph or online link. We work with you to flesh out ideas. That takes in material selection, shapes and patterns, as well as blending specific colors and textures. Our goal is making your dream come alive and ensuring you get a custom roof that matches your vision.
Working with Custom Shingles provides you with services like onsite inspections, design support and free estimates. That includes determining what materials are best suited for your building project and what your actual costs will be. We answer your questions and guide you at every step of the way. We also make practical recommendations about what materials best suit your individual wants and needs, such as Certi-Label® Green Products.
Certi-Label® Green Products Available From Custom Shingles
Custom Shingles has a full line of Certi-Label® Green Products available to install on your home or any other building type. Certi-Label® is a registered trademark associated with the Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau. When you see the Certi-Label® mark, you know you’re getting the finest wood roofing materials you can buy anywhere.
Certi-Label® goes beyond enhancing your building’s appearance. It's also proof of a high-quality investment and enhanced property value. We recommend four different Certi-Label® cedar products for your project. No matter your choice, we assure you of top quality and peak performance when you invest in Certi-Label® Green Products.
Cedar shingles are the most popular roofing material you can buy from a cedar shingle supplier like Custom Shingles. These are sawn from cedar blocks, or “bolts.” Shingles are thin units, which usually display a tapered profile so they can install with a flat and uniform appearance.
As a cedar shingle supplier, we carry these two sawn cedar shingle products:
Certigrade® smooth-sawn architectural grade cedar shingles
Certi-Ridge® pre-manufactured cedar caps for roof ridges and hips
Cedar shakes are considerably different from shingles. Shakes have a thicker and more rustic appearance. Some cedar shakes are still hand-split from bolts, but most modern shakes have one side that's sawn and the other split mechanically. As a customer cedar shake supplier, Custom Shingles can supply you with these three shake products:
Certi-Split® shakes are high-quality with a rough split face and sawn back.
Certi-Sawn® shakes have both faces sawn, but are thicker than shingles.
Certi-Ridge® caps are thick, labor-saving complements for hips and ridges.
We also supply you with re-manufactured and pre-treated cedar roofing products that carry the Certi-Label® guarantee of excellence. You might be in an area that has high fire hazards or severe weather conditions. If that’s the case, you need an extra protection level found in these products:
Certi-Cut® specialty shingles manufactured to your specifications
Certigroove® shingles cut with machined grooves for architectural appeal
Certi-Last® pressure treated cedar shakes and shingles for rot resistance
Certi-Guard® shingles and shakes with permanent impregnated fire retardant
Custom Shingles Can Supply You With Other Specialty Products
Although cedar shingles and cedar shakes are our primary products, we can supply you with other materials that will elevate your project to new heights. We can also provide you with original designs using exotic woods, allowing you to make a never-before-seen statement. Here are some of the materials we regularly supply to bring bold, imaginative roof designs to life.
Royalwood™ wallaba shingles: Wallaba is a coarse-grain wood with a rich red color. It’s incredibly durable and highly resistant to wet conditions that lead to premature failure. Natural resins inside wallaba wood fiber protect these custom shingles from insect infestations, mold, mildew and fire. It is your premium wood shingle choice if you want the best in performance and beauty while keeping maintenance at a minimum.
Exotic teak shingles: Teak is an expensive luxury roofing product. It’s an exotic hardwood cut in Southeast Asia and known for its extraordinary resistance to extreme moisture and high winds. Teak is practically inert. Unlike cedar, which expands and contracts as its moisture content changes, teak remains dimensionally stable no matter how wet or dry this durable roofing material gets. Teak also has natural oils that repel water and resist anything Mother Nature throws at it.
Composite and synthetic shingles: Custom Shingles specializes in wood products. Even though we believe there is no real substitute for the beautiful classic appearance of a wood shake roof or a cedar shingle wall face, we also realize wood is not a practical material for some applications. If you have stringent fire codes that prohibit using wood on your roof or walls, we have the technical know-how to manufacture and supply you with composite and synthetic shingles. Some of them are so true to life that the untrained eye wouldn’t know they weren’t looking at real wood.
How Do I Know How Many Wood Shingles I Will Need?
That is a good question, and one we often hear at Custom Shingles. Without a doubt, wood shingles are an expensive, but worthwhile, investment, so you want to make sure you order exactly the right amount for your job. That is where extensive experience plays a key role in estimating what's required to fulfill the needs of custom wood shingles projects.
We cut cedar shakes and shingles in varying sizes, depending on their design and applications. Because of that, there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to placing your order. You don’t need to worry, though. Custom Shingles looks after your order because we’re the ones with the experience.
You’ll often hear the term “square” associated with roofing materials. The roofing industry measures areas in square feet, with a “square” being 100 square feet of shakes, shingles or other roofing product. For instance, if your roof area is 3,000 square feet, you’d need 30 squares of product, plus a surplus amount to cover the expected waste factor that goes with every building material.
The best way to know how many wood shingles you need to buy is to contact professionals like our staff at Custom Shingles. We know our roofing products and will build you the correct number of squares with the right amount of “bundles,” which is another common roofing material term where certain amounts of shakes and shingles get bundled for more cost-effective shipping. Large-cut products like 36-inch or 48-inch shakes have fewer bundles per square than 18-inch or 24-inch taper-sawn shingles.
Fortunately, you don’t have to do the math when you buy wood shingles from Custom Shingles. We provide free estimates of what materials you need for complete roof or wall coverage. When you work with us, you can rest assured of accurate take-offs and no-surprise order commitments. That’s the Custom Shingles promise we’ve fulfilled since 1982.
Why Choose Custom Shingles as a Wood Shingle Supplier?
At Custom Shingles, we're confident in our ability to deliver intricate custom shingle designs. After being in business for as long as we have, we’re among the best supply companies in the wood shingle business.
When you work with us, you’ll have access to our extensive product knowledge and sourcing network. You’ll be impressed by our material line and excellent choice of selections. And, you’ll benefit from buying wood shingles from us through our design team and complete custom manufacturing process. Finally, you'll have worry-free, expert installation guidance and contracting.
Make Custom Shingles your choice for buying wood shingles. Call us today at 877-323-3553. You can also reach us anytime by filling out our online contact form.