Plastic "wood shakes"???

[Richard Moore]

Here's a first for me. This is a 1981 home but this roofing was supposedly installed in 1998. Hard plastic, sort of hollow with ridges like some composite decking. All of the "shakes" were badly curled and had obviously also gotten brittle as indicated by many broken shakes, many of them snapped right at the overlay point. I made no attempt to walk this roof and I have to wonder how any roofer could repair the damage without breaking a whole bunch more.

Client and I agreed that a new roof was called for. I don't have to actually write it, or anything else, up as this was a pre-offer inspection. The roof, and a bunch of other very poorly maintained issues, made him fall out of love with the place halfway through the inspection and we ended early.

But, to satisfy my curiosity...anyone familiar with this product, the name, known problems or recalls, etc? Seems like a crap product if it's going to curl and get brittle. Maybe that's why I haven't seen it anywhere else?

Click to Enlarge

81 KB

Click to Enlarge

144.67 KB

Click to Enlarge

89.76 KB

[hausdok]

Hi Richard,

There is a plastic product called Eco-Shake that was invented in the mid 1990's. It's made from wood flour that's been chemically processed to remove the starches and sugars and then mixed with the same stuff they make garden hoses out of. It comes in various widths and 4 different colors and has a Class A fire rating and some kind of outrageous warranty. That doesn't look like Eco-Shake, though. I had them send me a sample back in 1996 and it had a raised cross-hatch support ridge pattern on the back and didn't look like what you've got there.

I put the Eco-Shake sample they sent me through hell. I submerged it in water for months on end, then I froze it, and then I tossed it up on the roof to bake for months in the sun and then repeated the cycle. It never lost it's flexibility and didn't degrade at all.

Have you checked with that outfit that advertises cut-rate siding and metal and plastic roofing that looks like shakes on the weekly TV supplement in the Times?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Richard Moore]

Have you checked with that outfit that advertises cut-rate siding and metal and plastic roofing that looks like shakes on the weekly TV supplement in the Times?

Hi Mike,

I'm not sure if you are being serious or not(?), but I googled all over and couldn't find anything with a photo of the backside except for the Eco-Shakes you mentioned. Definitely not them. Based on some other stuff in the house, like 75% of the windows so fogged up you wouldn't need blinds, it would not surprise me to find that the homeowner (now deceased) went for a really cheap product.

Whatever they are, I'll be quite happy to retire without seeing them again. I'm guessing that you did more testing and research on that single sample than whoever made these nasty things.

[hmiller]

I think that is the C.R.A.P.S system...

Cracking Roof Alien Plastic Shakes

[hausdok]

http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail. ... unterparts