Give Goico’s bill a fair shake

Let’s talk shingles. I like the look of the wood shakes on my house, but I’m all for a bill by Rep. Mario Goico, R-Wichita (in photo), that would allow homeowners in strict covenant neighborhoods to replace shakes with fire-resistant shingles.
Let’s face it — this stuff is kindling. Might as well douse your roof with lighter fluid. But worse yet, the wood shakes apparently provide an ideal ecosystem for brown recluse spiders. At least, that’s what the exterminator told me when our house suddenly turned into a brown recluse sanctuary — the little buggers were everywhere.
Some people (like me) will brave spiders and fire for the wood shake look. But no one should be forced to risk their lives for aesthetics.
Posted by Randy Scholfield

11 Comments

  1. kansassam
    Posted January 18, 2006 at 7:10 am | Permalink

    Amen to that… it takes about 1 minute for a fire to get from the soffit to the peak of the roof! If it wasn’t for some awesome Wichita firefighters, I would have lost my entire house in another 10 minutes!

  2. Ray Thomas
    Posted January 18, 2006 at 7:17 am | Permalink

    After the devastating Oakland fire in 1992 (or around there) California outlawed wood shake roofs–they are a proven fire hazard and help fires spread.

    Is ‘the look’ worth losing everything? They go up like a dried out Christmas tree..

  3. flike
    Posted January 18, 2006 at 7:31 am | Permalink

    I thought shakes were treated with a flame retardent? I wonder if this is most directly applicable to _old_ shake shingle roofs, the shingles of which may have lost the fire retardent chemical over time.

    I don’t have shakes, but I think that smell isn’t so much smoke as it is that of very large P&C insurance companies (which would prefer to have a sympathetic congressman try to pass a law rather than try to make their homeowner-policy clients pay something like a $2400+/yr premium for shake shingle roofs).

    $0.02

  4. damoon
    Posted January 18, 2006 at 8:10 am | Permalink

    We tore off our shake roof and put up asphalt shingles. We use the old shakes for starting fires in our fireplace, does it ever burn!! It’s the best kindling you can find.

  5. Ben Huie
    Posted January 18, 2006 at 8:15 am | Permalink

    Homeowners Associations have a long and sorry record of being unaccountable, arbitrary and capricious. This is especially true when they are controlled by the developers. They then become a very convenient way for a developer to force homeowners to subsidize his development.

  6. J M Walker
    Posted January 18, 2006 at 11:02 am | Permalink

    There are so many asthetically pleasing, as well as fire proof, and wind resistant roof shingling materials that putting on wood shake should be considered stupid. Which accounts for the level of intelligence in most home owners associations.

  7. Ben Huie
    Posted January 18, 2006 at 11:24 am | Permalink

    Back in california we had a name for them: FLAMING FRISBEES!

  8. Marty Venick
    Posted January 19, 2006 at 1:23 pm | Permalink

    Silver fish live in and around wood shakes. Number 1 on the the recluse food list is the silver fish.

    HOAs actually need more legislation than this to get them under control. Mini governments!

  9. Ben Huie
    Posted January 20, 2006 at 2:22 pm | Permalink

    Not just mini governments Marty – WORSE. Often they are ruled by the developer who pays nothing and the dues-paying residents end up subsidizing him.

  10. Marty Venick
    Posted January 22, 2006 at 3:24 pm | Permalink

    Very true. Most covenants are designed to benefit the developer and leave the homeowner holding the empty bag.

  11. Tim Erickson
    Posted October 3, 2006 at 11:51 am | Permalink

    I have a 24 year old shake roof in Grand Junction Colorado. Our subdivision covenants only permit wood shake or tile. My roof won’t support tile so I am caught in limbo of being required to put another wood shake roof on until the covenants can be reworked. I hope Mario’s bill worked and simplified things for Wichita. I could use the same in Grand Junction.

    Tim Erickson