A roof in this region is not a roof in Texas.
Two hundred inches of annual rainfall along the Coast Range. Freeze-thaw cycles in the Cascades that can swing a roof deck through forty degrees in a single November afternoon. Salt-air corrosion that begins fifteen miles inland and intensifies until it can eat through a galvanized steel screw in eight years on Bainbridge Island. Moss and lichen that, on an east-facing shaded asphalt roof in Tigard, can shorten the life of a thirty-year shingle to seventeen years if it is not cleaned. Douglas fir needles that, in October, drop in such volume that they can clog a gutter system designed for the eastern half of the continent in a single weekend.
The roofs of the Pacific Northwest are not the roofs of the Sun Belt, and the materials that perform well here are not the materials that perform well in the hail corridor. Cedar shake, for instance, performs uniquely well in this climate — its natural oils repel water, its open lapping allows the underlayment to dry between rainfalls, and a properly installed CSSB Certi-Split #1 Grade cedar shake roof routinely lasts forty-five to sixty years in Lake Oswego.
Slate is similar. Copper is similar. Standing-seam steel, when specified and detailed correctly, can outlast the building beneath it. Asphalt shingle — the dominant material in most American markets — performs respectably here when it is properly ventilated and when it is replaced before moss takes the underlayment, but it is not the optimal material.
Cascade has built its practice on the simple proposition that the optimal material is usually worth the optimal price. We are not the right firm for every homeowner. We are the right firm for the homeowner who wants the roof to outlast them.
— Henrik Lindqvist, founder