Cedar Appearance Systems: What Metal Shake Roofing Costs

Sticker-shock hits pretty much every homeowner when they first hear what a cedar-look metal shake roof costs in Nassau County-figure somewhere between $18,000 and $32,000 for a typical residential job, though I’ve seen that number swing a few thousand either way. The three big drivers that push that number up or down are your roof size, how cut-up and steep your roofline is, and whether we’re tearing off layers of old cedar or just working over an existing deck that’s in good shape.

I’ve been up on Nassau County roofs for nineteen years now, and for at least the last decade, the number-one reason people call me is because they’re tired of patching cedar after every Nor’easter and want to stop climbing ladders twice a year to clear broken shakes out of their gutters. They love the look-that hand-split texture and the way it fits into neighborhoods where every third house has cedar-but they’re done with the upkeep. That’s where cedar appearance metal shake systems come in, and once people understand what they’re actually buying, the cost starts to make a whole lot more sense.

What You’re Actually Paying For With Cedar-Look Metal Shakes

Here’s the straight answer: a cedar appearance metal shake roof isn’t just metal painted brown. These systems use interlocking steel or aluminum panels that are stamped and coated to mimic the grain, shadow lines, and staggered pattern of hand-split cedar shakes. From the curb, even your neighbors who’ve had cedar for thirty years won’t clock the difference unless they walk right up to your house. The panels lock together so water can’t blow sideways under them, and they’re designed to handle snow load and ice dams without splitting the way real cedar does when water freezes in the grain.

Around here in Nassau County, most of the houses I work on are ranches, split-levels, or capes built in the fifties through the seventies, and a lot of them still have the original cedar or the second cedar roof that went on in the nineties. Those homeowners remember what their parents or the previous owner paid-maybe six or seven grand back then-and when I say eighteen to thirty-two thousand for metal, I can see their eyes get wide. I get it. But what they’re comparing is apples to something completely different.

Real cedar on Long Island lasts maybe fifteen to twenty years if you’re lucky and stay on top of repairs. Metal shake systems carry warranties that run forty to fifty years, and in practical terms, once they’re on, you’re basically done. No more replacing cracked shakes every spring. No more worrying about algae staining or rot creeping in where two valleys meet. You’re paying more upfront, but you’re buying the last roof you’ll need to think about for decades.

How Metal Shake Systems Differ From Standard Metal Roofing

People sometimes confuse cedar appearance metal shakes with standing-seam metal roofs-the ones you see on modern farmhouses or commercial buildings with those vertical ribs running up the slope. Those are a different animal. Standing-seam is sleek, minimalist, and usually comes in solid colors. Cedar-look metal shakes are textured, dimensional panels designed to replicate traditional shake roofing. They’re thicker, they’re profiled to look like individual shakes overlapping, and they install more like shingles than like big sheets. That extra detail and the specialized coating process is part of why the cost per square is higher, but it’s also why they fool the eye from street level.

What Drives Your Metal Shake Roofing Cost Up or Down

On a typical split-level in East Meadow-let’s say around 2,200 square feet of living space, which usually translates to about 25 to 30 roofing squares once you account for pitch and waste-you’re looking at the middle of that cost range I mentioned, maybe $22,000 to $26,000 installed. That number assumes we’re tearing off one layer of old asphalt or cedar, putting down new synthetic underlayment, handling standard ventilation, and working on a roof with a couple of valleys and maybe one dormer. If your house checks all those boxes, you’re in the ballpark.

Now, if your roof is steeper than a standard 6-in-12 pitch, or if you’ve got a bunch of skylights, multiple chimneys, or a roofline that zigzags because of additions over the years, the labor cost climbs. On steep, cut-up roofs-the ones with lots of dormers and valleys-my crew has to move slower, we need more staging and safety gear, and there’s more trim work and flashing detail. Every inside corner where two roof planes meet is another spot where water wants to collect, so we’re adding extra underlayment, ice-and-water barrier, and custom-bent metal trim pieces. That kind of complexity can add three to five thousand dollars to a job, easy.

One early spring in Rockville Centre, I replaced a 25-year-old hand-split cedar roof that had been patched so many times after windstorms that each slope was a different shade of gray. The owners wanted to keep the cedar charm that matched the block but were sick of paying for emergency repairs every March. We walked through a steel shake system with a cedar appearance, line by line, so they understood why the upfront cost was higher but the long-term leak risk was lower. That house had three roof sections at different heights, a wraparound porch transition, and two chimneys-classic Nassau County cape architecture. The material cost was pretty standard, but the labor hours for all those transitions and custom flashings pushed the total closer to $30,000. They said yes anyway, because they’d already spent nearly that much over the previous decade on patches and temporary fixes.

Tear-off is another line item that swings the price. If we’re pulling off two layers of old shingles plus rotted cedar underneath, that’s a full extra day of dumpster fees and labor before we even start the new install. In some Nassau County neighborhoods, especially the older sections of Baldwin or Levittown where houses have been re-roofed multiple times, I’ve found three layers stacked up. Code won’t let us put metal over that mess, so it all has to come off. On the flip side, if your roof deck is clean and solid and we’re just doing a tear-off of one layer of asphalt that’s in decent shape, that part of the job goes faster and costs less.

Material choice matters too. Steel shake panels are usually a bit cheaper per square than aluminum, but aluminum is lighter and won’t rust if the coating gets scratched during a tree branch strike. Most of the systems I install around here are steel with a Kynar or similar high-grade finish, because they hold up well in our salt air and the price difference isn’t drastic enough to make homeowners switch. You’ll also see different grades of texture and color-some manufacturers offer ten or twelve cedar tones, from light honey to weathered gray, and a few premium lines have deeper embossing that looks even more realistic. Those top-shelf options can add a couple thousand to the material cost, but for homeowners in Garden City or Rockville Centre who care about matching their neighbors’ aged cedar, it’s worth it.

Comparing Cedar and Metal Shake Costs Over Time

Back when I first started, around 2006, a cedar roof was still the default choice on the South Shore if you wanted that classic Long Island look. Metal shakes were around, but they were clunky, the color selection was terrible, and homeowners thought they looked too industrial. Fast-forward to today, and the product has come a long way. The finishes are more realistic, the installation methods are better, and people have watched their neighbors go through two or three cedar replacements while the metal roofs just sit there looking the same.

During a humid August in Merrick, I handled a tricky re-roof on a canal-front home where the salty air had chewed up the existing cedar faster than expected. The homeowners were worried that a metal shake would look “fake” next to their neighbors’ real cedar, so I brought sample panels and photos from a similar job I’d just finished in Atlantic Beach to show how the texture and staggered pattern look from the curb. They were sold once they saw the side-by-side, but the bigger selling point was the lifespan. Their old cedar had lasted twelve years before it needed full replacement, and they’d spent about $1,200 in that time on spot repairs. If they went cedar again, they’d be looking at another twelve to fifteen years, another round of repairs, and another full tear-off in the 2030s. With metal, they’d pay more now-$27,000 for their roof size and the extra corrosion-resistant coating we recommended for the canal location-but they’d never have to budget for a roof again. They wouldn’t be climbing up to clear moss. They wouldn’t be calling me every March after an ice storm. The math worked.

So that’s why your neighbor’s quote might look nothing like yours. The next thing people usually ask me is whether metal shakes really pay off over time, and honestly, if you’re planning to stay in your house for more than ten years, the answer is almost always yes. You’re front-loading the cost, but you’re eliminating the drip of repairs, the surprise expenses when a valley starts leaking, and the hassle of coordinating another full roof replacement when you’re in your sixties or seventies. If you’re flipping the house in five years, maybe cedar or even high-end asphalt makes more sense because you won’t be around to deal with the maintenance. But for folks who see this as their long-term home, metal shake roofing is basically a one-and-done decision.

What to Expect When You Start Getting Quotes

When I sit down at a kitchen table in Nassau County and we start talking numbers, I always walk through the estimate piece by piece so there aren’t any surprises. A solid proposal should break out material cost, labor, tear-off and disposal, underlayment and ice barrier, all the trim and flashing, ventilation work if we’re upgrading ridge vents or soffit intake, and any deck repairs we find once the old roof comes off. If a quote just says “metal shake roof: $25,000” with no detail, you’re flying blind, and you won’t know what’s included if something comes up mid-job.

Here’s a snapshot of the three reactions I hear most often once I lay out the full number:

1. “That’s way more than I thought, but I guess it makes sense if I never have to do this again.”
2. “My neighbor paid $12,000 for asphalt last year-why is this double?”
3. “Can we finance this, or do I need to pull from savings?”

Every one of those is fair. The first reaction tells me the homeowner is starting to see the long-term value. The second one means I need to explain the difference between a basic shingle job and a metal shake system that’ll outlast three asphalt roofs. The third is practical-plenty of people don’t have thirty grand sitting around, and financing through a home equity line or a contractor program is totally normal. I’m not a bank, but I can point folks toward options that make the monthly payment manageable.

Quotes will vary from contractor to contractor, and part of that is just overhead and how busy a company is at the moment. But a big part is also experience with metal shake systems. Not every roofer around here installs them regularly, and if someone’s quoting you rock-bottom pricing but they’ve only done two metal jobs in their career, you might end up with panels that don’t line up right or flashing details that leak in the first winter. I’d rather see you pay a fair price to someone who’s done fifty of these roofs and knows how to handle the tricky spots-like how to transition from metal shake to a rubber or TPO flat section over a porch, or how to flash around an old brick chimney without breaking the masonry.

The One Thing You Should Remember About Metal Shake Roofing Costs

If you only remember one thing from this article, let it be this: the upfront cost of a cedar appearance metal shake roof isn’t just buying you a product, it’s buying you decades of not thinking about your roof. You’re eliminating the cycle of repairs, the worry every time a storm rolls through, and the eventual need to budget for another tear-off and replacement. In Nassau County, where we get everything from summer humidity to winter ice dams to coastal wind, that peace of mind is worth a lot. I’ve had customers tell me, three or four years after we finished their roof, that it’s the best home investment they ever made because they literally forgot they even had a roof-it just sits there doing its job.

One winter in Garden City, after an ice dam sent water down a bedroom wall, I used that job to explain how underlayment and ventilation differ between traditional cedar and interlocking metal shakes. The homeowner had been quoted $16,000 for a cedar re-roof and $24,000 for metal, and he was leaning toward cedar to save money. I walked him through how cedar lays flat and relies on overlapping to shed water, which means ice can work its way up under the shakes if the ventilation isn’t perfect. Metal shake systems interlock and have a higher profile, so water and ice can’t sneak backward as easily, and the better underlayment we use with metal-usually a synthetic that won’t tear or rot-adds another layer of protection. We also beefed up his soffit and ridge vents so the attic stayed cold and ice dams were less likely to form in the first place. He ended up going with the metal, and two winters later he called me just to say his neighbors all had ice problems that season and his roof didn’t budge. That’s not just about appearance systems-that’s about the whole roof assembly working the way it’s supposed to, and it’s a huge part of what you’re paying for.

Here’s my insider tip for Nassau County homes: if you’re on the fence about metal shake roofing because of cost, get at least two solid estimates from contractors who’ve installed these systems multiple times, and ask to see photos of jobs they’ve completed in your neighborhood or a similar one. Don’t just look at the total price-look at what’s included, how they handle underlayment and ventilation, and whether they’re offering a workmanship warranty on top of the manufacturer’s material warranty. A good contractor will stand behind the install for at least five to ten years, and that tells you they’re confident in their crew’s work. If you’re in Hempstead, Oceanside, or any of the canal communities, make sure they know how to spec the right coating for salt air exposure, because not every metal shake panel is rated the same for coastal environments. That little detail can be the difference between a roof that lasts fifty years and one that starts showing rust spots in year twelve.

At the end of the day-actually, scratch that, I hate that phrase-what I really mean is this: metal shake roofing costs more upfront than just about any other residential roofing option you’ll consider, but it’s also the last check you’ll write for your roof in your lifetime. Around Nassau County, where homes are built close together and curb appeal matters, getting that cedar look without the constant babysitting is a big deal. You’re not just paying for metal panels; you’re paying for the skill to install them right, the materials that back them up, and the freedom to stop worrying every time the wind picks up. That’s what I try to make clear when we’re sitting at your kitchen table, and that’s what TWI Roofing brings to every metal shake job we do.