The Alberta Pine Shake Homeowners Association (APSHA) is a collection of like-minded homeowners in Alberta who find ourselves facing a considerable expense to replace the rotting pine shakes on our rooftops. Our goal is to obtain compensation for the financial hardship caused by the premature replacement of our rooftops.

Since this issue arose in late 1997, we have gathered information and attempted to obtain answers from various sources:

• roofers;
• builders;
• manufacturers of shakes;
• building code inspectors; and
• Goverment officials.

We have watched for and saved pertinant articles in local newspapers, scoured the Internet for resource material, and contacted consumer advocates and lawyers for advice.

Some of us have called in investigative reporters, and they have uncovered some interesting points concerning the issue. This issue has received some coverage in newspapers and on TV, but for the most part it is just starting to come into focus as a major problem for thousands of homeowners.

Mostly, we are a group of consumers banding together to seek compensation for what we see as mistakes that were made in the selection, testing, and approval of materials for roofing in our areas. We believe that this situation came about due to a variety of reasons (to be enumerated later).

If you feel the call to join us as an affected homeowner, please use the methods indicated at / or fill in the form on the "Contact Info" page to reach us.

• Does your rooftop look like this even when the roof is dry?
• Would you like to know more about it, and join other homeowners in seeking information and a fair solution to the problem?
• Please sign our petition, and help us to canvas others!
• If you have something to add, consider emailing us privately (on the bottom of the menu at the left)

There's only been a couple of letters to the editor (Edmonton Journal) to date which have suggested we are only "bleeding hearts" or "the well-to-do". Here is a letter to the editor (JULY 3,1998) which we believe adequately responds to those narrow-minded comments.

If you have a pine shake roof on a home built prior to 1998, and you have some dark coloured areas even when the rooftop is dry, you will want to look closely at the information in this web site.

To see the pertinent information as a one page executive summary, click here.

You should look into more detail on the situation, as presented by our "white paper" on this issue. We encourage you to print it out, read it, and then pass it on to other concerned homeowners.

If you want to see what the problem looks like, click on the "Picture Gallery" header on the left.

If you want to know what the government knew last year about this problem: Intertek Testing Services provided a "Report on the Durability of Untreated Northern Pine Tapersawn Shakes" to Alberta Labour (excerpts provided here.)

The homeowners in these areas have recently realized that their homes are suffering from roof rot in their pine shakes; a rot which causes them to deteriorate MUCH quicker than anyone every thought would be possible!

Now, we may be "scratching the surface" of the health and safety aspects of this problem. (Go to the "What's New" page for more!)

If you haven't canvassed your area, or if you know of folks in other areas who should be given the chance to join us, please ensure the Membership Forms get around quickly!

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