I live in Colorado and we get a lot of snow and hail. The hail ruins
the cedar shake roofs that most of the homes have in our area.

After a recent hail storm that left as much as 4 inches of hail on the
ground we are getting an insurance claim check to replace the roof.

Cedar shake roofs also raise the annual homeowner's insurance as much
as $500 a year due to the increased fire danger. The shakes also warp
in the sun and seem to shed a lot of wood particles. And the raccoons
and squirrels love chewing on them.

A contractor / adjuster that works with our insurance company is saying
they can replace the roof with concrete tile made by Monier at
http://www.monierlifetile.com/ . He will also replace our gutters to
wider gutters which we have needed due to the occasional torrential
rains we get that end up clogging our gutters with debris and
overflowing over two window wells that end up filling up like fish
tanks and drain into our basement.

I try to keep the gutters cleaned out but my recent effort ended up
with me falling off the ladder, landing on the ladder, and shattering
my L1 vertebrae - but I got lucky in that I wasn't paralyzed. I'm told
that I should make a full recovery. Anyway I want to improve our roof
and gutter system and avoid ladders at all costs.

The builder said he liked Eagle tiles even better but they stopped
operations in Colorado. He said they are a lot more expensive, but
maybe it would be worth paying the difference. They have a site at
http://www.eagleroofing.com/main/index.php .

I'm also thinking about adding a couple roof fans that are solar
powered since we have heat build up in both roof areas (one over garage
and the other over the main second story living area).

I would appreciate any advice anyone can offer. I'm also going to
check with neighbors that have switched to tile. I know a couple are
rumored to have had trouble - one with tile that crumbled and another
with tile that was supposed to stain a certain way and it didn't.

I did some searching on the web but many of the comments are a few
years old now and the cement tile products may have improved since
then.

Thanks for your help, and be very careful on ladders.

- Bob