Historic Homes from Coast to Coast
Pennsylvania. Virginia. Iowa. California. All across America you can find historic homes that have been enhanced with DaVinci composite slate and shake roofing tiles.
Up until recent years, restoring a historic home generally meant using original products, like real cedar shakes, clay or slate tiles. Oftentimes that was a tremendous problem. Real cedar roofs can split, cup or attract algae growth in a relatively short time. Real slate and clay tiles are very heavy and can split or crack.
With the introduction of top-quality composite roofing products in the past several decades, historic homes can now have all the long-term beauty of slate and shake roofs without the hassles.
A great example is the Nasratullah home in Mt. Airy, Pennsylvania. The 139-year old home needed a new when the family purchased the house. They researched their options and selected a DaVinci synthetic slate roof in a Sonora blend of terracotta and clay colors to replicate the original tiles on the home’s roof.
In Mill Mountain, Virginia, the Dye family wanted to replicate an original Mediterranean tile roof on their 1929 Italianate-style stone home. They chose DaVinci’s Multi-Width Slate roof. “We brightened up the home’s exterior by selecting the Vineyard blend of eight different colors — dark and medium tan, light and medium gray, light and dark violet, dark stone and dark amber,” says homeowner Nancy Dye. “This color combination fits the era of the home and complements our cobblestone driveway and sidewalk, the stone exterior of the house and our copper gutters and snow guards.”
Midway through the country, in Des Moines, Iowa, the Knoff family decided to replicate the red to gray roofing color with a custom color created by DaVinci Roofscapes for their 300-year-old home. “The bold custom colors created by DaVinci give the house a unified look that complements the detail work of the house trim, siding and stone pathways,” says homeowner Carol Knoff.
Stretching across the country, the Fleur du Lac community in Homewood, California was originally created in 1938 as a private estate for Henry J. Kaiser to serve as his hideaway for himself and the heads of five companies who joined forces to build the Hoover Dam project. Years later the complex was turned into a private condo community. In 2015, the Yacht Club and Boat House were re-roofed with DaVinci polymer shake tiles. In 2016 project work began on re-roofing the condos on the property.
“We started with our two most valuable community structures, the Yacht Club and Boat House,” says Stewart Dalie, maintenance supervisor and project manager at Fleur du Lac Estates in Homewood, California. “Our plans are to re-roof all of the buildings in the Tahoe Blend over the next five to seven years. We did a tremendous amount of research to determine what roofing products would look realistic in this setting, meet the new codes required for roofs in our area, yet offer us superior qualities and a long life span.
“Selecting the fire- and impact-resistant composite shake material from DaVinci Roofscapes means we won’t have to be concerned with the potential spread of flames should our area ever be touched by wildfires. That’s a huge concern for our geographic area. However, not having to worry about wind-blown embers landing on a roof and then catching the building on fire is a tremendous relief.”