What do quarters, golf balls, grapefruit and tennis balls all have in common? The answer is that they're all used to describe the size of hail that comes down during severe weather.

Back in 2010, Thad Jennings, president of Jenco Roofing out of Oklahoma City described some of the worst hail storms he'd seen in the city's history. "There were hundreds of destroyed roofs everywhere," says Jennings. "Every ceramic, concrete, metal, asphalt and composite roof I’ve seen in this area has been damaged by the hail storms.

“However, the synthetic slate DaVinci roofs we’ve installed over the past several years on homes in the same area are completely unaffected. It’s like a Superman roof that nothing can touch. The synthetic roofing material looks like it was just installed yesterday."

In another area of Oklahoma, roofing installer Jim Hofegartner believed this was the worst hail storm he’d witnessed during his 35 years as a roofer. (See Grapefruit-Sized Hail Bounces Off DaVinci Synthetic Roofs)

“There were grapefruit-sized hail and 60 mph winds that pounded our area,” says Hofegartner, president of Central Roofing and Construction Company in Luther, Okla. “A DaVinci Aberdeen slate roof we installed a few weeks prior to the storm in Nichols Hills received minimal damage --- especially compared to the concrete tile roof next door that was totally destroyed.”

According to Hofegartner, the windows and siding of the home were broken and chipped, but the major sections of the simulated slate roofing was not damaged. “We’ve had several homeowner association representatives come by to see this roof along with other people in the neighborhood,” says Hofegartner. “They’re all impressed with how well this synthetic slate roofing stood up to these severe weather conditions. I expect this will positively influence people to invest in polymer roofs now that they have to replace their ruined roofs.”

Standard simulated slate roofing and composite shake style roofing tiles manufactured by DaVinci are Class 4 impact rated, meeting the UL 2218 Impact Test. The 50 year roof limited warranty of the luxury roofs brings added peace-of-mind to homeowners.

Drop it. Hammer it. Freeze it. Go ahead ... DaVinci Roofscapes composite slate roofing tiles are tough.

Made of state-of-the-art polymers and virgin resins, and tested to withstand the fiercest weather conditions, the slate roof alternatives from DaVinci are made to last. Whether you select Single-Width Slate, Multi-Width Slate or Bellaforté Slate lightweight roofing materials, your investment in our sustainable roofing product will make you the envy of the neighborhood. (See Roof Envy - A Tale of Two Roofs)

Need proof? Here's what some homeowners with DaVinci simulated slate roofing have to say about our products:

“It’s wonderful to now have this new custom color polymer slate tile on our roof. Our home features many design elements that make it unique, and the roofing is now the icing on the cake. 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.”

                                    Carol Knoff - Iowa

“We felt that this faux-slate roof would be a huge improvement in our area over the old asphalt shingle roof. They truly replicate natural slate, and it definitely lends an air of authenticity to a somewhat contemporary home design.”

                        Rob Fanjoy - Maine

"These imitation slate shingles so accurately resemble real slate that we’re completely delighted with its beauty. Now we’re the envy of the neighborhood and our roof is ready for any weather we face in Texas!”

                                    Kathy Telecky - Texas

“We did an extensive amount of research on roofing materials and searched for a realistic and durable slate product. The result is a DaVinci Roofscapes Multi-Width Slate roof that we love. 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. 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.”

                                    Nancy Dye - Virginia

When a homeowner adds a DaVinci imitation slate or shake roof often the first thing they do is stand back admiring how great their home looks. Now that the roof looks so great, they often decide other parts of their exterior could also benefit from being spruced up. The front door is often the next area homeowners look to improve. The good news is that all it may take to have your front door live up to the beauty of your roof is to brush on a fresh coat of paint. But what color?

Deep cranberry warmed up with gold is reminiscent of a luxurious carpet or
velvety rose petals Cranapple adds a touch of tradition to any style home.

Here are some hues to inspire you. These are from the top 10 hottest door colors for Therma-Tru Doors Five of the colors that I believe will find their ways to many front doors in 2015 are bold and influenced by cross cultural experiences, such as Bronze Tone and Tripoli Sand. Then there are five other colors — like Thyme Green and Amazon Soil — which are more muted hues that invite us to step out of the fast flow of life to relax in our homes. You can learn more about these colors and see a video showing how all these colors look on a front door visit SensationalColor.com

Using images from This Old House matched up to DaVinci Roofscapes roof colors you can see how the hot colors work in an exterior scheme. See a few examples and the reasons the combinations work well together.

This monochromatic scheme of the natural siding and DaVinci composite slate would work well with just about any color family. I like the cheerful feeling a color like Tripoli Sands projects. Wright Blue Mist would also be a wonderful choice. Capture the glow of the beaches along the Mediterranean with this stylish shade that brings out the golden colorcast of stone or brick.

A blend of DaVinci Multi-Width Slate in Dark and Medium Chesapeake is a perfect match to the colorcast of the bricks. Thyme Green on the door plays off the greenish cast of the roof color and picks up the warm tones in the brick. A classic, rich green with a touch of brown never goes out of style and pairs well with most exterior home colors and features.

DaVinci Multi-Width Shake in Tahoe Blend and the siding get a lively lift with a color like Bronze Tone that brightens up a subdued exterior. Bold but not overpowering, this deep shade of orange is a good choice to add energy to any neutral theme. 

This patchwork blend of bricks needs a strong roof color. Bellaforté Slate Black-VariBlend fills that bill. Painting the front door black could work but using a color like Amazon Soil that incorporates all of the colors in the brick is friendlier and more interesting. A deep, lush shade of mauve, this dramatically dark color gives the front door a velvety richness.

Your roof and front door are two of the key elements on your exterior. By picking the right color for both your home will stand out from the rest and have instant curb appeal.

Cracked, rotted and algae-engulfed real cedar roof shingles have topped the 207 condo units at Covington Creek in recent years. The stained, curling and shrunken wooden cedar roofing tiles have now been replaced with Bellaforté Shake polymer roof tiles, giving new life and a renewed look to the 31 buildings in the Fort Wayne, Indiana community.

"The old, less-than-functional cedar shake shingles devalued this property and truly needed to be replaced," says Mike Hamilton, RRC, RRO and principal with MartinRiley architects and engineers. "Our firm had previously specified DaVinci Roofscapes synthetic slate roofing for another project and we were happy to present the low-maintenance shake roofing option to the Covington Creek condo committee.

"The homeowners wanted a similar look and color to the original cedar shake roof, but one that would last longer. The realistic-looking Bellaforté shake shingles in the Tahoe-VariBlend color of four gray-brown tones best matched the original shake."

For roofing installer Terry Minser, the selection of the Bellaforté simulated shake roofing made his job easier. "This condo project has a lot of mansard roofing applications, plus small, tight areas requiring roofing," says Minser, owner of Minser Enterprises. "The Bellaforté shake alternative shingles work well with all of the different roof slopes at Covington Creek, saving us time and labor. We've installed DaVinci composite roofing products on other roofs and the results are always the same --- a professional-looking product that enhances the overall project."

Lightweight roofing solutions from DaVinci are extremely popular for condo projects nationwide. See California’s Mai-Kai Condos Stand Out with New DaVinci Multi-Width Shake Roofingfor another feature project!

Our typical project requires a roof that will fit in with existing roofs on neighboring homes or buildings. Most of my callers end up describing to me what other types of roofing material there are around the project so that we can get on the same page, as far as product and color samples needed. Between DaVinci's Slate and Shake polymer roof profiles we have 7 products and 49 colors, which can blend into almost any college campus, retail district or neighborhood with ease.

A great example of this is a project we featured last year in Beverly, Illinois. The building owners started looking for something that would complement the other roofs in the neighborhood for a lower cost and less weight. The new roof needed a product that would hold up to the tough weather conditions of the area and could go through the seasons with as little maintenance as possible. The roof coverage starts just 10 feet off the ground, so the tiles needed to look as good as possible close up and they ended up going with DaVinci Multi-Width Slate in Slate Gray and it complements the natural slate roofs in the neighborhood. Click here if you are interested in finding out more about this project.

Happy Friday, Architects!

The fountains are flowing with royal blue water in our home town of Kansas City, and World Series fever is running high!

Next week our Kansas City Royals go to the World Series for the first time in 29 years ... and we have high hopes of beating the San Francisco Giants! After all, we did it this past August when the Royals swept the Giants in a three-game series in Kansas City. Will history repeat itself? We hope so!

At DaVinci Roofscapes, we're unabashedly proud of our hometown baseball team --- and the focus being placed on Kansas City. After all, the Royals are the first team to sweep both their division and AL Championship games. And, now that we have two wild-card teams meeting at the World Series (for only the second time ever!) it's "all fans on deck" to cheer on our team when the first game starts on October 21st!

We're so excited about this amazing sporting achievement, that we're thinking of creating a Royal Blue polymer roofing tile!

After all, we have already offered A Simple Guide to Exterior Color Trends 2014 | Take A New Look At Blue! While we think about that option ... you can check out these fun facts:

- The Royals have previously played in just two World Series ... losing in 1980 to the Philadelphia Phillies, but winning in 1985 against the St. Louis Cardinals.

- The "Royals" name comes from the American Royal ... a livestock and horse show, rodeo and championship barbeque competition held each year in Kansas City since 1899.

- Our city has several other sports teams with distinctive patriarch names ... including the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Monarchs.

November hasn't hit yet and already the first snowfalls of the season have come down in many parts of the country. If you're in one of those "snow prone areas," it's not too late to add a snow retention system to your roof before Mother Nature unleashes her full winter fury.

The most important thing about selecting a specific type of snow retention system is to have it meet the needs for your roof and climate. "There is no 'one size fits all' system that is foolproof," says Tyler Storfa, Western Technical Services Manager with DaVinci Roofscapes. "Engineering calculations need to be factored in for, among other things: ground snow load, slope of the roof, drift zones on the roofing plan, fail point of the type of snow retention chosen and the safety factor of the project."

Storfa relates that most snow retention product manufacturers will design a custom system from your roof plans. They'll also provide detailed layout and installation instructions.

"From snow brackets to guards to fences to coils, I've seen all types and methods of snow retention, especially for polymer roofing," says Storfa. "The key is make sure the snow retention method selected can handle the expected snow loads on your composite roofing.

"One area most overlooked is the upper roofing sections that drop into lower sections. The snow on the upper parts shed and overwhelm the snow retention system in place on the lower section of the roof. When that happens, it's almost impossible to stop it from sliding once it's on the move."

For more considerations of snow guards and retention systems for plastic roofing materials, see Q & A Guide to Snow Guards,  On Guard for Winter Weather ... with Snow Retention Systemsand To Guard ... or Not to Guard.  

Ask Scott Cunningham with Turner Morris, Inc. how he feels about DaVinci Roofscapes and get ready to be captivated.

"DaVinci is a true stand alone (roofing material) in the synthetic world," says Cunningham, mountain project manager with Turner Morris Roof Systems in Colorado. "The product itself is durable and withstands the stringent demands of our high alpine environment. This is the only product we've found that works well in our climatic region."

Cunningham should know. In the past eight years his company has installed more than a dozen commercial roofing projects in Colorado using DaVinci synthetic roofing material.

"The impressive thing is that DaVinci stands behind its product," says Cunningham, a member of the DaVinci Masterpiece Contractors program. "I have been installing DaVinci imitation slate and composite shake for eight years and have never had any significant product issues. The problems that I have seen throughout the years have been specifically contractor installation defects, and unforeseen issues with snow and ice migration due to Mother Nature.

"I always recommend that extra caution should be taken when switching traditional cedar shakes to synthetic shake roofing as their insulation value and breathability is very much different."

A major project recently completed by Turner Morris is the reroofing of 30 condo units with simulated shake roofing from DaVinci. "These roofs are impact- and fire-resistant with the natural look of real cedar with great shadow lines, but with all the advantages of a man-made product," says Cunningham. "Best of all, they have a 50-year limited warranty, so this is a great investment for the community."

 Turner Morris isn't the only Colorado roofer who believes in cedar shake roofing alternatives from DaVinci. See Contractors Return to DaVinci Products for another great story!

The luxury ski resort area of Beaver Creek, Colorado received 186 inches of snowfall in 2013 ... and already has more than 188 inches of snowfall recorded for 2014. What helps protect the Dakotas at Arrowhead Townhome Association in nearby Edwards, Colorado from such massive amounts of snow? Their new roof featuring impact-resistant DaVinci Roofscapes composite shake tiles.

"We had some leaking issues with the aging cedar shake roofs and new rules looming regarding approved roofing materials in Arrowhead for our 30 units at the Dakotas and decided now was the time to reroof," says Kimberly Rowland, director of association services at Bold Solutions, the property management companies for the Dakotas. "Real wood roof shingles are no longer allowed when doing a full roof replacement in this area due to fire risk and difficulty securing insurance, so we explored the options of synthetic shake shingles."

The team at Bold Solutions worked closely with the board, the roofing committee, the Arrowhead design review board for the association and other stakeholders to make a decision on new polymer roofing. When professionals from Turner Morris Roof Systems offered the fire-resistant Bellaforté simulated shake roofing tiles from DaVinci as an alternative roofing product, the group was impressed.

"We've installed DaVinci products on a dozen different commercial roofing projects in Colorado because they're the only product we've found that works well in our climatic region," says Scott Cunningham, mountain project manager with Turner Morris Roof Systems. "These roofs are impact- and fire-resistant with the natural look of real cedar with great shadow lines, but with all the advantages of a man-made product. Best of all, they have a 50-year limited warranty, so this is a great investment for the Dakotas community."

The final selection of Bellaforté synthetic shake tiles in the Mountain-Variblend color blend of three mountain browns was chosen for the project in the autumn of 2013.

"We looked at the 'total cost of ownership' when evaluating which roofing tile to purchase," says Rowland. "In doing our research, we found that the investment in these durable roofing tiles would potentially be offset by the expected longevity and low maintenance costs represented by Turner Morris and DaVinci," says Rowland. "From an aesthetics standpoint, the Dakotas at Arrowhead owners are very pleased. We have recommended the DaVinci product to other homeowner associations along with the services of Turner Morris."

Colorado residents aren't the only ones that love composite cedar roof shingles! North Carolina Embraces Polymer Shake Shinglesshowcases homes on the East Coast that are excited about DaVinci polymer shake roofing materials!

If you are working on a residential project that needs a new roof, I encourage you to look at some of our Featured Projects. Between our Slate and Shake products, we have a style of roof that would fit most styles of homes and the performance of these products is suitable for the climates found across the country. Here are a few that have been recently featured here on our blog:

Featured Project - Priest River, ID

Did you know our Multi-Width Slate was the first product we launched? Click here to read more about the benefits of this style of synthetic slate shingles. 

Featured Project - Fort Worth, TX

Does your client like a particular color blend in Multi-Width, but want to go with either Single-Width or Bellaforté Slate? Click here to read about how the color blends remain consistent across the slate product lines. 

Featured Product - Norman, OK

To stagger or not to stagger? This decision can change the whole look of a roof. Click here to read more about this project. 

Featured Project - Wichita, KS

Polymer Roofing is the product of choice for many Wichita, Kansas homeowners. Click here to find out why.

Happy Friday, Architects! 

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,

But the roofing is so obliging.

And since it needs to be installed,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Not ready yet for cold weather composite roof installations? Let DaVinci Roofscapes offer a few tips to get you prepared for the roofing projects during the upcoming winter months.

Tip #1 - Dress for the weather. Make sure you and your installation team use fall protection devices and appropriate footwear, since winter makes the roof more slippery and icy.

Tip #2 - If you're using a pneumatic roofing nail gun for plastic roofing materials installation, make sure the pressure is not set too high. If you should have trouble with an air compressor, consider hand nailing pieces of composite roofing into place.

Tip #3 - Before installing in colder temperatures, store your polymer roofing shingles flat.

Tip #4 - The unique formula of DaVinci synthetic shake and composite slate materials allows our product to remain flexible in colder weather, so you can install our luxury roof products in temperatures as low as 20 degrees F. Make sure that the lightweight roofing tiles are laid at a very minimum 3/16".

Tip #5 - Don't forget the snowguards. If you're installing in a cold weather region, make sure to recommend and install suitable snowguards that will help reduce the chance of "avalanches" of melting snow from polymer roofs.

For more winter weather installation tips, see How Cold is Too Cold to Install DaVinci Synthetic Shingles?

Asphalt shingles often deteriorate over the years and are subject to roof hail damage. That's exactly what happened to homeowner Ann Butler of Lake Wallenpaupack, Pennsylvania. When it came time to replace her roof, she relied on the advice of friends and experts. Her search led her to simulated slate roofing from DaVinci Roofscapes.

"This is another example of a project where DaVinci synthetic slate roofing products made a huge difference for a homeowner," says David Chiampi with Champion Roofing. "I've used composite roofing from DaVinci for a variety of designer roof jobs. It's my 'go to' roof when homeowners ask me for sustainable roofing that's durable, low-maintenance and long-lasting.

"With the Butler house, we're talking about a 35-year old ranch style home with an aging, leaky roof. The homeowner wanted a reliable designer roof and had seen the DaVinci fake slate on another home. I was pleased to support their product selection. These lightweight roofing tiles are an all around good product, with a 50 year roof warranty that provides peace-of-mind for consumers."

Champion Roofing, a DaVinci Masterpiece Contractor program member, has a solid history of installing luxury roofs. Chiampi and his team rely on the composite roofing product as a solution for roofing problems in the northeast Pennsylvania marketplace.

"We have no challenges installing this Class A Fire Rated sustainable roofing product," says Chiampi. "Whether it's the single-width polymer roof tiles or the Multi-Width Slate we put up on the Butler residence, installation is fast and easy, and the results are outstanding. This imitation slate roofing product brings new life and style to every home."

Want to hear what other roofers have to say about steep slope roofing and DaVinci products? See Contractors "Hail" DaVinci Roofscapes

There are so many reasons I love Autumn. The colors of the fall foliage, ripe red apples, Indian corn and of course pumpkins. Seeing a patch filled with bright orange pumpkins is a cheerful sight that I look forward to but in the past few years, a few other colors have elbowed their way into the patch and found their way into my heart.

Brown, white, red and even blue skinned beauties join orange as options for fall decorating. I've been enchanted by the luscious combinations of colors found in the skin and flesh of the many new varieties available. They are so lovely that they have inspired me to think about how I might use these color schemes to help you choose a new look for your exterior.   

The bright orange of a traditional pumpkin doesn't often work for an entire exterior, but it is a warm inviting color for a front door and window frames.

Of all the non-traditional colors for pumpkins, blue seems to be the most unexpected. Take your color cue from the blue skin and rich orange flesh of the Jarrahdale pumpkin. The blue on the front door against the red-orange bricks creates a perfect complementary scheme.

The Musquee de Provence Pumpkin is a favorite among those with an eye for color. This beautiful heirloom from the South of France is green when immature, and then the skin turns a lovely rich blend of browns when fully ripe. The variations of the browns are much the same as one of my favorite DaVinci Roofscapes standard blends -- Autumn. 

The Galeux D'Eysines is another heirloom pumpkin and its name translates as "embroidered with warts from Eysines”, a small town in southwest France. Its color and texture might inspire an analogous color scheme of warm golden hues with the front door, painted in a rich, spicy orange of Benjamin Moore Etruscan AF-355.

It has been said that Cinderella's carriage was fashioned after the Rouge Vif d'Estampes pumpkin and that the roof of her castle was covered in Bellaforté Imitation Slate in the standard blend Sedona.

Coming on the scene only a dozen years ago, naturally white pumpkin, once an oddity found only at farmers' markets, are now making their way into more and more homes and becoming an autumn favorite. The combination of white with stem green and bright orange as accent colors is perfect on this home in Austin, TX.

Mother Nature is a true expert when it comes to putting colors together. All you have to do is harvest one of her pumpkin-inspired combinations to add the beauty of Fall to your home year round.

In the open areas of Brock, Nebraska, wind storms and severe rain can have a truly devastating impact on cedar roof shingles. So, when the Butler family decided to replace their cedar shake roof, they searched for a Class A Fire Rated roofing product that was impact-resistant and had a 50 year roof warranty.

"We started searching online for long-lasting roofs and discovered the polymer shake tiles from DaVinci Roofscapes," says Kim Butler. "At the same time we remembered the appeal of steel roofs we'd seen in Montana. Somehow we knew we wanted to combine the two products."

The Butler family selected Multi-Width Shake from DaVinci in a Mountain blend of three brown tones for the primary area of their designer roof. A secondary roof area now features an aging artisan metal roof. Combined with other exterior textures (including brick, cedar and copper), the home has a unique appeal.

"We really like how metals patina with age to give a rustic look," says Butler. "With a steel roof and copper gutters, we believe the slow progression of the patinas will bring long-term beauty and durability to our home. Add in the DaVinci composite shakes and we have a winning combination.

"It used to be that with each rain and wind storm we were losing pieces of our original wood shingles from the roof. Now we have a composite shake roof overhead that we trust will provide us with decades of service."

Jealous of the Butler home? See Roof Envy - A Tale of Two Roofs!

There are many amazing features of our Bellaforté Slate. These lightweight tiles are our most cost effective product, they self-align for a fast installation, and they boast top performance ratings for fire, wind, and impact. Because of their self-aligning design, however, it can be difficult to maneuver the 12" x 15" tile around smaller or curved portions of the roof. The solution for this is to use our Multi-Width or Single-Width slate alternative on the parts of the roof where you need a bit more flexibility in design such as eyebrow windows, turrets or bay windows. These two products are not self-aligning systems so there is more wiggle room in pliability and cutting tiles to fit into a specific area. See photo examples below:

   Bellaforté Slate on the majority of the roof, Single-Width Slate over the bay window. 

Bellaforté Slate on the majority of the roof, and Multi-Width Slate on the turret. 

Happy Friday (and Happy Halloween), Architects! 

Creaking stairs and ghoulish figures aren't the only haunting things in neighborhoods this Halloween. Some roofs are downright scary.

At the Covington Creek condo community in Indiana, the cracked, rotted and algae-ridden real cedar roof shingles on 207 condo units were a frightful sight in recent years. Forget shrunken heads ... at this subdivision there were stained, curling and shrunken wooden cedar shake roofing tiles overhead.

This year however, Covington Creek isn't a haunted community. Thirty-one buildings have now been re-roofed with new Bellaforté Shake composite shake tiles from DaVinci Roofscapes.

Gone are the scary roofs ... replaced with synthetic shake roofing that's beautiful and long-lasting. Plus they're backed with a 50 year roof warranty.

We promise ... it's no trick that fake cedar shake roofs look better and last longer than cedar roofing. Our state-of-the-art polymers help provide a durable designer roof with synthetic shake shingles that is simply a treat for homeowners!

Want another Halloween treat? Learn how to Invest in Your Roofand Shake it Off ...with our shake roofing materials!

Heavy snows can cause more worries than just potential avalanches from composite roofing. Almost any roof has the potential for ice dams this winter if the proper precautions are not taken before the first snow falls.

Ice damming occurs when snow melts from heat loss in the attic. As a result, the water runs down the roof and then re-freezes on the of the edge of the roof (eave). This creates beautiful large icicles clinging to your gutters. They may be pretty to look at, but they stop water from properly draining off into the gutters and can be damaging to the gutters and your roof. A bad result of ice damning is that it can cause water to back up onto the roof and lead to a potential leak.

When and where will ice dams occur? They're most likely to form on structures with poorly insulated or ventilated attics during very cold weather.

According to This Old House magazine, there are eight different ways you can regulate the temperature of the roof so that it remains the same as the eaves to help reduce ice damming. These include ventilation, capping the hatch, adding insulation and insulating ducts. (Click HERE for the story).

To help reduce the chance of an ice dam forming on your luxury roof, take time now --- before the cold weather hits --- to make sure your attic is well insulated and vented. This will help keep the attic temperature closer to the outside temperature to reduce chances of ice dams. While DaVinci Roofscapes tiles are not waterproof, use of the proper peel and stick membrane on the bottom of the roof will also help make areas where ice damming occurs water-tight.

In areas with potential heavy/moderate snows, consider installing snow guards on your composite roof.

For more tips on ice dams, see Ice Dams, Snow Slides and Freezing Temperatures… Oh my!

Ready to shake up your roof with Class A Fire Rated simulated shake roofing from DaVinci Roofscapes? Our impact-resistant lightweight roofing systems replicate real cedar roof shingles, but without the concerns for rotting, fire or insect infestations.

When you're ready to make the smart decision to select synthetic cedar shake roofing, just look at all the options DaVinci has to offer.

> DaVinci Multi-Width Shake: Reminiscent of natural cedar shake roofing with a deep-grained surface reflecting natural cedar roofing. Available in 9", 8", 7", 6" and 4" widths that can be installed in a non-repeating fashion in either a straight or staggered pattern. A deep 5/8" profile has both wavy and straight grains throughout the blend to create enviable shadow lines.

> DaVinci Single-Width Shake: Forget the worries of fire, wind and rain with our durable eco friendly roof made of composite shake. These 9" shake alternative tiles resemble hand-split cedar shake roofing. The 5/8" profile deepens shadow lines replicate real cedar roofing.

> Bellaforté Shake: Designed with a snap-fit tile that creates a built-in rain gutter, Bellaforté simulated shake roofing tiles feature a leading edge tab that secures every tile to drastically improve wind performance. The 12" tile width with multiple profiles simulates a multi-width, staggered rough hewn wood shake. And, at 1" average tile thickness, Bellaforté Shake designer roof tiles are reminiscent of natural jumbo shakes.

>Fancy Shake: If you're looking for a more refined cedar look, then Fancy Shake synthetic shakes are for you. With a clean, smooth look replicating machine-sawn shake, these 7/16" thick shake shingles provide a polished beauty for your roof. Available in 12", 7" and 5" widths with bundles arriving at the job site pre-sorted by color and size, eliminating on-site sorting and guesswork.

Crafted using only virgin resins to guarantee a sustainable roofing product, all DaVinci composite shake roofing materials are 100% recyclable. Available in a wide array of colors and blends, these lightweight tiles are a wonderful shake alternative for any home. VisitSwing, Shag, Shuffle and ShakeandLesson Learned: Life After Hail Damage for more polymer roofing information.

If you're a homeowner, you may not give a second thought to what condo communities put on their roofs. But, you should ... because you can learn a lot.

"Property managers and homeowner associations evaluate the 'Total Cost of Ownership' when making replacement roofing decisions," says Mike Ward, with DaVinci Roofscapes. "They're determining which products have the greatest return on investment from the standpoint of durability, longevity, low-maintenance costs and aesthetics. These are the same considerations individual homeowners should evaluate when selecting roofing products."

According to Ward, this type of analysis plays favorably for polymer roofing products that resist impact, fire, insects, mold and algae. Other advantages that condo and townhome communities look for in a roof include the color being blended throughout each tile and a 50 year roof warranty. Again, the same key aspects homeowners look for when making a smart roof choice.

Across the country, many condo communities have identified DaVinci composite roofing as the solution to their roofing needs.

In California, the Mai Kai condo community in Newport Beach had salt air and sea spray affecting their real shake shingles. The cedar roofing on the 34 units deteriorated over time, requiring the community to launch a search for fake cedar shake roofing. (see California’s Mai-Kai Condos Stand Out with New DaVinci Multi-Width Shake Roofing)

“Our research and the recommendation of a design consultant led us to the DaVinci product for its appearance, durability and maintenance,” says John Adler, a member of the Mai-Kai condo board of directors. “The strength of the product really impressed us and helped influence our decision.”

At the Catawba Shores condo community in Port Clinton, Ohio, 35 housing units had to get new roofs because of roof hail damage.(seeLakeside Condo Community Relies on Bellaforté Shake Roofing Tiles)

"We feel we made the right selection with DaVinci since these roofing tiles are impact-, hail-, insect-, algae- and fire-resistant," says Jim Packard, president of the Catawba Shores Homeowners Association. "We estimate that we’re saving more than $10,000 per year on the ongoing maintenance costs from our old roof, and we’ve got the peace-of-mind that these roofs will help protect our units from fire and hail."

In areas of Colorado, Turner Morris Roof Systems has installed DaVinci Class A Fire Rated synthetic roofing material on a variety of condo communities, including Quartermoon Townhomes in Bachelor Gulch, the Dakotas in Avon and Bachelor Spring Townhomes near Arrowhead Village.            

"DaVinci is the only product that performs well in our climatic region," says Scott Cunningham, mountains project manager with Turner Morris Roof Systems. "These communities are looking for durable composite roofing tiles that can withstand heavy snowfall along with the threat of wildfire. We've found the solution with DaVinci synthetic cedar shake tiles."

Going paperless? Need an update to an existing architectural binder? Our website offers all documents found in our binders in one convenient place. Click here to get to our digital architectural binder and download the latest brochures, installation instructions, testing certifications, and green information on our steep slope roofing materials.

Happy Friday, Architects!