Pro's Picks: DaVinci Roofscapes Slate and Shake

Trent Lovewell

Director of Operations, Weatherguard Inc.

Omaha, Neb. 

Nebraska is known for hail and tornadoes. It’s a blessing and a curse for a roofing company. 

When you live in a state with weather as violent as ours, having an adequately resistant roofing system is imperative, and so therefore it’s imperative for companies like Weatherguard to offer a product that can stand up to the abuse. 

DaVinci Roofscapes’ composite slate and shake product is our preferred option because, as far as my experience goes, it’s the most effective in resisting harsh elements; and it does so in a variety of colors and styles for a price that’s competitive, and without requiring any notable installation difficulties. 

There is no roofing system that is 100 percent hail-proof. That is a fact. But DaVinci certainly comes close. Last year, a huge storm tore through Omaha, Neb., where Weatherguard is based, impacting dozens of our roofs. On 14 we had used a DaVinci product, and of those, not a single roof was damaged, which was obviously not the case for a lot of our other roofs. The slate and shake also withstands the Midwest’s dramatic temperature swings, where it can go from freezing to spring-like in less than 24 hours. A lot of other composites crack under the stress of the fluctuations.

The look is important too. For a long time, Omaha has been a wood-shake town. But insurance companies are working to phase that out. They don’t want homes having wood shake, and so they make homeowners pay a premium to use it. In some cases, it’s so expensive you’re basically self-insured, or you can be denied for insurance altogether. That’s happened to about 60 of our clients. The dilemma is that people still like the look. 

DaVinci solves that problem as well. It manufactures several varieties of slate and shake, from its Energy Star-compliant EcoBlend to, my preferred, the Bellaforte, which mimics hand-split cedar shake and is comparable in price. Most are also available in a variety of colors and with wood texturing, so that the transition from wood to composite is as seamless as possible.