A Newport, RI Mansard Reroofed — CertainTeed Carriage House Designer Shingles in Colonial Slate

Like most Pinnacle roofing projects, the work was completed in a single day — minimizing disruption for the homeowner.

Pinnacle makes every roof affordable with monthly financing options to make your home project affordable with low monthly payments, including 0% interest for 18 months.

The condo association behind this stately Newport building wanted a shingle that respected its history — a mansard roof this prominent deserves more than a commodity architectural shingle. Pinnacle Roofing & Skylights walked them through several CertainTeed designer lines, and they chose Carriage House in Colonial Slate: a super-heavyweight luxury shingle whose cut-away corners recreate the scalloped-edge look of natural slate.

Scope of Work

Mansard roofs are their own discipline: the lower slopes are nearly vertical, every dormer is its own small roofing project, and staging the work safely takes real planning. The crew stripped the old roofing — exposing original wood shingles on the dormer faces — then rebuilt the system: ice and water shield at the vulnerable transitions, synthetic underlayment, new drip edge and starters, Carriage House field shingles in Colonial Slate, and hand-detailed flashing at every dormer, hip, and curb.

What We Installed (And Why)

CertainTeed Carriage House is one of the industry’s true luxury shingles — a super-heavyweight, dual-layered construction designed to evoke hand-crafted natural slate, with cut-away corners and wide, dark shadow lines. On a steep mansard, where the roof is effectively the building’s facade, that depth is exactly what you see from the sidewalk.

Colonial Slate blends cool grays with subtle darker granules, which is why it sits so comfortably on a historic Newport streetscape — the color reads as aged slate without the weight, fragility, or cost of the real thing. Because the mansard faces are so close to vertical, the color and the scalloped pattern do more visual work here than on any ordinary roof.

Project Photo Gallery

The finished mansard — Carriage House shingles read like scalloped natural slate from the street.

Every dormer cheek and steep mansard face was shingled and flashed individually.

Under the old roof: generations-old wood shingles on the dormer faces, stripped before the new system went down.

Good To Know: Why do mansard roofs cost more to reshingle?

Nearly every square foot of a mansard is steep-slope work — staging, harnessing, and hand-nailing take longer than on a walkable roof, and the dormers multiply the flashing details. The payoff is that a mansard shows off its shingles like no other roof style, so shingle choice matters more, not less. Budget for the labor, and put the difference into a shingle worthy of the building.

Why This Approach Works

A designer shingle on a historic building is not a vanity choice. Heavyweight construction resists wind uplift on the exposed upper slopes, the dual-layer build adds decades of durability, and CertainTeed’s lifetime limited warranty transfers real value to every unit owner in the association. The alternative — cheap shingles replaced twice as often on a difficult roof — costs more over any twenty-year window.

Why Pinnacle

Pinnacle Roofing & Skylights is a CertainTeed ShingleMaster Premier contractor — the highest residential credential CertainTeed offers — which means verified installation standards and access to enhanced warranty coverage on every CertainTeed project. We work on Newport’s older and architecturally significant buildings regularly, and we know how to stage steep, tight, historic sites without damaging what makes them special. With more than 100 five-star Google reviews and an A+ BBB rating, our track record speaks for itself.

Newport, RI

Newport is Rhode Island’s showcase — Gilded Age mansions, colonial streets, and salt air that tests every roof on Aquidneck Island. From Broadway triple-deckers to Bellevue-adjacent condo buildings like this one, Pinnacle protects Newport roofs with systems built for wind off the harbor.