A Historic Warren Home Re-Roofed in CertainTeed Highland Slate

Warren is one of Rhode Island’s most intact historic towns, and a roof here has to do two jobs at once: protect the house for the next few decades and look right on a home that was built more than a century ago. This project answered both with CertainTeed Highland Slate — a luxury shingle engineered to carry the depth and random rhythm of a natural slate roof without the weight, fragility, and cost that come with quarried stone. Pinnacle roofs go on fast — often as a one-day roof replacement — and flexible financing keeps a project like this within reach, with plans as low as 0% interest for 18 months.

A historic Warren home with steep, multi-gabled roof planes was re-roofed in CertainTeed Highland Slate, a luxury slate-look shingle chosen to keep the home’s period character while giving it modern protection. This project is in Warren, Rhode Island, finished in CertainTeed Highland Slate.

Scope of Work

A historic roof is rarely a simple rectangle, and this one was a study in planes: steep pitches meeting at hips and valleys, gables and dormers breaking the roofline, and the tall, complex geometry typical of a home from Warren’s 19th-century building era. The crew stripped the old roof to the deck and inspected the sheathing across every plane before rebuilding from the water barrier up. CertainTeed WinterGuard ice-and-water shield was laid along all the eaves and — just as critically on a roof like this — up every valley and against every sidewall where a dormer or gable meets a slope, the exact junctions where a complex roof leaks first. DiamondDeck synthetic underlayment covered the field, new drip edge and starter courses locked down the many edges, and the Highland Slate shingles were coursed carefully up each slope so the lines stayed true across the gables and around the dormers. The finish work — the hip and ridge caps set over a concealed ridge vent — keeps the period silhouette clean while giving the attic the balanced ventilation that protects both the new roof and the old framing beneath it.

What We Installed (And Why)

CertainTeed Highland Slate is a luxury shingle built to imitate the real thing, and on a historic home that is exactly what the house asks for. Its profile is a dimensional, random-cut slate look — varied exposures and shadow lines that recreate the hand-laid rhythm of a genuine slate roof rather than the uniform stripe of a standard shingle. Because it is a fiberglass-based asphalt shingle, it delivers that appearance at a fraction of the weight of natural slate, which means it can go on a period home’s existing framing without the structural reinforcement quarried slate would demand, and at a fraction of the cost and fragility. The performance is modern where it counts: a Class A fire-resistance rating, StreakFighter algae-resistant granules to keep the roof from streaking black in New England’s damp climate, a wind rating up to 110 mph, and a lifetime limited warranty, with impact-resistant options in the line. On this Warren home the slate look does what a historic roof needs — it reads as an authentic, quality roof from the street and honors the age of the house — while the system underneath it, from the WinterGuard membrane through the balanced ventilation, carries the roof to its full modern life. It is the combination a historic homeowner is really after: the character of slate and the protection of a contemporary roofing system, installed to a specification that qualifies for CertainTeed’s strongest coverage.

Project Photo Gallery

The finished Highland Slate roof on the historic Warren home

Highland Slate’s random-cut profile up close — the look of natural slate

The complex gabled roofline that a slate-look shingle handles cleanly

Good To Know: Why choose Highland Slate for a historic home instead of natural slate?

Because a slate-look asphalt shingle gives a historic home the appearance it deserves without the burdens that make natural slate impractical for most houses. Genuine quarried slate is beautiful and long-lived, but it is extremely heavy — often requiring the roof framing to be reinforced before it can even be installed — it is brittle and easily cracked underfoot during any future repair, and it is one of the most expensive roofs money can buy. CertainTeed Highland Slate captures the look that matters: a dimensional, random-cut profile with the depth and shadow line of a real slate roof, so from the street the home reads exactly as it should. But because it is a fiberglass-based asphalt shingle, it weighs a fraction of stone and goes on the existing framing, it will not shatter, and it costs far less to install and to maintain. On a home like this Warren house, that means the period character is preserved and the roof carries a modern Class A fire rating, algae resistance, and a lifetime limited warranty — the best of both eras in one roof.

Why This Approach Works

Historic roofs leak at their transitions, not in the open field — the many valleys, dormer sidewalls, and gable junctions of a Victorian-era roof each need layered metal flashing and ice-and-water membrane. Running the water barrier through every one of those junctions, and coursing a slate-look shingle carefully up complex planes, is what keeps the roof dry and keeps the lines true to the home’s original character.

Why Pinnacle

A historic re-roof rewards a contractor certified at the top of the manufacturer’s program and experienced with complex, multi-plane roofs. As a CertainTeed ShingleMaster™ Premier contractor, Pinnacle qualifies our customers for CertainTeed’s full SureStart™ PLUS extended warranty — coverage most contractors cannot offer. We’ve served Rhode Island since 2012, hold a 5.0-star Google rating across 100+ reviews and an A+ BBB rating — see our full credentials.

Warren, Rhode Island

Warren is a compact, walkable East Bay town whose downtown and neighborhoods are among the best-preserved in Rhode Island, full of 19th-century homes that give the place its character. Roofing here is as much about respecting that character as protecting the house — a roof that looks wrong on a historic home diminishes the whole streetscape, while one that looks right adds to it. A slate-look shingle like Highland Slate lets a Warren homeowner keep faith with the age of the house and still get a roof engineered for the next few decades of New England weather. Explore our work across Warren roofing services.