Royal Elk Villas latest Colorado community to replace roofing system

By Kathy Ziprik, Rocky Mountain Snow Guards.

Roofing products that have the aesthetic appeal projects need with the long-term reliability customers depend on.

Sadly, town home and condo communities in Beaver Creek, Colorado are following a trend. Due to the high volume of snow and temperature ranges each year, a good number of units constructed with concrete tile need to replace their roofing. In recent years, the solution has been to change out the cracked concrete with durable composite roofing and snow retention systems. Most recently, the 15 luxurious Royal Elk Villas, built in 2012, faced the same problem. The area averages about 20 feet of snow each season. Every spring broken tiles would need to be replaced. Heavy snow loads, ice dams, shifting snow, ice pack and rooftop traffic all contribute to the breaking tiles.

The Royal Elk Villas homeowners association brought in Ascent Building Consulting to recommend a roofing replacement. Based on their successful past experiences with the product, the consultant specified DaVinci Roofscapes™ Single-Width Slate composite roofing. Steve Bunn, RRC, RRO, president of Ascent Building Consulting, Inc. out of Castle Rock, Colorado explained, “The DaVinci product has a good resistance to freeze-thaw cycling, it’s been used long-standing in this community with a proven performance record. We’ve specified it on several projects with outstanding long-term results.”

Due to the slippery nature of composite roofing, Steve was also asked to recommend additional snow retention support for the roofing system. He chose Rocky Mountain Snow Guards and requested the company develop a comprehensive snow retention coverage plan for the roofs of all 15 town homes. He asked for a pattern increase up to the next roof slope to help with the best possible snow retention.

4,510 snow guards added

"The plan supplied by Rocky Mountain Snow Guards included 4,510 RG 16 copper snow guards,” says Karla Ferguson, vice president of J&K Roofing, out of Golden, Colorado. She went on, explaining, “Our team installed them during the DaVinci roof installation. We applied them in a soldier row pattern. This is an aggressive pattern proven to hold snow on the roof better than the better-known spread pattern. These snow guards, combined with the snow bars at the roof eaves, should control the snow melt.”

Other town home and condo communities in Beaver Creek have found success with the combination of DaVinci roofing and Rocky Mountain Snow Guards products in the past decade. The Meadows, The Pines Lodge, The Borders Lodge and Highland Slopeside are all communities that suffered from deteriorating concrete tiles. After the original roofing was replaced with synthetic roofing and snow guards, their problems were solved.

The DaVinci product is successful in the mountain communities because the composite product stays flexible well below freezing. This means it doesn’t get damaged by rooftop traffic, or snow and ice movement. With the new composite roofing tiles in place at Royal Elk Villas, the town homes and their owners are now prepared for decades of worry-free roof maintenance. Speaking to the pairing of products, Karla explained that “We’ve installed DaVinci roofing a number of times with Rocky Mountain Snow Guards. Both companies have quality-made in America products. These roofing products have the aesthetic appeal our projects need with the long-term reliability our customers depend on.”