Comparing Copper to Synthetics (No, Really)

A potential customer shopping for his new roof received a bid for a Da Vinci product, which is pretty much a type of polymer substrate binding some inert bulking materials and formed to simulate wood shake or slate shingles. The Da Vinci product is yet another in a series of synthetic, imitation roof products that have entered the market over the last 25 years or so.

It's interesting to note that the history of these imitation products is very spotty. In fact, the list of spectacular failures is impressively long:

Cal Shake
Cemwood (Weyerhauser)
Everest (another try at a polymer substrate)
Mira Vista (Owens Corning)

Do a little Googling on these terms and you’ll discover some remarkably common threads, but primarily every single one of them were brought to the market as new, better than what they were copying, longer lasting, light weight, fire resistant, etc. etc. Every single one of them had a 50 year (or longer!) warranty – and every single one of them is gone from the market, leaving behind bad roofs and lawsuits. My (very strong) opinion is that if you want something that looks like wood, buy wood. If you want something that looks like slate, then buy slate. To me the synthetics are mostly marketing and salesmanship efforts.At least the brochures are pretty. Of course, it’s hardly a challenge to make the photograph of a new roof look good!

Exhibit A: photo of my neighbor’s roof. They bought a product advertising “GE Noryl Resin” “Lifetime Warranty” etc, etc. in 1993. You can see the result of this wonderful new polymer technology’s exposure to mother nature for 15 years. This product was another attempt to create an artificial copy of a natural product. It failed, and now my neighbor needs another roof after “investing” in this wonderful new technology just a few years ago.

Now please understand that I am not predicting that this is the inevitable outcome for the Da Vinci product. I am merely pointing out that is another in a long line of products attempting similar construction. Like the others mentioned, it’s only been on the market for 7 or 8 years and it’s too soon to tell if they have it now figured out. Maybe they do. The question I ask is, “Why would someone want to be a guinea pig for them?” Keep in mind that the piece of paper on which their warranty is written will not keep a single drop of water out of your house 10 years from now if their product suffers the same fate as all of the earnest efforts of the past. If it were one quarter of the price of the real thing, I could understand taking the risk, but it’s not even insignificantly cheaper.

My confidence in my materials is due to the abundance of certainty with regards to roofs: Metal roofs literally have centuries of proven performance. There are more than 1,000 years of experience to proclaim that a properly installed copper roof will last many generations on your home. No doubt about it.