Roofing material and style can showcase when a home was built and impart architectural heritage to a home. Not only does your historic home’s roofing help keep the building whole, it defines the style and aesthetic of your home.
Here in Portland, we have a huge number of historic homes. Our Pacific Northwest city was founded in 1851, which means we have a wide range when it comes to architectural style. Additionally, early Portlanders worked hard to build our city and architectural accomplishments were commonly featured in the front page of daily newspapers.
By the 1910’s Portland was populated with homes and buildings featuring styles like Art Nouveau, California, Colonial, Craftsman, Dutch, English Tudor, Gothic, Japanese, Mission, Queen Anne, and Spanish. This incredible variety remains today.
Portland Roofing Materials
With the wealth of historic homes in Portland comes a wide variety of building and roofing materials. Here’s a quick snapshot of what has been available both here and throughout America throughout the years:
The earliest type of roofing materials to be used in America were clay tile, shingles, and thatch. Often, the type of roofing material depended upon the wealth of the individual homeowner.
Metal roofing as we see it today came with the turn of the 19th century. Before the 1900s there were roofs made of lead and copper – often used as flashing material at junctures where clay or wood left a gap.
Portland homes didn’t have long to wait for the advent of asphalt shingles. They started being used in the 1890s. This form of roofing is the most common type you’ll see around the city.
Because there is such a wide variety of architectural styles in Portland, roofing companies have had to learn how to utilize all sorts of roofing materials – from materials matching a historic home to those which are appropriate for a more modern look. Be sure you discuss the type of material any roofing professional proposes when doing a roofing project.