Custom Homes

Custom roofing starts in the plan set, not on the deck. The roof plan sets the geometry, the wall sections set the eave and rake conditions, and the detail sheets — if they exist — set what happens at the crickets, the transitions, and the terminations. Reading those before framing goes up is how conflicts get found while they are still cheap: a valley that dies into a wall with nowhere to go, a dormer cheek that lands on a plane change, a chimney chase drawn without a saddle behind it.

The single most consequential drawing decision is weight. Concrete tile, clay tile, and natural slate carry several times the dead load of asphalt shingles, and framing sized for shingles will not accept them. If the design intent is tile or slate, the structure has to be engineered for it before a rafter is cut — retrofitting that decision after framing is expensive and sometimes not possible at all.

• Dormers. Every dormer adds two roof-to-wall transitions, two valleys or a valley and a hip, and a head condition above the window. The cheek walls need step flashing woven course by course, and the point where the dormer roof dies into the main plane is the detail that decides whether the dormer leaks.
• Turrets and conical roofs. A cone has no two identical courses. Slate, shake, and composite can be swept around a radius with tapered courses; tile requires purpose-made radius pieces; metal requires tapered panels cut and seamed on site.
• Radius eaves and swept valleys. A rolled eave or a woven-swept valley is a traditional slate and shake detail that has to be built rather than trimmed, and it dictates the framing and sheathing beneath it.
• Material transitions. A standing-seam metal bay roof meeting a shingle or tile field needs a proper terminal detail with a transition flashing, room for the metal to move, and a clean visual line — not a bead of sealant where two systems meet.
• Crickets and saddles. Any chimney wide enough to dam water needs a cricket behind it; residential code requires a cricket or saddle behind chimneys wider than thirty inches measured along the roof slope. The same logic applies to any wall that interrupts water running down a plane.
• Kickout flashing. Where a roof edge terminates against a wall above a gutter, a kickout diverts the water into the gutter instead of behind the siding. It is the most commonly omitted flashing in residential construction and one of the most expensive omissions, because the damage happens inside the wall.

Material choice on a custom home is an architectural decision with practical consequences on both sides. Natural slate and clay tile give an authenticity that nothing imitates perfectly, last generations, and demand structure and skilled installation to match. Composite slate and shake give the profile and shadow line at a fraction of the weight, install with standard tools, and carry impact ratings that matter in hail country. Concrete tile offers profile and color range with real mass. Copper is chosen as much for how it ages as for how it performs.

CMAC installs clay from Ludowici, MCA, Verea, and Crown; concrete tile from Crown and the other tile lines; natural slate; composite slate and shake from DaVinci Roofscapes, Brava Tile, and Inspire Roofing Products; and high-temperature synthetic underlayment from Sharkskin beneath tile and metal, where deck temperatures run far above what standard underlayment tolerates.

On a custom home the roof touches almost everyone. The framer has to deliver the planes, crickets, and backing the details assume. The mason sets the chimney and has to leave a reglet for counterflashing rather than a smooth face. The sheet metal for gutters, valley pans, chimney caps, and finials has to be specified as one package so profiles and metals match instead of arriving from three sources. Solar mounting and rooftop mechanicals need their penetrations planned into the roof rather than drilled into it later. And galvanic pairing matters: copper fastened with steel, or copper draining onto galvanized, will corrode.

CMAC is veteran-owned, GAF Master Elite® certified, and an NRCA member, and works with custom builders and architects across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Georgia.