☎ Call 612-255-9605 | speak to a real person
Minneapolis, MN 55421 | local, licensed & insured · Lic# BC630708
☎ Call 612-255-9605 | speak to a real person
Minneapolis, MN 55421 | local, licensed & insured · Lic# BC630708
Lifetime Roofs · Modern Slate & Metal · Twin Cities
Some homeowners want to buy their last roof. Synthetic slate with the beauty of the quarry and none of its fragility; stone-coated steel that shrugs off hail seasons – installed by crews who treat an estate material like an estate material. For the house you’re never leaving, or simply the roof you never want to think about again.
30+ years of Twin Cities roofing · Local crews, start to finish · Master-carpenter detailing · MN Lic. # BC630708
Most roofing talk inflates lifespans. This page is the exception where big numbers are real: modern synthetic slate and stone-coated steel systems are engineered for 50-year-class service, roughly the lifetime of two asphalt roofs, with the warranties to match. They cost more up front and repay it in durability, hail resistance, insurance conversations, and the particular pleasure of never joining the neighbors’ re-roofing rotation. Premium, but inclusive: these roofs go on lakeside estates, and they also go on well-loved ramblers whose owners plan to stay.
Engineered composite tiles – DaVinci and comparable premium lines – that carry authentic slate or shake texture and shadow lines at a fraction of the natural material’s weight. These products typically bring high resistance to impact, splitting, and cracking, a Class A fire rating, and a true lifetime warranty. These are serious credentials in a hail-prone metro area. Most homes can take synthetic slate or composite shake without structural reinforcement, which is what makes the estate look attainable on an ordinary framing package. One thing is imperative with 50-year materials: installing exactly to manufacturer specifications and Minnesota building code, which is precisely the discipline we’re known for.
Real stone, quarried today, installed with modern, up-to-code methods – modern underlayments, flashing systems, and fastening on structure verified for the load. Genuine hundred-year material, for the homeowner and home ready for it.
We install and replace modern slate (synthetic and newly quarried natural), and we repair modern slate systems. We do not repair or renovate historic, original slate roofs. That century-old craftsmanship is its own specialist trade, and pretending otherwise is how irreplaceable roofs get ruined; if that’s your roof, we’ll say so and point you toward interviewing dedicated classic-slate specialists. We do perform certain maintenance on other classic roof systems, and we work on historic homes wherever a district-approvable modern roof is the right answer, so it’s always worth a call. You’ll get the truth about which situation you have, free.
All the reasons homeowners ask about metal roofing- longevity, hail toughness, snow-shedding, fire resistance can be delivered in a form that looks like architecture instead of agriculture. Stone-coated steel panels are extremely durable yet lightweight, low-maintenance, energy-efficient, and designed for 50-plus years of service, carrying the profile of shake, tile, or slate with a granular finish that kills the “shiny barn” effect. They’re the metal system we install and stand behind, and we also repair metal panel roofs of most types. If you’ve been picturing exposed-fastener farm panel on your colonial, come see stone-coated samples first… It’s a different conversation.
Nothing beats the look of the real thing, and we install the real thing: taper-sawn wood shake, terra-cotta clay s-tile, and newly quarried natural slate. One recent example is a grey Vermont slate roof finished with a clean, non-capped ridge. You trade some of the synthetics’ versatility for authenticity, and for the right home that trade is exactly the point. Every traditional system goes on with modern underlayments, flashing, and fastening, to manufacturer specification and Minnesota code… authentic materials, current methods.
Slate, tile, and steel shed snow differently than asphalt, often all at once, in a dangerous collapse of snow on the ground. Part of a correct lifetime-roof installation in Minnesota is planning for that: snow-retention (falling-snow protection) over doorways and walks, and ice-dam strategy built into the eave detail from day one. We spec it with the roof, not as an afterthought after the first slide.
When a North Saint Paul suburb estate wanted the drama of a red slate roof with modern performance, the answer was a DaVinci synthetic red slate system. As a quarry color, engineered material, detailed by our crews with master-carpenter trim work to match, it’s the kind of project that shows what “lifetime” looks like from the curb. Photos and full project story ⟢ (blog link on publish).
In St. Paul’s historic districts and on heritage-minded blocks (Summit Hill, Edina’s Country Club District), material approvals and streetscape fit matter. Modern slate is frequently the district-appropriate path; period profile, contemporary code compliance, and we handle the material judgment and the permit process together. (More on our historic-home work: St. Paul & Ramsey hub →.)
At Right Away Construction, five-star service is the standard… not the goal.
Meaningfully more up front. Typically three to five times an architectural asphalt system depending on the roof. We’ll price your actual roof both ways so the comparison is real, not brochure math.
For synthetic slate, almost certainly. It weighs a fraction of stone and most framing takes it without reinforcement. For newly quarried natural slate, we verify structure first, every time. Either way you’ll know before you decide.
We repair modern slate systems, synthetic and newly quarried installations. Historic, original slate repair is a specialist’s craft we honestly refer out; we’d rather protect a century-old roof than practice on it. We do perform certain maintenance on classic roofs, so call and we’ll tell you which you have.
No, that’s exposed-fastener agricultural panel. Stone-coated steel reads as shake, tile, or slate from the street; most visitors never realize it’s metal. Samples make the case in about ten seconds.
Far less of one. Synthetic slate and stone-coated steel carry the strongest impact classes in residential roofing, which some insurers recognize with premium credits. Nothing is hail-proof in Minnesota, but this is as close as roofing gets.
Sample boards on your kitchen table, honest numbers both ways, and a lifetime-class roof installed like it’s meant to outlast us both.
Right Away Construction · Roofing · Siding · Exterior Renovation · Twin Cities, MN · MN Lic. # BC630708
