Villa del Sol — restoring a 1927 clay tile roof, tile by tile

Villa del Sol is a 1927 Mediterranean revival in Denver's Country Club neighborhood, and its clay tile roof is original — which is exactly why the owners refused a tear-off-and-replace bid that would have sent 96-year-old tile to a landfill. The tiles themselves were mostly sound; the underlayment beneath them, installed when Coolidge was president, was not.

Our crew lifted and palletized the field tiles by hand, replaced the underlayment with a modern two-layer self-adhered system, re-flashed the chimneys and valleys in copper, and relaid the original tile — swapping cracked pieces with color-matched salvage stock from the same era. From the street, nothing changed. Underneath, the roof is watertight for another half-century.

“Every other contractor wanted to rip off our original tile and sell us something new. Ridgeline saved it — and the copper valleys are so beautiful I almost wish they showed more.”

— Elena Vasquez-Moreno, Denver