The shingle roof turns them into fairytale houses

Not long ago we presented a beautiful house in Englandwhat we usually call a cottage. An old house, beautifully restored, covered with reeds. It was the way peasants used to roof their houses in the past, a roof that has become synonymous with 'cottage' and has been adopted in more and more countries in Europe. But there are situations where this material is not available. A company in the US, where reed is not a readily available raw material, achieves the same effect using curved shingle.

Around 1920, European styles of house building - Tudor (England), Norman or Costwold (France) - began to be adopted in the USA. These were those houses modeled on the peasant house, with beams built into the masonry but exposed, varnished and with a thatched roof. In America, reed was a rare material, but red cedar shingles were widely used. Creo-DIPT, a company that wanted to replicate the reed roof as closely as possible, began to study the roof lines and, in order to reproduce them, developed the shingle system curved by steaming.

The system was a great success, and soon all sorts of European-looking houses were springing up all over America, with roofs made of curved shingles that perfectly mimic the waves and bumps of the thatched roof. Unfortunately, during the Great Depression (1929-1939) the company went bankrupt. What remained, however, was a plethora of houses covered with curved shingles and the American love of shingles.

In the 1980s there was an acute need for a new company to manufacture shingles and professionally execute curved roofs. Old houses, now historic, were beginning to deteriorate and needed to be restored as faithfully as possible. It was the perfect time for Custom Shingles to make an appearance. The first project, in 1982, was a 60-year-old house and was made with curved shingles using his own methods and equipment.

The project was a great success and brought them national recognition. Shortly after completion they patented the steam bending equipment they used. Due to the publicity around the restored house, they started a huge campaign to restore the roofs of old houses.

Restored old houses have sparked people's interest in shingle roofing again. There have been projects that have changed the sober, "settled" appearance of the old houses,

turning it into a fairy tale.

Before work begins, the roofs are carefully studied. Each piece of shingle is chosen to fit and placed exactly where it is needed to create the wave effect,

or to make a house look like Lord of the Ring.

The company has built and remodeled all kinds of homes. The cottage roofing system - Country Cottage Roof - has become well known in the US and beyond. There are works all over the world, even in Japan, and the system is being studied at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.