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Peebles Ceramic Roofing Tile – “Iridescent as the Rainbow”

Written by Renaissance Roofing, Inc. | Jun 12, 2013 9:39:00 PM

Renaissance Roofing is dedicated to historical roofing systems. Since 1992 our team has developed the systems and methodologies to restore your roof to perform for another century. To restore a historical roofing system back to its original condition you will need a company that is fully knowledgeable in the history of roofing installation and materials. This century old knowledge has been written and described in various mediums such as catalogs, brochures, flyers, poster and even books. To share this knowledge with you, Renaissance Roofing, Inc. has developed  a campaign to remember the past of historic roofing systems. Each week another century old brochure or catalog will be posted to show the past of our historic roofing systems across the United States. The first entry will be Peebles Ceramic Roofing Tile.

Peebles Ceramic Roofing Tile, “Iridescent as the Rainbow” has been developed in response to a definite, though somewhat inarticulate demand from architects who are specializing in the creation of homes of superlative beauty.

Peebles Ceramic Roofing Tile, “Iridescent as the Rainbow” has been developed in response to a definite, though somewhat inarticulate demand from architects who are specializing in the creation of homes of superlative beauty.

With the increasing attention that is being devoted to the roof as an architectural feature – often the feature from which the entire building derives its distinctive character – the scope of creative genius has been cramped by the limitations of the available media.

Peebles Ceramic Roofing Tiles places at the command of the architect and builder a new medium. It embodies all of the physical and mechanical qualities essential to practical construction, with the added and exclusive charm of varied forms and a blending of color values unlimited in range and subject to pre-determination by the architect.

Peebles Ceramic Roofing Tile 

Peebles Ceramic Roofing Tile is made of the famous Scioto Shale that for more than a quarter of a century has been the secret of the superiority and strength of Peebles Paving Brick, the hardest, toughest and most serviceable road-surfacing material in America.

The shale is thoroughly tempered before being put through the pressure machines that die out the individual tiles from patterns. The under side of each Manor Tile and Hand Split Tile is deeply cored and ribbed, giving extraordinary strength and rigidity. The butts vary from three-eighths to one inch in thickness, throwing a very heavy shadow line.

But the inimitable beauty of these roofing tiles is in their combination of form and color. In this way they are totally unlike any other roofing material.

Even the most perfect color effects derivable from any other form of roofing are conditioned upon the skill of the roofer rather than any inherent chromatic harmonies in the individual roofing units whether tile, slate, asbestos, composition or wood, in which each unit is a solid color. With any such materials the color value of the roof as an architectural whole is determined by the skill of the artisan in arranging these individual roofing units to produce a harmonious ensemble.

But each individual unit of Peebles Ceramic Tile is a chromatic masterpiece in itself. The ground color may be red or green or grey, brown, tan or blue, according to the color scheme of the architect. Only genuine ceramic colors are used. These colors are extremely delicate in their shading, and their gradations are enhanced in the firing. The high lights are applied by painstaking and very delicate operation that limits their application to the irregular surfaces.

The tiles are kiln burnt precisely like the finest of pottery and faience. The intense heat, carrying the incandescent gases of combustion through every part of the kilns in varying currents, produces chemical changes in the ceramic colors, bonding them permanently and unfadingly with the body of the tile. As they come out of the kilns no two tiles are identical in coloring. Each has its own blending of iridian hues, but the color tone of each lot is perfectly preserved.

The beauty of a roof made of Peebles Ceramic Roofing Tile is not dependent on the skill of the roofer. Each and every unit is a blend of iridescent beauty, and each tile blends naturally, necessarily, with every other tile.

Variety is secured by the graduation of sizes, not only in the lower course, where a certain percentage of oversize tiles is provided, but from gutter to ridge. These tiles are made, graduated in size, both as to length exposed to the weather and as to width. Random sizes and varied color blendings are standard delivery unless otherwise specified. And the coping, finials and trimmings are furnished individually marked for easy application.

Peebles Manor Tile

The iridescent character of the color blending is due to the exclusive method of applying the ceramic colors and of firing in kilns. These colors are chemically amalgamated with the body of the tile, unfading and imperishable.

The iridescent character of the color blending is due to the exclusive method of applying the ceramic colors and of firing in kilns. These colors are chemically amalgamated with the body of the tile, unfading and imperishable.

Peebles Manor Tile individually cast from patterns that reproduce with absolute fidelity the natural shapes and markings of genuine stone slabs. Laid in graduated sizes from the lowest courses to the ridge, with a “scattering” of odd pieces to break and intensify the heavy shadow lines, these tiles are considered by many authorities to be the most beautiful roofing material in the history of architecture.

The variety of sizes makes it possible to apply Peebles Manor Tiles in graduated dimensions from gutter to ridge while the occasional use of the odd sizes enhances the beauty of the roof, giving it the irregular appearance so much desired by the architect.

A “scattering” of special pieces in large and small sizes is furnished with each job. These are in varying thicknesses at the butts.

The variety of sizes makes it possible to apply Peebles Manor Tiles in graduated dimensions from gutter to ridge while the occasional use of the odd sizes enhances the beauty of the roof, giving it the irregular appearance so much so desired by the architect.

COLORS: The essential color tone of each run of Peebles Tiles is optional with the architect within the following latitude: Base colors may be …

Further variation in tone is produced by the particular method of firing in the kiln.

…blue, green, red, brown, grey or buff. Any base color may be high-lighted with any of the colors enumerated or with any combination in these colors. Further variation in tone is produced by the particular method of firing in the kiln. Solid colors will be furnished on specification.


Peebles Hand-Split Tiles offer to the architect every desirable characteristic of hand-made wooden shingles with none of their disadvantages or limitations.

Peebles Hand-Split Tiles offer to the architect every desirable characteristic of hand-made wooden shingles with none of their disadvantages or limitations. The natural beauty of grain is reproduced with absolute fidelity. The irregularities of exposed surface also conform to those of the hand-split wood originals. Color values are pre-determined and permanent.

The use of these tiles permits the architect to secure “wood effects” in building zones that do not permit the installation of wooden roofing materials. These tiles are made, not for a life-time of service or for a generation, but for the life of the building. Owing to their thickness they throw shadow lines of unusual depth.

These tiles have the interlocking feature with a valley approximately one half inch between tiles. There is a dam below the nail holes near the top of each tile, insuring protection from the weather.

These tiles have the interlocking feature with a valley approximately one half inch between tiles. There is a dam below the nail holes near the top of each tile, insuring protection from the weather.

This pattern meets a very specific architectural need, particularly in connection with houses of colonial design. It is an exact reproduction of genuine old fashioned hand-split “shakes”. Owing to the great strength of the material and to the deep coring and ridging of the under side, these tiles may be laid with full nine inches to the weather. Their thickness insures a shadow line commensurate with their length.

In common with Peebles Manor Tile and Antique, these Hand-Split Tiles can be furnished in solid blue, green, red, brown, grey, or buff when the architectural scheme calls for the massing of strong colors. In most cases, however, the iridescent effects are preferred. These can be secured, using any of the above base colors with highlights of any other color listed or any combination of them.

Peebles Antique Tile 

Nature, aided by the elements through long periods of time, often imparts to the handiwork of the builder a charm that man cannot secure without her assistance. Not the least of the evils the architect is called upon to avoid is that of giving the appearance of newness where the setting of the building suggests venerable antiquity.

Peebles Antique Tile, patterned direct from age-old wooden roofing shakes, gnawed by the teeth of Time and colored by the sunshine and the rainfall of generations, furnishes to the architect a roofing medium that is as unique as it is beautiful. These tiles may be laid irregularly, enhancing the beauty of the shadow lines.

Peebles Antique Tiles are made 16 inches long and in random widths to give exposure at the option of the architect. Thickness approximately one half inch. Weight per square 1,000 to 1,500 lbs.

COLORS: Base color may be blue, green, red, brown, grey, or buff. Highlights of any other color listed or any combination of them.

This design, however, is offered primarily for the use on buildings that are planned to stimulate the effects of natural weathering. Shading of brown and grey highlighted with moss green will generally be found most effective.

Peebles Antique Tiles are made 16 inches long and in random widths to give exposure at the option of the architect. Thickness approximately one half inch. Weight per square 1,000 to 1,500 lbs.

As with all Peebles Roofing Tiles, the Antique Tiles are individually made to the architect’s plans for each installation. All tiles for valleys and other irregular roof lines are marked for the guidance of the roofer in making the installation. Ridge pieces, finials, etc., are included in the delivery.