Clay Tile Roofing for Luxury DFW Homes

DW CONSTRUCTION

Clay Tile Roofing — Built to Last a Century

Clay tile roofing is one of the oldest and most proven roofing systems in the world — and for good reason. Fired from natural clay, these tiles are dimensionally stable, impervious to rot and insect damage, and capable of lasting 75 to 100 years when properly installed. For luxury homes in Fort Worth, Southlake, Westlake, Colleyville, and Flower Mound, clay tile represents the pinnacle of permanent roofing investment.

DW Construction installs clay tile roofing systems for high-value residential properties across the DFW Metroplex. Every installation is engineered for North Texas conditions — accounting for thermal movement, deck loading, and the high-wind and hail exposure that defines our weather environment. We handle HOA documentation and architectural review submissions as part of every project.

Clay is one of three tile systems we install — our tile roofing hub compares all three, and our concrete tile roofing page covers the other fired-and-cured option. It is also a cornerstone of the luxury roofing work we do across the metroplex. Many clay-tile homes also include flat sections over porches and decks — a separate low-slope system we install and tie into the tile ourselves; see our flat & low-slope roofing page for those details.

LUDOWICI

Ludowici Tile, and Why It Is Still on DFW Roofs

Ludowici tile is natural terra cotta clay, kiln-fired — not concrete and not a composite. It is the clay tile you will find on the oldest tiled roofs still standing in Fort Worth, and it is still in production today, made in New Lexington, Ohio, at the same plant the company has operated since 1909.

The color is the first thing to understand, because it is the reason these roofs have not faded since before the war. On glazed Ludowici products, the color is a ceramic glaze kiln-fired at extreme temperature so it fuses into the tile. On natural unglazed terra cotta, the color is the fired clay body itself and runs all the way through. Either way the color is not a surface coating — which is why nothing painted or coated will ever match one of these roofs, and why a Ludowici roof installed in the 1920s still holds its color.

Every Ludowici tile is ASTM C1167 Grade 1 certified — the highest of three grades for weathering and breakage resistance. Grade 1 tile absorbs under 2% of its weight in water, and absorbed moisture is exactly what cracks and spalls clay tile during freeze-thaw, so that low absorption is the whole reason these roofs survive North Texas winters. The tile carries a Class A fire rating, and Ludowici backs it with a 75-year warranty against manufacturing defects from initial installation.

One detail we check on every inspection: the stamp on the underside of the tile. “Ludowici-Celadon” is not a product line — it is the company’s former name. The Ludowici and Celadon companies merged in 1906 to form Ludowici-Celadon, and the company carried that name until 1994, when it became Ludowici Roof Tile. So a tile stamped Ludowici-Celadon on the underside was manufactured between 1906 and 1994. On a pre-war Fort Worth estate, that stamp usually means you are looking at the home’s original roof.

The “LUDOWICI-CELADON” stamp impressed into the underside of a tile taken off a Westover Hills roof — the mark we look for first on every inspection.

Ludowici sorts its shake-look tile into two families, and the distinction matters when you are matching an old roof. “Shake tile” is a current category containing only modern interlocking products. “Shingle tile” is the family that historic shake-profile tile belongs to — a list of roughly a dozen older profiles, each with its own dimensions and texture. The shake-profile shingle tile we repaired on a recent Westover Hills roof belongs to that older shingle-tile family, not to the modern interlocking shake category. We identify the exact profile from the tile itself rather than guessing, because a wrong profile reads as a patch from the street forever.