This project completed in late 2025. The home is on the ocean side of Jupiter Island — full Atlantic exposure, mature hammock canopy on the back half. The roof is the third major element of the new construction we were involved with from the elevation phase forward.
The composition
The architect specified three materials from the start:
- Slate field across the primary house volume
- Copper at the hips, ridges, and turret cap on the entry tower
- Standing-seam metal on the two porch volumes — a quiet warm gray, low-pitch, intended to recede
Total roof area: 8,400 square feet. Slate: roughly 6,800 sq ft. Copper: roughly 600 sq ft of visible surface. Metal: 1,000 sq ft on two separate porches.
Why three materials
The architecture asked for it. The primary volume is a Spanish-influenced Mediterranean form with steep hip geometry; slate was the right field material. The entry tower is a small Federalist-influenced gesture that wanted gravitas at the top, which copper provides. The porches are low contemporary additions that needed to read as quieter elements — standing-seam metal in a recessive color does that work.
A single-material roof on this home would have been simpler and would have read as a developer build. The composition was deliberate.
The drainage discipline
Each catchment zone discharges to gutters that match the upstream metal. The slate field discharges to copper gutters (matching the hip metal). The porch metal discharges to its own painted aluminum gutters, matched to the porch panel color. No mixed metal in any drainage path.
The copper-to-painted-aluminum interface — where the entry tower's copper meets the porch — was detailed with a non-conductive separator strip; the two metals never touch directly.
The salt-air specifications
This is immediate Atlantic exposure. Every fastener on the roof is 316 stainless. Every flashing is the material of the field it serves. The slate is 0.75 cm thick (heavier than our standard) to better resist wind-uplift on the ocean-facing elevation.
Structural engineering
A sealed structural drawing covered the dead loads, wind loads, and attachment patterns. The home was new construction with framing specified from the outset for the heavier slate field; no retrofit was required. The engineer reviewed the framing, certified the wind-zone calculations, and signed the drawings.
Lead times
- Slate: 16 weeks from quarry order to delivery
- Copper: 8 weeks from fabricator (custom hip pattern)
- Standing-seam metal: 6 weeks
- All three on site simultaneously: critical for the install sequence
Timeline
22 months from first conversation to handover. About 9 months of that was lead-time for the slate and the custom copper; the actual installation period was 14 weeks.
What we are most proud of
The roof reads as a single composition from the beach, from the road, and from the air. The architect's intent — the steep slate primary, the copper jewel, the quiet metal porches — is legible. That is the work multi-material is meant to do.
Filed under