Leaders Roofing is a certified Brava installer. Here is what that means for your roof, and how we quote Brava against the other composite tiles worth putting on an estate home.
We completed Brava's installation training program and hold their certification. We are not enrolled in a paid preferred-installer tier with Brava or with any other manufacturer, which is deliberate: it means nothing is steering the recommendation we give you except the house in front of us.
Brava Roof Tile makes composite roofing designed to read as cedar, slate or clay barrel tile without behaving like any of them in a Chicagoland winter. The tiles are compression molded, which means the masters are taken off real pieces of cedar, slate and clay, so the surface carries the irregularity of the original material rather than a modelled approximation of it. On a large uninterrupted roof plane that difference is the whole argument, because the eye never finds the repeat.
We quote Brava on estate-class projects across the North Shore, Lake County and the Barrington area, usually against DaVinci Roofscapes and occasionally against EcoStar. Our head-to-head write-ups are in Brava vs DaVinci and the three-way in DaVinci vs Brava vs EcoStar. If you are weighing composite against the real thing, the cedar shake page covers natural Western Red Cedar.
Composite tile is not only a single-family product. Townhome and HOA communities where every building has to match, clubhouses, and churches run premium composite for the same reasons an estate owner does: the look of cedar or slate, a fraction of the weight of the real material, and a maintenance profile a board can actually budget for. We install Brava on residential and commercial roofs alike. The institutional side is covered on our church and institutional roofing page.
Three profiles, plus the pigment process that separates Brava from most of the composite field.
The profile Brava is best known for in this market. Compression molded from masters taken off real hand-split cedar, so the face carries the irregularity of the original wood rather than a modelled approximation of it. It gives a Tudor or English country home the cedar look without the maintenance rhythm, the moss, or the fire-code conversation that natural cedar brings with it in some jurisdictions.
A composite slate profile in multiple widths, so a roof can be laid with randomized coursing instead of a visible grid. It weighs a fraction of natural slate, which means it does not demand the structural review that a true slate roof does on a house that was not framed for it.
The profile that settles its own argument. If the house is Mediterranean, Spanish Colonial Revival, or anything else originally roofed in clay barrel, Brava is one of very few composite manufacturers producing a barrel profile at all, so the choice is usually made by elimination rather than by preference.
Brava disperses mineral pigments with UV inhibitors through the full thickness of the tile rather than laying color on the surface. This is the difference that shows up in year eight, not on installation day: a cut edge, a chipped corner, or a scuff from a service call matches the face instead of exposing a different color underneath.
Manufacturer badges get oversold in this trade, so here is the plain version.
Brava's training is about installation detail: fastening patterns, valley and rake treatment, slope minimums and underlayment, and blending color across pallets so a finished roof does not band. On a roof meant to last fifty years these are the items that fail first. Material defects are rare. Installation defects are not.
It does not alter Brava's 50-year limited warranty, which covers the tile against defined material defects regardless of who installs it. And it is not a paid preferred-installer tier, so it buys you no special pricing and it buys us no rebate for steering you here.
Yes. We completed Brava's installation training program and hold their certification. One distinction is worth making, because the trade blurs it constantly: a manufacturer certification is training you earn by passing their program. A preferred-installer tier is a paid membership with volume commitments attached. We hold the first and not the second, with Brava or with anyone else, which is exactly why we will still tell you when a different tile suits your house better.
Not the material warranty, and you should be skeptical of anyone who tells you otherwise about this product. Brava publishes a 50-year limited warranty on its tile for residential use, covering the tile against defined material defects on defined terms, prorated in defined ways, and it applies regardless of who installs it. What the training changes is the installation: fastening patterns, valley and rake treatment, and color blending across pallets so the roof does not band. Those are the workmanship items, they are ours to get right, and on a roof meant to last this long they are what fails first, not the tile.
It should not, and we have tried to structure things so it cannot. We are not enrolled in a paid preferred-installer tier with Brava or with any other manufacturer, so there is no volume commitment and no rebate steering the recommendation. We quote Brava against DaVinci and EcoStar on the same estimate, we bring full-size samples of each to the appointment, and we will tell you when one of the others suits your house better. On a Mediterranean roof Brava often wins by catalog, because of the barrel profile. On plenty of other houses it does not.
We do not publish a job total for premium composite on this site, because the spread across the homes we work on is too wide for a number to be useful to anyone. What moves the estimate is the profile and the color blend, the square count and how cut up the roof is, the linear feet of hip and ridge and what product those pieces are, whether solid tile or metal is specified at valleys and rakes, the flashing metal and gauge, and the tear-off and disposal of whatever is up there now. The written estimate is free and itemized before any work begins.
The relevant specifications are impact and fire. Brava's premium profiles are rated Class 4 for impact under UL 2218, the test where a steel ball is dropped on the material to see whether it cracks. That is the rating that matters after a Chicagoland hail season, and it qualifies most Illinois homeowner policies for a discount on the wind and hail portion of the premium. The tile can also be installed as part of a Class A fire-rated system, though that rating depends on the full assembly and the underlayment rather than on the tile alone. Both points should appear in writing on your estimate.
Brava is a steep-slope system. Four in twelve and up is standard practice. Three in twelve is generally the published minimum and requires a full self-adhered underlayment rather than a synthetic felt. If your roof is shallower than that, composite tile is the wrong product for it and we will say so at the estimate rather than after the tear-off.
We bring full-size samples of Brava, DaVinci and EcoStar to every premium estimate, and we will tell you which one we would put on your specific house and why. Free written estimate, itemized before any work begins.