Overview
Ludowici Roof Tile
Ludowici is a manufacturer of terra cotta and clay roof tile. Its tiles are made in New Lexington, Ohio, at a plant on Tile Plant Road, and the company states that locally sourced materials come from about five miles away. Showrooms are located in New Lexington, Dallas, Atlanta, South Florida, Southern California, Miami and Canada. The company was formerly named Ludowici Roof Tile and dropped “Roof Tile” from its name in 2015 to reflect its wider terra cotta range.
The company’s product range is organized into roof tile, roof accessories, flooring and wall cladding. The roof tile category is divided into barrel, shingle, interlocking, shake, slate, graduated and tapered, historic and imported tile. Roof accessories include hip and ridge systems, decorative accessories and trade goods. Flooring covers quarry tile and Ciot Legno. A Select Series is also listed.
The Technical Library records for Ludowici cover 42 named roof tile and cladding products. Cladding products are the NeXclad series: NeXclad 16, NeXclad 14 and NeXclad True. Slate and shake textured tiles include LudoSlate, LudoShake and Century Shake. Shingle and interlocking profiles include the Williamsburg 16 and 14, Lanai 16 and 14, Classic 16 and 14, Americana 16 and 14, Morando Closed Shingle, French, Languedocienne, Provincial, Norman, Greenwich, Georgian, Colonial, Calais, Brittany and Cotswold. Barrel and Mission profiles include Tapered Barrel Mission 14, Straight Barrel Mission 18, 16 and 14, Palm Beach Mission, Spanish 18, Spanish 13, Roman, Italia, Greek, Cubana and Scandia. Historic and textured profiles include Rustic Colonial, Flat Slab, Crude, Cottage, Antique and others.
The company offers over 50 standard designer colors and can match many other colors on request. Textures replicate traditional terra cotta surfaces, and many are applied by hand. Ludowici states a 75-year non-prorated material warranty, including color, on every tile it produces. A separate Shield Warranty is available only through Ludowici Crown Roofers.
Ludowici lists architects, designers, homeowners, universities, commercial clients and government clients among its customers, and states that it ships in the United States and globally. Wall cladding under the NeXclad name is handled through its subsidiary Terreal North America.
Relevant manufacturer history
The Ludowici name traces to the Ludovisi family of Rome, who made clay roof tile roughly 400 years ago. Carl Ludowici founded the Ludowici Tileworks in Ensheim, Germany, in 1857, and it later moved to Jockgrim. In 1888 the Celadon Terra Cotta Company was formed in Alfred, New York. In 1893 Franz Ludowici, one of Carl's sons, found American investors and formed the Ludowici Roofing Tile Company in Chicago.
Celadon bought the Imperial Clay Company, including its New Lexington, Ohio, factory, in 1905. Ludowici and Celadon merged in 1906 to form Ludowici-Celadon, and the New Lexington plant became the largest clay roof tile plant in the United States. The company bought a plant in Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1908; that plant closed in 1956. CSC, Inc. of Chicago purchased Ludowici-Celadon in 1976, and CertainTeed, a division of Saint-Gobain, bought it in 1989. It was renamed Ludowici Roof Tile in 1994.
Management passed to Terreal in 2003, the year the company introduced the Impressionist Series and the NeXclad wall cladding system. In 2012 it introduced a lightweight terra cotta roof tile in slate and shake textures. It rebranded in 2015, and opened a Dallas Design Center in 2019.
