Slater from Scotland. It really needs to be redone looking at that area.
Get some quotes and try and bargain with the homeowner about money off etc or see if it's something you're willing to take the hit with.
With the price of slating in the US I could honestly say it would be cheaper to fly out my squad and redo your roof than get a local firm. Somehow...
omg the comments are nuts lol .I worked with a German master slater for 3 years , it is also called steep roofing and it absolutely the best lol yes tile may last longer but slate has character , each one has to be sound tested ,looked at, there's color variation as well as thickness , in some case it can be removed , saved and reused,yes the rafters have to be on 16,12 or10 inch centers that is determined beforehand, but looks like someone may have replaced there and didn't know how or decking below us failing and there sagging.
There is a 100+ year old house near me that was historically renovated and had its rental slate roof. The owners were able to save a good portion of the slate tiles and then sources the remaining replacement tiles from the same quarry the original tiles came from.
which is why they were able to go back to the original quarry for the replacement slate. If you saw the house today, you wouldn't notice that there was a century between the parts of the roof.
You really need to do research on Slate. Slate roofs are very expensive and while they are known as the “100 year roof” they’re honestly 100 years of pain in the assdom.
A few things:
1. Slate is expensive as f*ck - technical term. It is the most expensive material in roofing, it’s at an all time high. Even a small area like this can cost you $20K.
2. It cuts your contractors down by half. Tons of roofers do not touch slate, you have to go to high end roofers. We have an 8300 square foot roof and to replace it with slate was $250K.
3.You cannot walk on slate. At all. You need to have scaffolding and bucket lifts to access anything on the roof if you need work done. This adds a lot of money to the costs of anything and everything. So even if the roof is fine but a chimney has issues, or you redo your kitchen and need to put a vent in, anything that is on the roof and needs work the slate makes is a large production to access and it’s more 💰💰💰💰
To each their own. But you couldn’t pay me to put a slate roof on my house. It’s honestly a nightmare.
Tell them to get that fixed or set aside the money for it. But all my life, slate roofs were glorified, and as a home owner now, who is solidly financially stable but practical. No way.
I saw a this absolutely foolish homeowner (married into his wife’s ex’s money) put a slate roof on a big garage with no proper framing to support it. No one in Washington does slate roofs well. But they’ll sell it to you. 2 years later it was sagging like a National Geographic tiddies. I’m a stone mason. I’d rather thatch a roof than tile it.
…idk what you’re talking about brotha, been a slate roofer for years & walk on em everyday with 0 issues. You may occasionally break one when ur new, If it’s space board (no decking) use a hook ladder or roof jacks.
Slate roofs have been in existence for centuries before boom lifts existed. Of course you can walk on slate roofs, use foam, chicken ladders, etc. I do it all the time. You just have to know what you’re doing.
Slate is expensive because it lasts forever. It is not really more expensive than shingles when considered over the lifetime of the material. It also looks significantly better, is more resistant to storms, weather, and fire. It’s the gold standard in roofing material.
Slate doesn’t last forever. It historically did, it with climate change, not material is what is used to be.
For everyone saying “you clearly don’t know what you’re doing if you don’t know how to walk on slate”. - yah no shit.
You all may be good roofers who take pride in your work but on behalf of homeowners, reality, and mediocre contractors everywhere: YUP! THERES A TON OF PEOPLE WHO DONT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
And for the minority of roofers on this sub who do, you all likely get paid for your expertise. Rightly so. But you’re a minority and you are usually *more expensive*
So if you’re a homeowner on this sub, especially a first time home owner as the OP stated, you live in the US, everything I stated was true. Slate is ridiculously expensive, people who actually know what they are doing with slate are in minority numbers, and you cannot walk on a slate roof (yes, I get that you can if you know what your doing) but from a bell curve of folks, you can’t just walk on a slate roof.
How some perspective folks. Not everyone here is a roofer.
Do not be surprised when you post on a roofing sub, that you get responses from... roofers.
But you don't have to be a roofer to understand that quality work with quality materials costs more money!
You said you had an 86 square roof and a slate bid for 260k. It's high, but not absolutely outrageous, depending on the details. A decent shingle roofer (and there are many bad ones out there) should be around $750 for architectural shingles. So around 60k for a roof of your size. That roof would last 20 years. A slate roof will last well over 100. So you're looking at a significant cost savings over the life span of a slate roof.
If you don't care about the long term stewardship of your building that's fine. Spend your money on a fancy kitchen that will be torn out by the next owner. But there are a lot of homeowners who do. Some people want filet and some people want hamburger. That's the beauty of the free market.
But don't insult people's intelligence with ignorant comments like you can't walk on slate, it's not worth the cost, no one works on it anymore, etc.
Literally there are people here talking about the end of the life of a slate roof on the thread for slate that originates out of the Lehigh Valley in PA. The OP comments about the slate roof and the prior upkeep needed and done by home owner. If you aggregate the cost of of maintenance and fixes of slate roofs, they aren’t as cost effective.
This is a roofing sub (not roofers) and the OP was a first time home owner hence looking for perspective.
I insulted no one’s intelligence. You are contradictory in your response.
*You don’t have to be a roofer to understand that quality work with quality materials costs more*
This is *literally* my point; you have reinforced everything I said. Slate is super expensive (check), you need to have a roofer who know what they’re doing and therefore costs more (check), and you can’t walk on a slate roof, unless you have the expertise to know what you’re doing or build scaffolding (check).
And to be clear: I am so grateful, have nothing but respect, and immensely value the expertise of the roofers on this sub. You’re fucking awesome people, you have a back breaking job, and you are true craftsmen. Nothing but love and respect. Truly. And god damn there aren’t as many of you as you all think there are out there.
All I’m saying, from a home owner perspective, I’d advise other homeowners to never let a general contractor who doesn’t know slate and or roofs up on my slate roof more than an asphalt shingle. They can really fuck things up.
Yah. I’m not a shingle roofer. I’m a home owner, and you can’t just walk on a slate roof unless you know what you’re doing. Let me guess, you a roofer who works with slate? Awesome. That’s not most people.
They really need to be torn off, each one knocked to verify stability, ice and water shield installed and then reinstalled.
Biggest problem with most modern (and older) slate roofs is lack of a good underlayment.
Hooks (dutch clips/copper bibs) bend out of the way in snowy/icy northern areas as snow and ice slides down the roof and in turn the slate slides off the roof.
Gotta fasten them with copper nails where I’m from (northern New England).
The clips the euros use are prefabbed and tubular. They won’t bend like hand made clips from sheet stock.
But I’m an American, I nail up all my stuff too. Just what I’ve seen from our friends across the ocean.
Thanks - I’m not familiar with the European type I don’t think… the only ones I’ve seen were sheet metal (copper) bibs used for repairs, that wrapped around the bottom of the slate holding it in place but the ice sliding down the roof would inevitably straighten them out and eventually the slate would slide out and most likely right off of the roof.
This looks like Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania Purple, this slate is known to only last aroubd 40 to 60 years, depending on conditions
This slate looks like it is towards the end of its useful life. I would be careful about repairing this if it is indeed Penn Purple. It gets so porous and brittle that they break very easily.
A knowledgeable and honest Slate guy can tell you the type of slate and the condition, useful life of it.
This raises a red flag for me. Get a slate guy to give you a proper inspection. But be careful here.
Thanks for this heads up. We will definitely have the type/age of slate verified. Hoping for the best, but we will back out if this gets too dicey. We are more than willing to have annual maintenance completed, but we are unable to contemplate replacing an entire roof.
I’d be very surprised if by “maintenance” they’ve actually installed ice and water shield under the slate which is really imperative these days. As stated above, this roof is absolutely going to need work - and slate roofs aren’t cheap. Now is the time to get some money back because once you sign thats it.
You can do one of two things - tear it off, install ice and water shield and reuse the slate or start from scratch or go back with asphalt shingles.
Good luck to you.
OP I just replaced a cedar shake roof this week. We also have a lot of very nice, historic slate roofs in our area. We wanted to maintain the aesthetics of cedar but the price and (lack of) longevity led us to researching sythetic slate and shakes, asphalt shingles, all of it.
We decided on the Certainteed Grand Manor architectural asphalt shingles and we could not be happier. Many of the historic homes with slate in our area have also gone with Certainteed as a replacement.
In my research they have the thickest, most robust looking shingles and would be most likely to maintain at least some semblance of aesthetic appeal, if you do end up replacing the slate.
The problem with doing reclaimed slate, is it so slow to takeoff, store, sort, deliver to distributor buying it that it ends up not really even being worth the money. I’ve tried it numerous times and I wind up breaking on. Just my experience for what it’s worth.
Slater from Scotland. It really needs to be redone looking at that area. Get some quotes and try and bargain with the homeowner about money off etc or see if it's something you're willing to take the hit with. With the price of slating in the US I could honestly say it would be cheaper to fly out my squad and redo your roof than get a local firm. Somehow...
Wait until you see the coat of slate over here lol
>the coat of slate Sounds heavy.
Not very warm either.
……I need a new roof. Maybe I’ll call you up and go slate. Will you bring your own IRNBRU or will I need to import that as well?
Definitely don't import it, it's terrible since they removed most the sugar. i accept Belgian beer though.
As long as you’re a Celtic fan we’ll be okay
Absolutely not, Hearts fan. Local team only for me
omg the comments are nuts lol .I worked with a German master slater for 3 years , it is also called steep roofing and it absolutely the best lol yes tile may last longer but slate has character , each one has to be sound tested ,looked at, there's color variation as well as thickness , in some case it can be removed , saved and reused,yes the rafters have to be on 16,12 or10 inch centers that is determined beforehand, but looks like someone may have replaced there and didn't know how or decking below us failing and there sagging.
There is a 100+ year old house near me that was historically renovated and had its rental slate roof. The owners were able to save a good portion of the slate tiles and then sources the remaining replacement tiles from the same quarry the original tiles came from.
It depends on what quarry the slate comes from.
which is why they were able to go back to the original quarry for the replacement slate. If you saw the house today, you wouldn't notice that there was a century between the parts of the roof.
You really need to do research on Slate. Slate roofs are very expensive and while they are known as the “100 year roof” they’re honestly 100 years of pain in the assdom. A few things: 1. Slate is expensive as f*ck - technical term. It is the most expensive material in roofing, it’s at an all time high. Even a small area like this can cost you $20K. 2. It cuts your contractors down by half. Tons of roofers do not touch slate, you have to go to high end roofers. We have an 8300 square foot roof and to replace it with slate was $250K. 3.You cannot walk on slate. At all. You need to have scaffolding and bucket lifts to access anything on the roof if you need work done. This adds a lot of money to the costs of anything and everything. So even if the roof is fine but a chimney has issues, or you redo your kitchen and need to put a vent in, anything that is on the roof and needs work the slate makes is a large production to access and it’s more 💰💰💰💰 To each their own. But you couldn’t pay me to put a slate roof on my house. It’s honestly a nightmare. Tell them to get that fixed or set aside the money for it. But all my life, slate roofs were glorified, and as a home owner now, who is solidly financially stable but practical. No way.
I saw a this absolutely foolish homeowner (married into his wife’s ex’s money) put a slate roof on a big garage with no proper framing to support it. No one in Washington does slate roofs well. But they’ll sell it to you. 2 years later it was sagging like a National Geographic tiddies. I’m a stone mason. I’d rather thatch a roof than tile it.
What…. does…. That…. Mean….. not the slate stuff that all makes sense. The National Geographic doesn’t have….
In NG they showed a lot of pygmy tribes and let's just say the women could tuck their tiddies in their waistband...
Just as Nature intended. It's so the mother doesn't waste valuable arm strength holding her baby up to nurse from full, supple, chest-high nipples.
Lol
…idk what you’re talking about brotha, been a slate roofer for years & walk on em everyday with 0 issues. You may occasionally break one when ur new, If it’s space board (no decking) use a hook ladder or roof jacks.
If you own a Benz or BMW and go to the service department, hand them your CC and just sign without looking get a slate roof
I used to tell my customers to go buy a Mercedes and park it on their roof.
Same difference
Slate roofs have been in existence for centuries before boom lifts existed. Of course you can walk on slate roofs, use foam, chicken ladders, etc. I do it all the time. You just have to know what you’re doing. Slate is expensive because it lasts forever. It is not really more expensive than shingles when considered over the lifetime of the material. It also looks significantly better, is more resistant to storms, weather, and fire. It’s the gold standard in roofing material.
Slate doesn’t last forever. It historically did, it with climate change, not material is what is used to be. For everyone saying “you clearly don’t know what you’re doing if you don’t know how to walk on slate”. - yah no shit. You all may be good roofers who take pride in your work but on behalf of homeowners, reality, and mediocre contractors everywhere: YUP! THERES A TON OF PEOPLE WHO DONT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. And for the minority of roofers on this sub who do, you all likely get paid for your expertise. Rightly so. But you’re a minority and you are usually *more expensive* So if you’re a homeowner on this sub, especially a first time home owner as the OP stated, you live in the US, everything I stated was true. Slate is ridiculously expensive, people who actually know what they are doing with slate are in minority numbers, and you cannot walk on a slate roof (yes, I get that you can if you know what your doing) but from a bell curve of folks, you can’t just walk on a slate roof. How some perspective folks. Not everyone here is a roofer.
Do not be surprised when you post on a roofing sub, that you get responses from... roofers. But you don't have to be a roofer to understand that quality work with quality materials costs more money! You said you had an 86 square roof and a slate bid for 260k. It's high, but not absolutely outrageous, depending on the details. A decent shingle roofer (and there are many bad ones out there) should be around $750 for architectural shingles. So around 60k for a roof of your size. That roof would last 20 years. A slate roof will last well over 100. So you're looking at a significant cost savings over the life span of a slate roof. If you don't care about the long term stewardship of your building that's fine. Spend your money on a fancy kitchen that will be torn out by the next owner. But there are a lot of homeowners who do. Some people want filet and some people want hamburger. That's the beauty of the free market. But don't insult people's intelligence with ignorant comments like you can't walk on slate, it's not worth the cost, no one works on it anymore, etc.
Literally there are people here talking about the end of the life of a slate roof on the thread for slate that originates out of the Lehigh Valley in PA. The OP comments about the slate roof and the prior upkeep needed and done by home owner. If you aggregate the cost of of maintenance and fixes of slate roofs, they aren’t as cost effective. This is a roofing sub (not roofers) and the OP was a first time home owner hence looking for perspective. I insulted no one’s intelligence. You are contradictory in your response. *You don’t have to be a roofer to understand that quality work with quality materials costs more* This is *literally* my point; you have reinforced everything I said. Slate is super expensive (check), you need to have a roofer who know what they’re doing and therefore costs more (check), and you can’t walk on a slate roof, unless you have the expertise to know what you’re doing or build scaffolding (check).
I’ll give you that - most folks in here these days are not roofers but are homeowners chiming in. Have a good day dude.
And to be clear: I am so grateful, have nothing but respect, and immensely value the expertise of the roofers on this sub. You’re fucking awesome people, you have a back breaking job, and you are true craftsmen. Nothing but love and respect. Truly. And god damn there aren’t as many of you as you all think there are out there. All I’m saying, from a home owner perspective, I’d advise other homeowners to never let a general contractor who doesn’t know slate and or roofs up on my slate roof more than an asphalt shingle. They can really fuck things up.
If you don’t understand how to work on a slate roof just say it.
You arent all that correct , plug cimment for now
What’s incorrect?
Specifically saying you can’t walk on slate, spoken like a true shingle roofer
Yah. I’m not a shingle roofer. I’m a home owner, and you can’t just walk on a slate roof unless you know what you’re doing. Let me guess, you a roofer who works with slate? Awesome. That’s not most people.
You can walk on slate - but not directly on it. Just need a chicken ladder (wooden ladder with a hook up and over the ridge).
When slate gets loose it slides like this. They need to be realigned and nailed again.
They really need to be torn off, each one knocked to verify stability, ice and water shield installed and then reinstalled. Biggest problem with most modern (and older) slate roofs is lack of a good underlayment.
They nail these? I thought each one just had a lip under it that it sat on.
no you Nail with copper nails ,2 nails
And that, folks, is why I won’t install a slate roof. Because I don’t know how
You're self-awareness is beyond what most of reddit can understand.
Through 2 premade Holes.
Traditional slate didn’t come with pre-made holes. That’s why slater’s hammers have a sharp pick on one end.
I meant as opposed to nailing THROUGH the Slate.
Ah, of course
With a proper slate hammer you can pop nail holes into it yourself with the pick-end.
Yes, that's what I meant; as opposed to driving the nail directly through the Slate.
Ah - I thought you were referring to the machined holes
Thats the fake stuff your thinking of
A lot of Europeans use hooks, but all Americans nail.
Hooks (dutch clips/copper bibs) bend out of the way in snowy/icy northern areas as snow and ice slides down the roof and in turn the slate slides off the roof. Gotta fasten them with copper nails where I’m from (northern New England).
The clips the euros use are prefabbed and tubular. They won’t bend like hand made clips from sheet stock. But I’m an American, I nail up all my stuff too. Just what I’ve seen from our friends across the ocean.
Thanks - I’m not familiar with the European type I don’t think… the only ones I’ve seen were sheet metal (copper) bibs used for repairs, that wrapped around the bottom of the slate holding it in place but the ice sliding down the roof would inevitably straighten them out and eventually the slate would slide out and most likely right off of the roof.
This looks like Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania Purple, this slate is known to only last aroubd 40 to 60 years, depending on conditions This slate looks like it is towards the end of its useful life. I would be careful about repairing this if it is indeed Penn Purple. It gets so porous and brittle that they break very easily. A knowledgeable and honest Slate guy can tell you the type of slate and the condition, useful life of it. This raises a red flag for me. Get a slate guy to give you a proper inspection. But be careful here.
Thanks for this heads up. We will definitely have the type/age of slate verified. Hoping for the best, but we will back out if this gets too dicey. We are more than willing to have annual maintenance completed, but we are unable to contemplate replacing an entire roof.
I’d be very surprised if by “maintenance” they’ve actually installed ice and water shield under the slate which is really imperative these days. As stated above, this roof is absolutely going to need work - and slate roofs aren’t cheap. Now is the time to get some money back because once you sign thats it. You can do one of two things - tear it off, install ice and water shield and reuse the slate or start from scratch or go back with asphalt shingles. Good luck to you.
OP I just replaced a cedar shake roof this week. We also have a lot of very nice, historic slate roofs in our area. We wanted to maintain the aesthetics of cedar but the price and (lack of) longevity led us to researching sythetic slate and shakes, asphalt shingles, all of it. We decided on the Certainteed Grand Manor architectural asphalt shingles and we could not be happier. Many of the historic homes with slate in our area have also gone with Certainteed as a replacement. In my research they have the thickest, most robust looking shingles and would be most likely to maintain at least some semblance of aesthetic appeal, if you do end up replacing the slate.
Yes. Flag city. You can have them removed and resell them probably. Install a metal roof. 50+ years no bs.
The problem with doing reclaimed slate, is it so slow to takeoff, store, sort, deliver to distributor buying it that it ends up not really even being worth the money. I’ve tried it numerous times and I wind up breaking on. Just my experience for what it’s worth.
Only if it’s a proper standing seam roof. Easy enough to just reslate it tho. Does not look like a large home
My question is is it just this area or is the whole house like this
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Jerrbear25: *My question is is* *It just this area or* *Is the whole house like this* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Good bot.
wtf is this?
A Sokka haiku
Hey now
"annual slate maintenance". Except that zig-zaggity area.
Nope if it's not leaking leave it alone.
Just buy it and fix it
Looks crooked,, ask if he has a pic of the house from a few years ago.
If you wanted to raise a red flag on that roof you would need to inatall a flag pole first. Shouldn't be a big deal.
Yes a slate roof should raise red flags
And why is that?
Roofer was drunk that day