Re-roofing materials and supply- Welsh slate questions

j_lo_co

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies, all very helpful.

My roofer has informed me that slating would be a lot of work because I am not replacing the fascias, etc and the slates would sit lower than tiles (because they are not attached with counterbattens) and so not sit flush with my gutter/fascia set-up, which would therefore need to be trimmed...etc!...so that kind of knocks out slate/reclaimed slate option. The planning authority here are very keen on slate or slate-effect, as am I but I have heard fairly bad things regarding slate effect tiles, I was thinking of either the Marley Melbourn or the Sandtoft Rivius (sorry, not allowed to post links). The Sandtoft ones have a manufacturer's guarantee for 50 years

But I have also seen the recycled slate effect tiles available from AthyECOslate (found these on MSE forum :cool:).

If anyone has any advice on these it would be appreciated, I'll search the forums for anything on these too.

Best wishes

Tom_Jones

Welsh slate are expensive simply because they are the best, if you are using reclaimed slate then you would have to allow at least 15 % for waste. I would always go for new,

Without seeing your roof couldn't your roofer double batten your first row of slate to bring it up to your fascia boards, it leaves the first row with a slight angle and it is actually a nice effect, or alternativley change the fascia boards, which would be a cheapish option.

aa4466

I have been doing a lot of digging into slates for my own house which I am about to start building.

I am going to go with Spanish slates. To dismiss all foreign slate as no good is short sighted. Just as there are good and bad reclaimed Welsh slates, there are good and bad foreign slates and if you are prepared to put in a bit of research then you can find out which are which. For example, most countries have their own standards for slates. The UK one is not particularly stringent but the French one is so make sure that if you buy new slates you get ones that have met the French standard. All the slate suppliers know this and will know whether their slates meet the French standard. If they don't meet it, then steer clear. Ask who the slate supplier is (e.g. SIG, SSQ) and check that the slates are actually from those suppliers (slates come in wooden crates which will have paperwork nailed to the side showing the supplier and quality).

The following chart is by no means comprehensive but it gives you an idea of what the technical differences are between good slates and bad slates.

http://www.insightmag.co.uk/images/userfiles/charts/Slate%20chart%20Feb%2006.pdf

You can get good quality new Spanish slates for 80p each (and that's from a supplier in Inverness).

Hintza

We changed from reclaimed Welsh to A Grade Spanish as the spec for our up and coming new build.