Slate or Tile roof, which would you choose?

tom0407

Ah yeah I suspected as much. Do you know if these are typically cheaper than real tiles and do they look as good / last as long?

anything7pob

The fibourous slates are horrible, they will not last anywhere near as long as slates or clay tiles and they are a real problem to repair if anything goes wrong in the future (they are double nailed and clipped at the bottom too and they become brittle with age breaking easily meaning a small repair often becomes a big and annoying repair.)

I would consider sourcing my own slates if I were in your shoes, I am sure guys on the board will help you calculate numbers needed if you can specify dimensions of your roof.

Welsh slates are the best, but very expensive. They are priced by size, 24" by 12" being the most sought after and therefore most expensive. You may be able to source 22"by 10" or maybe a differant less appealing size if you look around for a nicer price. You may be able to bid down the price at these less appealing sizes at a reclaim yard. obviously the smaller the slates the more you will need though so do not go too small unless they are very cheap.

When I strip a welsh slate roof the reclaim yard pay between 50p to £1 per slate to take them away. It`s a long shot but if you can find a roofer stripping a slate job you could probably offer him £1 per slate and have him deliver them for you too. You would not source good slate any cheaper than this, prices may vary with area, I am in Essex.

I would consider ringing around local roofing firms to ask if they have any slate strips lined up. may take a little work on your part but the saving would be worth it. If you can borrow a truck and load and deliver yourself will be cheaper still.

If you decide to take this route I would work out the dimensions of every slope on your roof. If your roof is large you may have to take slates from 2 differant jobs, maybe one size for the back and another for the front. From the floor the differance would be unnoticeable (if the 2 sizes are quite similar eg. 23" x 10" front 18" x 9" back) you cannot easily mix sizes on the same slope.

Spanish and chinese as stated somewhere else are not so good but adequate in my opinion I would use them on my own roof without worrying but I would want to see them first to make sure that they are not soft, I have seen slates that I could break the corners off of with my fingers and very little effort. Some/most reclaimed slate will have soft edges due to wear but will not be soft away from the edge (you could break the edge 1cm with fingers but then hard again) new slate should not have soft edges.

Also if buying new slates I would make sure that they have nail holes!! Putting nail holes in a few thousand slates is a long and tedious task:)

Canadian slate I have not seen but sound like a good option.

As for labour costs of your job, your quotes sound expensive to me, but hard to say without knowing exact dimension and features (no. of hips, valleys, verges etc.) I would say that firms will often go in expensive when a customer asks for a slate roof price because it is a luxury service so to speak, the people asking for the quote are percieved to have money to burn.

If you supply the slates yourself your overall cost will definatly go down as firms will add a profit margin on the slates. Also if you supply yourself you are showing a certain amount of knowledge of the trade and they will expect you to drive a harder bargain IMO and likely go in a little more keen.

I have tried to be as insightful as possible any questions I will try to help.:)

tom0407

Thanks that's a really helpful answer, much appreciated.

Yes I think I will look round and try and source slates myself. I've heard the price is fluctuating hugely at the moment, partly due to all the chinese and other imports. I think Welsh is out unfortunately as I've been told they are very expensive and have a waiting list!

I'm based just outside Bristol. So if anyone knows of a good place for slates around here then please let me know. I did a little searching on the Internet last night and found another local roofing firm who also just supply directly to the customer, so I will see if I can go down there and take a look at some slates. They are based in Weston Super Mare.

Thanks again for the advice.

Tom

teneighty

162 square metres is a big roof, I would expect to see that on a 6 bedroom house if not bigger so the price quoted may not be that far off. A victorian roof that size I would also expect to see numerous valleys, hips, chimneys etc. that would also push the cost up. The only way you will know for sure is to get 2 or 3 other quotes from reputable roofing contractors to test the local market.

anything7pob has given some excellent advice that I would certainly endorse. The comment about inflating the price for slate on the basis that the customer had plenty of money was probably true.

A couple of further points, if the roof has previously been turnerised (bitumen coating) then the slates are ruined and cannot be salvaged. I've heard stories of soaking slates in petrol for a week and I've done some simple trials myself but it just isn't worth the effort even if it did work. If anyone else has a suggetion how to clean them I would certainly be very interested to hear it.

As for the artificial slates, I was thinking of the Redland Cambrian slates, the samples I've seen look very good and a very convincing copy of natural welsh slate, I think they are 60% crushed welsh slate waste. But I haven't used them on a job and I've got no idea how much they cost. I suspect they are quite expensive probaly more than Spanish slate but cheaper than the real thing. I think their main selling point is the low pitch they can laid to and their lightweight so possibly not right for your roof.

tom0407

Thanks.

I don't think our roof is that big, it's a 3 bed detached Victorian stone built house, but it is quite high. I has a couple of valleys, but nothing too elaborate. Also the pitch is quite low, about 32 degrees I think, so a ligher weight option would be preferable. Which is another reason I'm nervous about opting for the 'cheaper' tile option which has been suggested, as it may lead to problems down the line.

Yep it has been turnerised.

Thanks.

reggie_lampert

Hi, we used black Cembrit Westerland fibre cement tiles on our extension roof. They're the same as the Marley Eternit Westmoreland.

The textured surface and distressed edges make them very similar to slate, especially as nobody will be able to get that close once they're in situ:D

On that website link the 600x300 tiles are 1.12 each, but I'm sure a roofer would be able to get them cheaper.

They look great, just like real slate, much better that the ugly concrete tiles we were originally going to use (because of a low pitch).

Let me know if you would like a photo of our roof and I'll see what I can do.

tom0407

Yeah I'd love to see a photo of your roof if possible. I've spent the past 2 months looking at roofs wherever I go to try and compare, but it's really hard to know what roofs have been done with what... How long ago did you get the roof done, do you think they will weather well?

reggie_lampert

Hi Tom, attached are a couple of photos of the roof.

My OH has left the camera at work so these are from January when we realised that the idiot builders had tiled the roof incorrectly and we were collecting evidence (!)....:mad: but apart from being wrong it looks nice...!




Also in response to what anything7pob posted. http://www.marleyeternit.co.uk/Fibre-cement-landing-page.aspx - this page states that "Lifetime experience provides a material life expectancy in excess of 50 years"

Here's the tiles we used: Cembrit Westerland

I hope this helps.

tom0407

Cool, yeah it looks very smart. Thanks!

anything7pob

Reggie lampert, I really like the look of your eternits.

The fiberous slates I was thinking of are the lower end of the spectrum, they are flat with sharp edges and quite common around here.

The 50 year guarentee is also very nice.

My mistake, the 50 year thing is just a statement, not a guarentee. I could not find a guarentee term for them.



Just this.....

Request Cembrit Guarantee
Subject to satisfactory completion and
return of the registration details within a
period of six months from purchase,
Cembrit Limited (company registration
number 01968377) with address at 57
Kellner Road, London, SE28 0AX grants
the warranty for Westerland fibre
cement slates (the “Products”) supplied
by Cembrit Limited and installed in
England, Wales and Scotland (the
“Territory”). In the event that the
Customer effects any sales of any of the
Products whether directly or indirectly
outside the Territory the said Warranty
shall not apply.
To request a guarantee registration form please
contact our head office on telephone number
020 8301 8900.


h*ttp://ww*w.all*slates.c*o.uk/

I hope I am not breaking any rules, this site has standard pricing but does have a very handy table showing the numbers of slate needed at differant sizes per meter squared:) (remove stars for address)