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Housing - New Build: Advice on reclaimed Welsh slates for roofing

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    • CommentAuthorbardo
    • CommentTimeMar 5th 2019 edited
     
    I'm looking to use reclaimed Welsh slate for the roof of our timber frame/ straw bale home.

    Advice on price and sourcing appreciated. Thanks!
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeMar 5th 2019
     
    They will be expensive and you should allow 20% for breakages/unusable ones

    Difficult to source, several different sizes and the sometimes get mixed with Portuguese inferior ones.

    Price could well be £2.00 each
    • CommentAuthorrevor
    • CommentTimeMar 5th 2019
     
    Cost will depend on size. Why do you want second hand? Need to factor in slater they prefer to lay new as less hassle and breakage. Make sure you get an experienced slater and not someone who is a roofer. See their work. It is a very skilled job to make a slate roof look good. I had new slates on my roof and was surprised as to how they went about it. Firstly they grade the slate by thickness often into 4 or more stacks and when they hole them they balance the slate in their hand so that the weight is at the bottom of the slate thereby having the thickest part at the bottom, so when the next slate goes on top the thick end is over the thin end. I had my previous house re-slated and it looked a mess as the slates did not lie flat. On a well laid roof the rake of the slates should form a straight diagonal line. North Wales is quite a good place to look for S/h. Try and get one job lot off a demolition or reclamation yard as you should then have more of a chance of them coming from the same quarry. There is nothing worse than a patch of different coloured slate on a roof. If you are in an exposed part of the country BC may insist on you having slate and a half on the verges these can be 3 to 4 times the price of a standard slate and you would need one every other row. If you have valleys or dormers you may need different size again for cutting in you do not want small bits running up to the valley. It can make it difficult to get all the sizes you need if you roof is not straightforward.

    Here is a link I found not in Wales though but will give you and idea of cost and number per sq M you need.

    https://slateprices.co.uk/reclaimed%20slate%20prices.html
    • CommentAuthorArtiglio
    • CommentTimeMar 6th 2019
     
    As above you need someone that knows what they’re looking for if buying secondhand slate. Lots of worn out weathered rubbish is put up for sale, it’ll cost you more than new imported slate by the time you’ve chucked a good percentage away.

    My parents bought an old farmhouse and barns in thelate 80’s, the barn still had its original slates ( barn built 1802) hard as nails and locally referred to as cowels/cowes (not sure of spelling) secured by a single nail, odd shapes and sizes ( large at bottom of roof grading up to ridge) , some are upto 12mm thick, took my father weeks to strip sort and relay enough of them to reroof the faces visible from the road, looks really good though and with a bit of maintenance they’ll see another 100 years at least.
    • CommentAuthorsnyggapa
    • CommentTimeMar 6th 2019
     
    we used these people about 8 years ago now for reclaimed slates:

    https://slateprices.co.uk/reclaimed%20slate%20prices.html

    The builder was very happy with the quality. Their website doesn't seem to have changed much since the 1990s though :)
    • CommentAuthorbardo
    • CommentTimeMar 6th 2019
     
    Thanks all!

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