This makes a very good answer to the fellow who wondered why none of the slates were saved when an enormous area of slate roofing went straight into the rubble pile for crushing in a demolition job with not one second wasted thinking about reusing it.
How do you mean? I do lots of slate-roof repairs and am always looking for good used slates but afaik it all just gets broken and skipped when they strip a roof
It’s really good to see such an excellent demonstration and understanding of this traditional skill which is sadly neglected in many parts of Scotland. A good teacher obviously too. So important on heritage buildings, listed houses and conservation areas. I would however suggest that holing slates correctly is vitally important. This was traditionally done with a boring machine which was hand operated. This ensured that every slate has a strong enough hole to take the weight of the slate on one nail. Using the spike on the knife will often make a hole which will delaminate the face of the slate and weaken it causing many more slates to slip. The knife should really only be used to create an additional hole for side nailing as on the verge.
Down south we double nail all the slates. I’ve been to Aberdeen and done the Scottish slate. Took some getting used to only putting one nail in a slate.
I've worked on slate roofs all over Glasgow and never found double nails on old ones. With that modern stuff every slate is double-nailed near the middle and they are almost impossible to remove when they split (which they do all the time)
Great video👍👍 The West Highland Slate Quarry Industry was enormous back in the day. Towns like Oban were built on Slate money. Working on Council House building in Ballachulish in 1977/78, it was tragic to see stone storehouses full of Slates Bulldozed down for a new road. More tragic was the fact these Council houses were Roofed in concrete roof tiles, very sad. 😢 Easdale & Luing Slates were also a very good product, but Ballachulish slates are the best. West Highland Slate adorns roofs throughout the world, a massive industry in the 18, 19 & early 20th century.
As a roof tiler/slater in se England I’ve always wondered how u guys up there get up and down the roof with no battens to walk up and down especially on steeper pitch’s
Great demonstration - perfect for me as i want to learn roofing! I wondered why tiles sre cut to size using hsnd tools - would it be possible to use an angle grinder?
stack your slates better as well mind you i have not worked in scotland you should talk about the pitch of the roof as well when talking about slate laps and cover all the best
50mm lap, in Scotland ! In the north west of Britain has to be at least 100mm head and side lap and every slate double nailed at least, Scottish cowboys, yeee haah!!
Is this just a terminological difference? From the span of the young fella's hand you can see that the chalk lines are about 120-150mm apart, so the actual overlap (or underlap of the preceding slate below) is about 120/150 overlap + 50 headlap =170/200mm total overlap.
Might anyone know how Ballochulish slate compares with Welsh blue, Buington blue grey, or Westmoreland green slate for lifespan/longevity? The fella here in this video said that the Ballochulish slate had been on for around a 100 years, and would be good for another 100 (if sound).
it would be great to do work like this on close bording roofs but on a fixed gage like 24 x 12 on a 10 half gage you can only shoulder nail them its first time ive seen slating like this in the 34 years ive been a roofer . but still very could training
Snap, ive been slating roofs all my life, retired now. Never seen a slate roof on a close boarded set up. I worked in the states back in the eighties they close board over there but still put laths over the top if they are going to tile or slate it. Guess it makes it a lot easier.
Great videos! Does anyone have a recommendation for the best underlay for slate? I'm struggling to find reviews as most membrane companies demonstrate using their product with battens (the English way) therefore allowing for an air gap between membrane and tile/slate, they seem to suggest this is important, so whats the recommended membrane designed to be sandwiched between sarking?
To my belief Torching/Tiering (the lime mortar daubed on the inside face of slating) is to stop spindrift snow from entering and filling the roof space. Sarking boards are a far more reliable method of achieving this - and they sometimes serve a structural purpose too in 'cross bracing' a turret roof/bay window head. With a refreshed and reliable slating system, and an existing sarking structure, why potentially 'smother it' when it has been in place - and worked well - without a membrane for a hundred years? I am assuming of course that you are talking about a pre-existing roof structure. I am not a roofer, but I have a similar instance - soon to be re-slated - and I am thinking things through based on what is demonstrably proven (in situ) to have worked for 108 years..... and counting.
agree with the 75mm headlap as you say but he did say the headlap was sitting at around 50mm. Can only imagine they've dropped the headlap seeing as they have a fairly steep pitch on the roof they're using
This video is a bit poor tbh… you couldn’t repair a slate at 8:00 like that with ridges on, this is the problem with roofing from the floor explanations.
Doing what, pulling a nail, or manually trimming a slate? You'd maybe have staff putting on safety glasses and respiratory apparatus if they went to the gents in case of splashback.
