Slate Roof

Home on Pontiac Street in Rochester, IN

We are currently working on a project to replace a slate roof on a turn of the century home in Rochester, IN.  It has the original slate on it, though it has been patched in places over the years.  We have been surprised at just how badly the existing slate has deteriorated.  We had anticipated taking the slate off shingle by shingle with some breakage, but what we’ve ended up with are pieces not much greater than a couple of inches in diameter and the rest even smaller if not out right disintegrating into a fine powder.  It would appear that a good hail storm would have removed most of this slate without our having to touch it!

Deteriorating flashings around turret

Another thing of interest we have found is that the fasteners and flashings are galvanized in lieu of copper.  We were aware that the cap flashings were not copper, but we had anticipated the other flashing to be copper.  That would have been the standard for the era.  Instead, the flashings are fairly thin galvanized sheets, generally cut into small pieces.  The nails are gavanized cut nails.  The cut nails have held up well, but most of the flashings have deteriorated and begun to rust where they have been exposed to the elements.

The turret in the picture above has slate in reasonable condition, so it was determined to leave this portion of the roof untouched.  The cutting of the individual slate pieces with the constant changes in size as the turret reduces in diameter would have been extremely time consuming – probably taking nearly as long as half the rest of the roof.  You can see some of the existing flashings around the base of the turret.  Where these flashings are deteriorating, we will installed galvanized step flashings that we can slip under the existing starting course of slate.

Russell Voss with Easterday Construction using a Slate Ripper to remove old slate from the roof.

The slate is being removed using a Slate Ripper.  This is a versatile tool that slides up under the slate and is used to rip through the nails.   It has sharp hooks to accomplish this and is designed to actually cut through copper nails.   With the galvanized nails, it has generally pulled them out.  This tool is used during slate installation to repair slate pieces that get broken in the process.  It can also be used on completed roofs to help replace damaged slate shingles.  The process is similar to when you remove the nails during demolition.  The Ripper also works as pry bar to lift the shingles when you slide the replacement into place.

Installation of slate is not a quick process.  On this roof we are installing random width slate in two different colors using a 70%-30% mix of purple and green.  This further complicates the installation, but should make for a great look!  I will post more pictures here or on our website when this project is completed.