Alternative to slate packing?

[Quiggles]

I'm finding it hard to get hold of some slate to pack up to a beam - what's generally accepted as an alternative to slate?

[Weatherlawyer]

Tile, tin, tufa.

[Lobster]

I get mine from a local salvage yard - I just wander in with a cardboard box which I then fill with broken slates; there's always plenty lying around near the pallets of reclaimed tiles. I don't get charged - after all, I'm just cleaning up mess!

David

[Frank Erskine]

~~~~

I read that as "tofu".

[Dave Liquorice]

Ordinary tile may well let damp across, slate won't. Part of the function of slate packing is to be a damp proof layer between the timber and stonework. This may or may not be an issue but worth bearing in mind.

[Lobster]

Plus it may crush under load.

David

[Osprey]

I had to do some packing on my timber frame - artificial slate is accepted by building regs, I just asked my roofing tile supplier who he recently sold this to (Redland Cambrian)... and went and picked up a load of the off cuts.