repairs to slate roofs on terraced houses

seems there was a shift within the last few years

from using small nails - invisible from street level

to using big (galvanised?) wedges - clearly visible from street level

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Reply to
Gill Smith
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I seems to be getting the wrong end of the stick all to often these days but my understanding of repairing slate roofs is that, unlike interlocking tiles where individual replacements can be slotted in,it is impossible to make a good repair by just nailing in a new slate as all slates were originally nailed to the battens and the nails then covered by the next row of slates. A replacement slate thus has to be secured by a strap nailed to a batten exposed by the missing slate and folded round the lower edge of the replacement slate to keep it in place. Straps were traditionally lead strips but given the emphasis on health and safety these days and the dangers from a free flying slate the chances are that straps are now much larger and more easily seen than they once were.

Reply to
Roger Chapman

thanks, you've explained a great deal in a few paragraphs

the business about replacement slates was bothering me too

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Reply to
Gill Smith

Copper is also a traditional strap material; giving a smaller but stronger strap than lead.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

incidentally, I'd always thought tiled roofs were the cheap option!

a walk round the posh part of town today dispelled that myth

not a slate in sight

but I'm puzzled about replacements for broken designer-type tiles

presumably if you've got enough money, you get them baked to order

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Reply to
Gill Smith

There are also galvanised steel (and probably stainless) hooks, much stiffer, but only slightly thicker than wire coat hangers - one end has a square hook that you can push up under a slate and pull down to hook over a batten and the other has a much narrower curved ended hook, so you push the slate under the one above and slide it down into the hook. They seem to be very common in France - I've never really done any repairs to a slate roof in the UK, so I don't know if they are available here too.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

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