replacing double nailed slates

[Alan Campbell]

Hi,

I have been replacing some missing/broken slates on my roof.

Most of them are 14x8 and single nailed so it is easy to spin the slates above the missing one aside to remove the old nail and nail in a new one.

Unfortunately the lower rows are 16x8 and double nailed so I can't do this.

So, how does one replace slates where the ones above are double nailed and can't be spun aside? am I going to have to start from the first single nailed row and work down?. I can't imagine roofers would do this so what's the trick?.

Thanks,

Alan.

[nightjar]

Nail a strip of copper at the bottom, putting the nail between two slates. Then you slide the replacement slate into place and turn the copper strip up over it, to hold it in place. When you have a lot of copper strips, then you take off a whole section and re-nail from the bottom up.

Colin Bignell

[Michael Mcneil]

I can remember in the good old days when we used to use our teeth for nails. Strong they were -could outlast the slates, easily.