Reuse old slates or fit all new?

[flummingbird]

I'm looking for some and as I just don't know who else to ask please...

I've recently bought a house that needs the back half of the roof redone. I've had three quotes, two have priced to reslate it using the original (late victorian) slates and replace damaged ones with new where needed, and the third has priced to replace them all with new Spanish slates. All striping it all off, new lats, felt etc.

They are all roughly the same price.

Does anyone know if it's "better" to do it one way or the other? I'm on my own and don't know any roofers personally to ask so am going at it a bit blind!

Thanks in advance...

Hopeful bump...

Speaking for myself- we've just had a 1920s house reslated and the roof extended. Our surveyor said when we bought the place- don't let any roofer con you into replacing all the slates, they're fine except the (very few) broken ones. We got a really good roofer who automatically quoted on the basis of reusing the slates and replacing the damaged ones with reclaimed ones- which he chose very carefully for us (a chap turned up with a lorry with stacks of them and the roofer went through and picked out the ones he wanted one at a time, rejecting a lot of them).
End result- the roof looks great (even the Building Inspector said as much today when he came to check the new bit out). We had new laths and so on, of course. The roofer has mixed the slates up carefully so the entire roof looks the same, front and back and sides.
Your slates are older, of course, but if two roofers are happy to reuse them, I think I'd tend to go with that- though you could ask them their opinion on the Spanish slate option.
I think the original slates we have, and probably the reclaimed ones too- are Welsh- the best you can get- and depending where you live, if yours are Victorian they may well be too- your roofer should be able to tell you. But round here, that's common, so it's easy to get reclaimed ones that match. Welsh slates are expensive, though. Our roofer did a job recently that had been patched very recently with some slate (not Spanish, which AFAIK are okay-I think they were Braziallian or something) and he said those were awful- brittle as hell, and he replaced them all even though they were far and away newer than the ones he reused on the same job.

Thanks, that's really helpful! It's so hard to know what to do for the best.

We had our late Victorian roof done in the summer, reusing the old slates. Roofer was able to use more than we were expecting, and used reclaimed ones for the rest. It looks good.

If they're all the same price, deffo get it redone with Spanish slates. I've had my 1890 house redone with them and they look great. I had quoted from people to just reuse the old ones, but my roofer said they weren't actually in good enough condition to reuse.

Definitely keep as many Welsh slates as possible, then replace broken ones with Welsh slates.

Welsh last longer than Spanish slates and Spanish have a shiny appearance.

We were told the old slate will be a better quality so the roof was redone reusing as much as possible

We have re-used local Welsh slate on our barn conversion, sourced from the upgrade of a local church. They look (and are) fully authentic from the local Bethesda quarry, and look both new and perfect, but weathered to look 200 years old, at the same time.

The only very slight disadvantage, is that they are turned and a second mounting hole made for the second use. In the unlikely event that one breaks free, in the next 200 years, it can't be remounted, and a new second use slate will be needed ( I kept a few spares when the roof went on)

Used slate is fine

I would reuse as many as you can and as per a pp buy reclaimed to top up. It will end up looking more on keeping and if the price is similar is a no brainer.

If in Cornwall definitely reuse. Anyone stripping and disposing of original delabole or similar local slate will make more from selling on your old roof than profiting on the actual roofing job.

Definitely reuse. The new slate is nowhere near the quality of old slate.

Either option will outlive you, so don’t worry about it.
On balance, I’d reuse the existing ones.

Thanks everyone! Am in Cumbria so imagine it will be Cumbrian or Welsh. I think it sounds like trying to keep as many as I can is the way to go.

I'd be tempted to tell roofer 3 you'd like the quote without the added cost of him having to dispose of your old slate, as you'll be getting rid yourself... then watch his face drop 😂

Where in Cumbria are you? I'm there and know a really good roofer who you could get a second opinion from.

I'm in Carlisle...

Absolutely, reclaimed slates are worth money!

www.derekstafford-roofing.co.uk

Really good firm, would give you sound advice on your choices

This.

Reclaimed slates are worth good money.

I’d reuse too and we are having the same quandary. In our case the slates have been turned once already so we have less wriggle room.

It depends on the state of your current slates and how often they already have rehung. To fix a slate, the roofer drills 4 holes into the corners. When you reuse a slate, you most often have to adjust the holes for a new fixing, so the more often these slates get moved, the more brittle the corners get, until it becomes really hard to refix as there is now too large a hole, or corner broke off, or the whole slate breaks, as the drilling puts quite a bit pressure onto the whole thing. It might well happen that quite a few of your current slates break when your roofer tries to refix them, so he will need to buy more anyway than planned (that happens basically all of the time), so take the quote with a pinch of salt. The choice between reclaimed and new is mainly aesthetically. Some people love the weathered look, I personally like the look of a shiny new slate roof.

@NellyBarney since when did slates have four holes? I've never adjusted the holes except where they very very occasionally fall at a join between battens, or for cuts at ridges and eves etc. All the alignment is done on the nail position not the hole position.

There are always breakages but they are far more likely when removing or cutting than putting down.

Most modern slate roofs use hooks and only use copper nails in the odd place.

I've never heard of four holes @NellyBarney where are you?

In Cornwall we have rag slates, random courses on vertical battens.

So same height slates on each row but random widths. A 24in wide one might span three battens, three holes, next to a skinny 10 in one on one hole. As the rows get towards the ridge they get less deep and you pick the slates to overlap the gaps.

Each slate covers half the slate of the row below so you never see the nails.

It's really efficient use of materials.

As the nails fail (rarely the slates) a cheap fix - not recommended ! was to effectively wallpaper them with tar paper. We've even cleaned this off to reuse big slates.

Yes, sorry, you are right, 3 holes is standard here, too, in 1 row, not 4 holes in corners. But the problem remains, at least my slates are massively brittle around the holes, they must have been rehung several times- some even now have 6 holes, so someone must have turned them over to reuse. Personally I would be relieved if English Heritage would allow me anything new but then the original slates are massive and it would probably be impossible to buy new ones of the same size.

A neighbour has Cumbrian slate (they built their house from scratch and don't like the darker colour of the usual-for-round-here Welsh ones. I think they said it cost more, but that was a few decades ago. I suppose it depends on availability at the time.