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...

Replacing the slates with new should be cheaper than reusing the old ones and topping up with reclaimed. When we had our roof redone the roofer quoted significantly less for replacing with Cembrit Jutland fibre cement "slates" than for reusing the old ones, as he would get thousands for the old slates (big roof) and reroofing with the replacements would be much quicker/easier for him than using the old ones, which he led us to understand took more work - and skill - to use.