Slate Roofing In North Wales
Reclaimed Welsh Slate Laid
The Way It Should Be

Reclaimed Welsh slate is the standard for period property in Gwynedd, Anglesey, Conwy and Denbighshire. Sourced properly it is sound, dense slate that has already proven itself for a century. Sorting is the whole job: slate is graded by thickness and size, damaged and delaminating pieces are discarded, and the heaviest is laid low on the roof where the weather load is greatest.

Because reclaimed slate comes in mixed sizes, setting out matters: courses have to be planned so that lines stay straight and laps stay correct as sizes change up the roof. That is the difference between a reclaimed roof that looks like the original and one that looks patched.

New Spanish, Chinese and Brazilian slate covers most budgets, with quality varying widely by grade and quarry: thickness, sound when tapped and iron content all matter, and we specify accordingly. New natural slate gives a very consistent finish and is the usual choice where reclaimed supply is limited or the building is modern.

Artificial and fibre-cement slate is lighter, cheaper and dimensionally perfect. It suits lower-pitched roofs, structures that cannot take the weight of natural slate, and budgets where a full natural reroof is out of reach. We will tell you plainly where it is appropriate and where it will look wrong.

Valleys, whether lead-lined open valleys or swept and laced work on traditional roofs, take the concentrated flow off two pitches. Abutments and chimneys need stepped flashings and soakers in the correct lead code. Verges need to be properly pointed or dry-verged so wind cannot get under the edge slate.

Fixings are chosen for the location: copper or stainless where the atmosphere is salt-laden, which on Anglesey and the Conwy coast is most of the time. Nails are driven so the slate hangs, not so it is clamped; a slate that cannot move cracks.

If fixings are generally sound and the slate is not delaminating, individual slipped slates are refixed and the roof carries on. Where one elevation has failed but the others have not, relaying a single elevation is often the right economic answer, reusing sound slate from that pitch.

Where nail fatigue is general or slate is flaking across the roof, a full strip and relay is the only work that ends the problem. We will tell you which of the three you are looking at and why, and we will not sell you a reroof you do not need.