Natural roof slates

darkstream

Folks,

Need to decide shortly on the type of slate to put on our roof. We are going down the road of the spanish natural slate and have been looking at 4 types in particular.The Cupa R5, the Cupa Campo 98, the Sierra and the Leon. Has anyone out there used any of these or heard anything about them.

All advice welcome!

nager

Make sure that the slate has an Irish agrement cert or a British cert. Some of the Spanish slates are too brittle and are not suitable for the Irish market. Ask the supplier what product guarantee that it comes with.
Get samples and test the strength of each of them yourself before you make a decision.
There have been problems with some of the rubbish that has been imported. Sorry, but I don’t remember the names – but I know one development in Dublin had re-roof about 40 houses because the slates were not up to standard.

darkstream

Thanks Nager. Do you happen to know why they weren't suitable - were they too brittle, water absorption too high, excessive pyrite or some other reason? (was told all natural slates contain pyrite, is this true?)

Also, should all natural slates hold their colour? Thought I noticed some that were originally dark turning a greyish white colour in patches.

Again, all help is welcome!

nager

The reasons they were not accepted by DOE was because they had no agrement cert. Not sure what the exact problem with them was.

I know that some of them are very brittle - and shouldn't be even sold by some of the main distributors if they don't have agrement cert. My sister used a cheaper Spanish one on her house - they are fine once they are not touched - but the guy fitting the aerial broke a pile of them. He swore that he laid he roof ladder normally on the roof. I will check with a roofer I know which ones he recommends and send you a PM

FergusD

We used the Campo and so far (18 months in), have had no issues or breakages so far. The roofer liked them and he was very keen to see the slate we were buying before we bought it! They're on with hooks, but it's quite exposed on one side. We bought them off a rep who was a dream to deal with, drop me a line if you want details.

Fergus.

darkstream

Thanks Nager and FergusD for your help. I had to make a quick decision and opted for the Sierra. It was between the Sierra and the Cupa Campo 98 but the builder showed me a house with the Sierra on it and that tipped it in the end. They have the British and European cert and seemed strong enough so hopefully all will be grand with them.

Thespoofer

Bumping this thread. In the middle if an extension for myself and looking at the possibility of using natural slate.

Any recommendations on which type ? I know I don't like the large blue Bangor type ones ( plus the price ) but seem to lean towards a smaller heavier slate as they look well.

Thanks for any info.

Ps. Money is tight so...