Slate

Eve1

Just wondering does anyone have any reccommendations on man made slates. I have seen so many between fibre and rubber that it is getting confusing. I am mainly considering ones that have a ten year colour guarantee but I was told by one company that the guarantee wasn't up to much.

rooferPete

Hi Eve,

My advice and the advice of the manufacturers of the recycled rubber / vinyl slates is don't use them unless you are going to deck out your roof with plywood.

The nearest you will get to a quality finish with fibre / cement is Tegral Riven finish.

For a real colour fast finish you have natural slate and tiles, even these can be effected by overhanging trees and moss / lichen especially if your site is surrounded by trees or if you have an aerial on the roof.

The vast majority of suppliers and manufacturers can give guarantees based on the roof remaining water tight most have disclaimers with regards to the colour and some even have disclaimers if you do not use their approved contractors.

The ceramic tile product that came on the market can give colour fast guarantees however they do not claim your roof will not turn green or become covered in moss because they can't control every working environment.

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Eve1

Thanks Rooferpete,
unfortunately we decided we had to draw the line with natural slate as we would be buying an inferior product if we were to keep reasonably within budget. I have loads of info on Tegral so I'll read up on that one tonight,

Cheers,
Eve

yop

Eve, we have a "natural look" slate, called Rivendale from Tegral. A good number of peopel have commented on where did u get ur slate from, it must have cost ya, when I told them it was not real they were suprised.

Eve1

Yeah I saw it at the self build, it looks nice allright but its pricey enough isn't it?

Builderwoman!

Hi there Eve,

Now this is a subject close to my heart at the moment...ask Pete! We have been up and down the natural slate, fibre slate, rubber slate, concrete tile road over the past number of weeks. We have been talking to reps and companies and got quotes galore. Our criteria is that we want a decent looking roof that will not get really shabby looking in 4-5 years. So colour guarantee is important and of course price. We had a further issue with a low pitch on one part of our roof which meant that we could not use Rivendale from Tegral as the pitch was too low to use them. I have to say our roofer too recommended Rivendale highly and I think if the pitch wasn't an issue we would certainly have chosen them. So we had to look at alternatives.

My conclusions from all the phone calls and research I have done to date is that:
a) Brazilan slate is the Penny's of slates. (No disrespect to anyone using it but our roofers would not recommend it at all)
b) Good quality natural slate was not viable for us as the slates themselves cost a lot, there would be a lot of waste, a lot of time grading and fitting and our roofers price would have increased significantly plus the time to do the roof would have been much longer and as we will be renting a house shortly (our house sold in a week...we had allowed six months!!!) so therefore time is money to us. Natural slate was going to be slow and expensive.
c) Concete tiles, while very cheap €432 per 1000 plus vat, were not for us either as they only had a four year colour guarantee.
d) Rubber tiles did not convince us!

So having talked to an good company in Dublin (sell nationwide though) Blue Bangor Slate Co and to Richmond Building Products they suggested clay tiles to us. You can get a range of colours including black which has a 30 year guarantee (even on colour as the colour is baked into the tile). It comes in over 35% cheaper than natural slate and I think cheaper than Rivendale. We have looked at some roof jobs and clay tiles with the nices ridges and verges look very very well. Fitting is the same as concrete tiles. We have decided to go for clay tiles and are just about to finalise a deal shortly. So hopefully we will have really nice roof at a good price. Have to say I would recommend you give Seamus a call from Blue Bangor on 087 2283836 or Ken from Richmond 087 6622255 and have a chat with him about all their products. They rep a lot of companies and products and give very good advice.

CJhaughey

My 2cents worth, Tegral and Capco both produce Fibre-cement tiles that are very similar if not almost identical.
I have looked at both ranges and will probably go with the Capco for cost reasons the basic flat finish blue/black slate is 1.21 inclusive.
for the textured and riven edge look it comes in at approximately 1.50 inclusive.
I intend to go with the plain jane blue/black slates called Berona.
They all do the same job and TBH unless you are looking at a roof in detail it is difficult to tell them apart.

rooferPete

Hi CJH,

There is a difference between the Tegral and Capco products so much to the point where I would prefer concrete tiles over the Capco product.

The appearance of a roof today is not what counts the big difference is five to ten years down the road, while Capco do stock some decent products Tegral are the manufacturer which gives the buyer a lot more to fall back on in the future.

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