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Rob wrote:

wrote:
Unless you walk on them, I think they are indestructible.

I had a house here near Chicago built in 1899 the original roof is
still on it! It's that greenish gray slate that came from somewhere in
Vermontt.Since we bought the house in 1977 there has only been two
problems with the roof.
Once the roof started leaking in a certain area. The great thing about
these roofs is you just look at it and see the problem. I could see a
missing tile in the leaking area. I found the tile in the gutter and
"sistered" it back in. Working up there was a bit of a pain because (as
noted) you can't walk on the roof (used "chicken ladders") and the
pitch is rather steep.
Another time a "roofer" worked on a flat roof that was at the base of a
portion of the slate. After the job was done the slate roof was
leaking. I went up there and I could see where he had "helped me out"
by mopping in the bottom few courses of slate with hot tar. I solved
the problem by cutting the tiles lose again.
There seems to have been maybe 30 to 40 repairs done on this roof in
the 105 years it has been up. You can tell because previous owners
apparently couldn't match the tile so they took tile from a portion of
the roof you can't see from the street and replaced it with a non
matching slate.
Richard

The New Hampshire/Vermont slates are said to be very long lasting slates.

My mom owns a Timber Frame English Tudor built in 1829 in New Jersey and it
has a Vermont Roof. It also has copper gutters, she has lost 1 slate in 50
years she knows of. Its a very steep roof and the snow never sticks to it.
--
"you can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"