The new house I'm buying has a slate roof on both the house and 2 car
garage.

The home inspector said the slate on the garage is going to need some
repairs in the neighborhood of a couple of thousand bucks -- not a big
area, but expensive because it's slate. He said the roof on the house
is basically sound, but based on the age and the look of some of the
slate, I should expect on doing annual maintenance of $300 or so to keep
it sound.

I'm wondering if it's a reasonable strategy to just remove all of the
slate from the garage, save the usable slate for reuse on the house, and
just replace the garage roof with asphalt. The garage is only visible
from the back of the house and the alley, so I don't feel like it's a
major aesthetic issue.

Obviously, the final decision will come down to estimates from roofers,
but I'd like to get a little more educated before I talk to them.

Issues I can think of a

Labor -- how labor intensive is it to strip slate from a garage roof in
way which won't damage it?

Storage -- is it possible to store half a garage roof's worth of slate
in the unheated garage so it won't take up a ton of room, won't get
damaged from frost, etc.

Value of slate -- is this likely to yield enough slate to significantly
reduce the cost of repairs to the house roof? I know the cost of
repairing slate roofs is high, but I don't know how much is driven by
labor and how much by raw material.

Thanks for any ideas.

Labor -- how labor intensive is it to strip slate from a garage roof in way
which won't damage it?

Very labor intensive, nearly impossible for some varieties of slate
(Pennsylvania slate, for example).

is it possible to store half a garage roof's worth of slate
in the unheated garage

Not recommended. Old time slaters always buried a lot of spare slates in the
ground stacked vertically under the eaves so that falling rain always kept them
moist and ready for use.

annual maintenance of $300 or so to keep
it sound.

In 20 years that works out to about the price of new asphalt shingles and
you've still got the roof over your head. And besides that the roof will still
look great. IMO, the $300 annual cost may be on the high side. Don't talk to a
roofer, find an honest-to-john slater. Properly cared for a slate roof will
outlast your grandchildren. HTH

Joe

Repair the slate. you havnt even bought the house and already what you
are thinking of doing will lower its value, not to smart.

Joe Bobst wrote:

Labor -- how labor intensive is it to strip slate from a garage roof in way
which won't damage it?

Very labor intensive, nearly impossible for some varieties of slate
(Pennsylvania slate, for example).

is it possible to store half a garage roof's worth of slate
in the unheated garage

Not recommended. Old time slaters always buried a lot of spare slates in the
ground stacked vertically under the eaves so that falling rain always kept them
moist and ready for use.

annual maintenance of $300 or so to keep
it sound.

In 20 years that works out to about the price of new asphalt shingles and
you've still got the roof over your head. And besides that the roof will still
look great. IMO, the $300 annual cost may be on the high side. Don't talk to a
roofer, find an honest-to-john slater. Properly cared for a slate roof will
outlast your grandchildren. HTH

I figured it wouldn't be easy to rassle a bunch of rocks off the roof and keep
them sound, but I figured it was worth checking.

I agree that it's worth keeping the slate on the house, but it's looking like
keeping the garage roof in slate is not going to be worth it.

Is there any other use for old slate tiles? Building garden walls? Paving a
patio? Making a walkway? Or is the stuff just too slippery and brittle?

m Ransley wrote:
Grur wrote

I'm wondering if it's a reasonable strategy to just remove all of the
slate from the garage, save the usable slate for reuse on the house, and
just replace the garage roof with asphalt.

Repair the slate. you havnt even bought the house and already what you
are thinking of doing will lower its value, not to smart.

How much would a slate roof on an unattached garage behind the house add to the
overall property value?

It is asthetic value. Roofers wll resell slates for more than your new
shingle roof 5- 25 a piece plus you old slate will outlast you new
roof. Get bids on site your inspector isnt a tile man.

Joe Bobst wrote:
snip
annual maintenance of $300 or so to keep
it sound.

In 20 years that works out to about the price of new asphalt shingles and
you've still got the roof over your head. And besides that the roof will still
look great. IMO, the $300 annual cost may be on the high side. Don't talk to a
roofer, find an honest-to-john slater. Properly cared for a slate roof will
outlast your grandchildren. HTH

Yep sounds high to me as well. Get and read _The Slate Roof Bible_ by
Jenkins. It should give you a solid start on you questions and give you a
better idea of what's involved, what to look for in a slater and so on.

It may be worthwhile to remove the slate from the garage if only beucase
it's a match for the house, but there's a lot to asses, particularly what
shape the slate's in and what's the nature of the reapirs you're in need
of.



John
--
Remove the dead poet to e-mail, tho CC'd posts are unwelcome.
Ask me about joining the NRA.

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 10:59:10 -0500, Grur wrote:

m Ransley wrote:
Grur wrote

I'm wondering if it's a reasonable strategy to just remove all of the
slate from the garage, save the usable slate for reuse on the house, and
just replace the garage roof with asphalt.

Repair the slate. you havnt even bought the house and already what you
are thinking of doing will lower its value, not to smart.

How much would a slate roof on an unattached garage behind the house add to the
overall property value?

On a $500,000 home it could be a $25,000 mistake.

I don't get this either. By the inspectors rough estimate, it's a
couple thousand to repair the garage slate rough. So, why would you
want to tear it all off and put up asphalt shingles, which is probably
going to cost a similar amount?