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It's all @Construction Channel, @Barney12, @Triassic, @vfrdave ' s faults. I have decided to try and slate the roof of our little piggery. The key factor in my decision is the simplicity of the roof. It's five meters long and dead straight (now) Well, got to save money somehow. And as SWMBO says, it keeps me off the streets. I anticipate going into a lot of detail, so this post will be one of a few: I'll make a little navbar within this and subsequent posts. (There's nothing to link to yet, so the doesn't work). Why do that? Because it will make it easier for potential roofers to follow the threads. This (will be) one of a series [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The background We have an old piggery which is not subject to Building Regs that has been knocked down (under Permitted Development) and rebuilt (badly: there's a really big curve in the west wall - one of the reasons we sacked the builder). Again at @Construction Channel's encouragement I built the roof like this.... using recycled wood from the shuttering disaster (another reason we sacked the builder) By the way, I colour-coded the recycled wood : red paint means there are or were nails in the wood, green means that the recycled wood is metal-free). Ask me why I do that now The roof now looks like this: I re-used some OSB left over from the shuttering and covered it with normal 'shed' felt. I thought I'd do a quick review of what others have posted about slate roofing (all summarised from BH posts where the term 'slate' is in the title: 'slate' in the title and content brings up too many results) @pudding posted a useful shopping list here for a similar project. As usual, there's good advice on costs and the causes of costs . There's reference to the roofing superstore. @Temp reminds us that battens need to be treated and meet BS5534. @pudding (and I) forgot to think about eaves protectors: but they're fairly cheap. @vfrdave's post here continues the concern about verges, his post raises issues I didn't even know about (unknown unknowns) ; drip profile, drip beads, Kytun dry verge, (and how to trim it, thanks @JSHarris) Nails. @Construction Channel's special subject when he gets on to Master Mind. Answer? Copper. Want the detail: it's here @Barney12 s post is the one that set me thinking about whether I could do it too. Several people suggested he look at YooChube videos: so here's a link to 20 or 30 relevant videos. @RichS advice on the above thread chimes well with what I have heard from several sources: take your time on the first (bottom) course. The issue of plastic slates is discussed here: they're news to me. Maybe I should consider them: shame there's no discussion on price in this thread.Size matters: there's a whole whirlwind of slate-related technobabble (just as bad as JavaScript coders) here, but within the post is this gem about traditional roofing ; and then there's the normal self-build concern 'How much? Ya jokin' mate' @Leaway asks about verge end caps. I don't know what a verge end cap might be: but this kind of explains what one is, and this link explains it properly (google image search) Then there's this quite important post about doing it yourself started by @Tin Soldier. It certainly put lead in my pencil about the whole issue. It's a must-read. Next: weighing the job up.