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anyone got a strong opinion on this? Aluminium: -cheaper -supposedly weaker -corrosion resistant copper: - Just bloody expensive -what most people consider the nail for slates

I need to re-roof/slate my 'typical' town-terrace property + upgrade its insulation. As a 'hands-on' tradesmam/handyman my work included small roof + gutter repair issues etc; So whilst aware + competant of some of the work & its detailing to meet regs, I need an amount more knowledge to accomplish everything this entails. I plan to be hands-on, assisted by say a roofer/tradesman (retired?) able to work up to the high standard I desire. I think, to obtain the guidance needed I'd best seek some practically orientated on-site advice/consultation, perhaps from a local roofer (retired?) or architect. . . . Can anyone suggest the precise profession/type of person to ask. I DON'T want to be just fed theory - I want practical tips & a site visit or 2. I'm north of Leicester. Info about current roof etc:- Roof renewed in the 70's in cement tile in an all-round poor quality job, now needs doing sympathetically. My finances are limited - I'd input some tools, be hands-on + my limited knowledge; further motivated to keep job in-house as scared of being 'hoodwinked' by a deceitful professional. A bonding gutter will be required where my roof joins neighbour, see left on photo 1. Is a cold roof - but to up-grade its thermal element I'd ideally now add insulation above rafters to the existing between rafters, thus course raising roof height by say 50mm too, but possibly unrealistic! . . as need to integrate with neighbours roof. Adding more insulation within existing attic room impractical as seriously impinges on current limited height/width. Thanks any suggestions.

Sometimes you just have to suck it up. And now is as good a time as any to accept that we aren't going to get a roofer to come and help before Christmas. I have asked til I'm blue in the face: no dice. Debbie's being brave about it, conclusion: I'd better Just Bloody Do It. So, I'll be paying for my own mistakes rather than pay for those of others. Differently put: the Full-On-DIY -experience. I thought I'd teach myself how and in the process, document it. And then read your critiques. And wince I expect. This post builds on the earlier thread about the Piggery, and the roof beam saga : that proved remarkably painless, and quite safe, for two people because we'd thought it through. It only weighed 160 kg : just over 7 meters long. £500 crane fees saved. The very nice man from Haldane Fisher's HIAB played a key role: it's reach was about 2 meters short of what was needed. Some ya win. Where are we now? Here : a set of rafters which are currently subject to close inspection by our swallows, What's the roof build up? Rafters Counter battens Felt Battens Slate There's provision for a few kWh of PV, and a Velux in there somewhere too. I list the better resources I have found below. Most of them contain commercial material, none of which I or BH endorse(s). As usual when faced by this type of problem, I resort to YooChube, hence: How to slate a roof: layout ready for slating, Slating a roof, reference points The accompanying website There are many other sites: This one is Irish, very well edited, deals with the basics - some interesting comments too Setting out: perhaps a bit direct, but detailed images Setting out the lats: brief but to the point Wincing, I add this video because with the sound off and ignoring H+S its illustrates a 'normal' truss roof DIY Doctor often focuses on repair, but this is about tiling and battening as well as felting Construction Channel carries a series of time-lapse based videos about roofing at least four of them are here There's nowt like reading the comments under many of the videos: my God they can be bitchy: I thought it was only lecturers who were bitchy about colleagues' practice. I'll add to the list above time goes by. If you find a good support / teaching / learning resource about roofing and slating, please share it below. Ian

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.