Cutting Ballachulish slates

[NotJustin]

Hi all

 

I am renovating my ballachulish slate roof. Will I be able to cut the slates with a hand cutter? Or should I splash out on a Malco TSNS1 Slate Cutting Turbo Shear?

Thanks for any tips.

 

Justin

[Mr Punter]

I have never seen one of those before.  It seems quite expensive as a drill attachment.  If this is the only slate roofing you have to do, why not give the normal hand cutters a go?

[joe90]

I have a hand cutter but also used an old trowel and support (can’t remember what this method is called).

[Gus Potter]

Love this stuff!

 

Don't bother with a slate cutter. To get you started, buy a slating axe. I have a left handed one..as I'm cack handed. I use an off cut of a steel I beam over which I dress the slates.

 

Some basic points which I hope may be of use to someone.

 

You need to grade the slates. The thicker and wider ones go at the bottom near the eaves. I grade second hand slates ( you need to do this with new slate too to make a proper job) into three piles. You can do four but you may lose the will to live. Grading the slates basically helps you keep the roof tight and flat. Have a look at an old slated roof and you will see thicker wider slates at the bottom, thinner narrower ones at the top.

 

When you get to the verge or a valley you need to turn the slate and trim it the other way. What you are doing here is to encourage the water to move back into the roof in the case of a verge.. so it does not drip down the gable walls. In the case of a valley you are trying to stop constant dripping on to the lead valley and making a hole over the years. You try and channel the water down to the gutter so it drips here and this is where you often have a thicker lead piece. You call this "tailing" of the slate. This can't really be done with a machine..it's a craft.

 

In Scotland it rains a lot, much is light rain.. so it drips a lot. In England say you tend to have much more intense rain.. thus the flash flooding but more dry spells and less of that constant dripping.

 

I want to have a rant now!

 

The new home warranty providers and a lot of the slate providers require that all slates are double nailed at the head. Great if your poviding a 10 year warranty, eg if a slate cracks you often don't see it as it does not fall out like a single nailed slate. But a good well maintained roof should last for at least 80 years? For the roof pro's.. repairing a double nailed / every slate roof is hard going? You can fix the slate but the slate ripper causes more damage that is hidden? Yes there are repair type clips and so on but..

 

A common traditional method of slating in Scotland is to single nail each slate in the main part of the roof. Every third course you cheek nail a row of the slates, these slates now have three nails and stop the ones below from lifting off in the wind.

 

This way when you want to maintain the roof you can get into turn the slates and easily extract the broken one without damaging the felt / membrane underneath.

 

It's worth I think trying to master this skill, it can be very rewarding.

 

I have left this out but make sure you choose the slate nails carefully depending on whether you are near the sea or not.

 

You'll have a bit of wastage until you get the hang of it. Use the trimmings / wastage as decorative material for paths etc?

 

What is worth while doing is investing in a slate holing machine. You turn the slate upside down. The punch makes a concave hole in the top side of the slate and the nail head sits nicely inside so it does not tip up the slate on top..helps get the " tight roof". You can hole the slates by hand but I would suggest getting a feel for cutting / shaping / tailing them first.

 

All the best. Gus

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NotJustin]

Super info, thank you!

 

I have a load of copper nails to do it with. The roof is 180 years old.

This is what I'm working on:

 

Edited July 28, 2020 by Justin Tuijl

[Gus Potter]

Justin.

 

What a project!

 

Roughly where is it? How far north, west or east?

 

What are you doing with it?

 

For all. If you are introducing insulation and start to seal things up then you start to loose the drafts.. roof / floor ventilation and so on.

 

Again for all.. generally dry / wet rot etc does not thrive in cold, dark drafty environments. The more drafts the drier things tend to be.. but that does not fit with the way we want to live now.

 

 

[NotJustin]

It's in Lochcarron. 

The roof has nail sickness.