NewToAllOfThis Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 (edited) Hi All, Looking for Natural Slates and trying to work to a sensible budget and have been pointed to Spanish slates as offering best value for money. Can anyone recommend any Spanish slates tiles, or advise as to any to avoid. Would also welcome any recommendations as to where to buy them from and any companies to avoid. Edited October 14, 2020 by NewToAllOfThis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 My builder used Spanish slate supplied by our local builders merchant, good quality and looks very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 SIGA are a big firm and seem fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnb Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 I found that Brazillian grey-green slates were a fair bit cheaper than Spanish in the size I was looking for. They are thicker with a more pronounced edge so may not give the look you are wanting, but they were ideal for my build. Mine were sourced through a local roofing supply company because of local transport issues. There are some slate pictures on my latest blog entry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan F Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 Two big spanish slate suppliers are are SSQ and Cupa. Take a look at their websites: https://www.cupapizarras.com/uk/ http://www.ssqgroup.com/ There a are a number of large national roofing merchants, one of which is burtonroofing.co.uk/, they are owned or partly-owned by Cupa so don't stock SSQ. I found them very helpful though when I called for some advice. https://europeanslate.co.uk/ is another supplier, but we didn't look at these. We really like the SSQ El Carmen, but decided to use Cupa R12 as it was cheaper and grey rather than black/blue, which we preffered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan F Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 To give you an idea on price for 500x250mm "first" grade: - SSQ Del Prado was around £1.50. - SSQ Del Carmen around £2.25 - Cupa R12 around £1.75 Welsh slate, I was told was up at the £5 mark. The canadian slate is a good alternative for Welsh slate, but is more expensive than Spanish, at approx £2.50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Potter Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 As slate is a natural material it does vary as you work through the quarry / mine face. Take say a traditional Welsh slate, it can be quite thin but hard wearing and durable and the proof is available to see. They can be made thin partly as the bed is more uniform, less subject to inclusions and so on. One key is to also look for a good slater that has been properly trained with plenty experience. They will cost you a bit more but if you buy a cheeper slate / poorer quality slate then they will sort out a lot of the obvious (and less obvious too) duff ones when they are grading the slates. All batches need graded by thickness. You put the thicker ones at the bottom, thinner at the top. I made a post before about grading and so on. They will also fix the slates properly so that you can get in to maintain the roof easily as time passes, tailing where required - tiny tails - say 10- 20mm or larger ones if you want the visual effect. With a good slater you can still get a good roof without paying top whack for the slates. Or you can get a "gold star roof" with top quality slates and a top quality slater.. but there is a bit more wallet damage, although it will last for many, many years and more after that! There is a difference in the traditional methods of fixing slates as you move round the country as this knowledge has been passed down the generations. Thus it's worth speaking to your local slater as well as looking at the big supplier's technical guidance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewToAllOfThis Posted October 15, 2020 Author Share Posted October 15, 2020 Hi Dan, Would you be able to provide details as to where you got the prices from as I can't find them that low Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thedreamer Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 22 hours ago, NewToAllOfThis said: Hi All, Looking for Natural Slates and trying to work to a sensible budget and have been pointed to Spanish slates as offering best value for money. Can anyone recommend any Spanish slates tiles, or advise as to any to avoid. Would also welcome any recommendations as to where to buy them from and any companies to avoid. I used Cupa heavies. Got them from Jewsons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan F Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 1 hour ago, NewToAllOfThis said: Hi Dan, Would you be able to provide details as to where you got the prices from as I can't find them that low https://www.burtonroofing.co.uk/cupa-r12-500-x-250mm-natural-roof-slates-holed.html £1.83 if you buy 1000+. I'm sure you can shop around though, or your roofer may have a trade account. The Del Prado price was what our roofer told us, not seen it personally. Also, I heard that quote a lot of people that use Cupa opt for the cheaper H range, which just requires more on-site grading apparently. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewToAllOfThis Posted October 16, 2020 Author Share Posted October 16, 2020 Thank you everyone for all your time and input, ordered some samples from SSQ and Cupa range Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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