Salvaged slate & Nu-Lok system on ord...

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Author Message   chris26 Posted on Sunday, March 12, 2006 - 11:00 pm:        Hi--I am a non-wealthy homeowner in Boston wondering if it is at all feasable to put a slate roof on my modest (but charming) 1915 house using salvaged slate and the Nu-Lock system (since I am assuming the labor costs for regular installation will be far beyond my budget). My roof needs to be replaced anyway, and I am a bit of a historic-preservation buff, as well as a person who really likes to use salvaged & recycled materials (partly since the old stuff is often much better made than the new!). There are a few (ordinary) houses on my street with old slate roofs, so it doesn't seem totally out of character for the neighborhood. Would a slate roofing contractor just laugh at me if I asked them about this? I am currently looking for salvaged slate and I'm finding that it's not that unusual in the Boston area to find homeowners/others either with slate just lying around their garages or else tearing off slate roofs. My house is not large (about 1400 s.f., 2 stories, farmhouse style). I am willing to use different colors/shapes together if I have to.   TonyEriePA Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 10:23 am:        I might be wrong but doesn't Nu-Lock do away with the headlap requirement and have much larger exposures than would be the case for traditional slating (or maybe I'm thinking of one of the other new systems?). The two above items would likely mean that any salvaged slate would have its nail holes exposed to the elements which means the roof would leak wicked!   TonyEriePA Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 10:52 am:        Yes, the traditional method lets you have a roof that's two slates thick over ~2/3 of the field and three slates thick over a ~third of the field. Some of the new systems can have a field that's only 1 slate thick over >50% and two slates thick over <50% of the field ... so any slate damage is more likely to result in immediate and more damage to interior ceilings etc because there's a smaller double protective layer of slate on the roof.   mjh Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 05:13 pm:        Here in England, I'm not familiar with the NU-LOCK system of slating, but if what TonyEriePA says is right then zero headlap does'nt seem like a good way to save money. It's probably cheaper to pay a good slater and save yourself a lot of repair work over the comeing years.