New Roofs & Roof Coverings
Slate roofing for traditional and modern properties
Slate is the defining roof covering of this region, from Lakeland stone-built cottages to Victorian terraces in Carlisle. Laid properly it outlasts everyone who worked on it; laid badly it fails at the fixings within a decade.
- 24/7 emergency line
- Free written quotations
- Fully insured work
24/7
Emergency roofing response across Cumbria and the Borders, answered day and night.
Slate Roofing: the short answer
Slate roofing covers the installation and repair of natural and fibre-cement slate roofs. Natural slate is the traditional covering across much of Cumbria and the Borders, has an exceptionally long service life, and is usually limited by its fixings rather than the slate itself.
Who this is for
- Owners of traditional stone and brick properties with slate coverings
- Conservation area and listed properties requiring an appropriate match
- New build and extension projects specifying slate
- Anyone with slipped or delaminating slates
Signs you need this work
Slates slipping in ones and twos
Nail fatigue. Once it starts, it continues across the roof.
Flaking or layered slate faces
Delamination — the slate is at end of life and will not survive refixing.
Tingles visible on the roof
Metal clips holding replacement slates indicate previous piecemeal repairs and often an ageing roof.
Your options
Individual slate replacement
Matched slates refixed with copper or stainless tingles or hooks.
Area recovering
Stripping and relaying a slope with new underlay, battens and fixings.
Full slate re-roof
Complete replacement where fixings have failed generally.
Materials and specification
Welsh and Spanish natural slate
Selected for thickness, colour and grade to suit the property and budget.
Reclaimed slate
Used where a conservation match requires it, hand-sorted for soundness.
Fibre-cement slate
A lighter, lower-cost alternative with a consistent appearance.
Copper and stainless fixings
Non-corroding nails and hooks so the fixings outlast the last set.
Helpful roofing advice
Independent guidance from our advice centre — what the symptoms may mean and what your options are, before you commit to any work.
How it works
Our process, step by step
Assess covering and fixings
The condition of the nails matters more than the condition of the slate.
Source the match
New or reclaimed slate matched in size, thickness and colour.
Prepare the substrate
Breathable underlay and graded battens set to the correct gauge and lap.
Lay and detail
Slates fixed to the right head lap, with lead soakers, valleys and verge details formed properly.
Why it matters
What you get from doing it properly
Correct head lap for exposure
Lap is set for your site's wind-driven rain exposure, not a default.
Sympathetic matching
Repairs that do not read as patches from the street.
Fixings chosen to last
Copper or stainless rather than the galvanised nails that caused the original failure.
Common questions
Related
Work that often goes with this
New Roofs & Re-Roofing
A new roof means stripping the existing covering back to the rafters and rebuilding with new underlay, battens, covering, flashings and roofline details. It is the right decision when fixings have failed across the whole roof, when the covering has reached the end of its service life, or when repairs are recurring faster than they can be justified.
Tiled Roofing
Tiled roofing covers clay and concrete tile installation and repair, including plain tiles, pantiles and interlocking profiles. Tile choice affects weight, minimum pitch, appearance and service life, and the right tile depends on the roof structure as much as on preference.
Heritage & Traditional Roofing
Heritage roofing is the repair and renewal of roofs on listed, historic and traditionally built properties using materials and techniques appropriate to the original construction — natural slate and stone slate, lime mortar, traditional leadwork and hand-formed detailing — and carried out within the consents the building's status requires.
Roof Repairs
Planned roof repair fixes an identified defect — slipped slates, cracked tiles, failed flashings, valley or ridge problems — before it becomes water ingress. Repairs are appropriate where the covering and structure are otherwise sound and the fault is localised.
Coverage
Slate Roofing across our patch
Carlisle and north Cumbria are our core area. We work regularly across the rest of Cumbria and southern Scotland, and take planned projects further afield.
Not sure what your roof needs?
Tell us what you are seeing and we will tell you honestly whether it is a repair, a maintenance job or something that needs replacing. Consultations and written quotations are free.