Slate roofs, common on many of the older properties across Fishponds, behave a little differently to tiled roofs when it comes to storm damage, and repairing them properly requires a slightly different approach. Slate is a naturally durable material, often outlasting the fixings that hold it in place, which is frequently the actual cause of storm-related failures rather than the slate itself giving way, sometimes after many decades of otherwise reliable service.
The nails or hooks used to fix slates to the roof battens corrode gradually over decades, and once a fixing has weakened enough, it takes comparatively little wind to work a slate loose, even though the slate itself might be in perfectly good condition. This is why storm damage on an older slate roof can sometimes seem disproportionate to the severity of the weather, since the underlying cause was years of gradual wear rather than the storm alone finding a genuinely new weakness, and the same pattern can then quietly repeat itself on other nearby fixings over time.
A displaced or cracked slate creates the same basic problem as a missing tile: an exposed gap in the roof covering that leaves the underlying felt directly exposed to the weather. Because slates typically overlap less generously than some tile profiles, a single displaced slate can sometimes expose a slightly larger area than the equivalent problem with a tiled roof, which is worth bearing in mind when judging how urgent a repair is, particularly if the displaced slate has left an adjoining course only partially covered.
Emergency repairs to a slate roof generally involve replacing the individual damaged slates, matching them as closely as possible to the existing roof in size, colour and thickness, since a mismatched patch can be visually obvious even where it performs perfectly well. Where the surrounding fixings show signs of corrosion, it is often worth replacing slates in the immediate area too, rather than just the one that has visibly failed, since those neighbouring fixings are likely to be of a similar age and condition.
Sourcing matching slate is occasionally more involved than sourcing a replacement tile, particularly for older or reclaimed slate types, which is one reason a temporary weatherproof cover is sometimes put in place first while the correct material is found, rather than leaving the exposed area unprotected in the meantime, which is a sensible precaution regardless of how quickly a replacement slate is expected to arrive.
If a slate roof on your Fishponds property has been damaged in recent storms, Brunel Roofing Bristol has experience with both modern and older, reclaimed slate roofing and can arrange an emergency call-out followed by a properly matched permanent repair carried out to a lasting standard.
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