Ardoises

[Peterh]

I am in the process of recovering a roof in Spanish Slates described as "1erchoix".  A number of slates were broken and others broke in my hands.  As a precaution I have been lightly twisting slates before putting them on the roof and a large proportion (10% - 15%) have broken due to inherrent weekness.

 

I have two questions.  Namely, is it usual to expect a percentage to be broken and could I expect these to be replaced and, secondly, is it reasonable to subject slates to minor pressure prior to use?

 

I would add that I have bought these slates through a reputable builders merchants.  I would be grateful for any advice that can be offered.

 

Many Thanks,

 

Peter

[Val_2]

I spoke to my husband who has done roofing here professionally for years now and he said the following. Firstly when you say Premiere choix Spanish slates this does not guarantee the very best quality as it very much depends on the pit that they have come from and sometimes it can be from a pit that is closing down production. Also if you go into the real cheap places like Bricodepot they are offering first choice slates, but no professional would buy them from there because they are not good enough to guarantee. Our deliveries always come from the same source and are always marked up. That amount of wastage you have confirms the suspicions on the actual quality as that is a great deal, we do not have anywhere that much. Do not try and flex the slates, that will only encourage it to break further. Slates are meant to be laid flat to repell the weather,not be elastic and if they are going to break they will do when you crochet them onto the volige. In the meantime I would mention this wastage to your merchants who may return them to the origin and replace them for you, our suppliers certainly have no qualms about replacements if we report breakages above a certain percentage.

[Peterh]

Dear Val

Thank you for your reply to my posting. The original posting was done by my son whilst we were in France. The light twisting that I applied to the slates did show up some concealed weaknesses before I put them on the roof and I saved myself some grief thereby.
The lesson that I learned was to buy better quality materials in the first place as money and time would probably have been saved by doing so. The builders merchants did give me an extra 100 slates to compensate for those that broke but I lost rather more than that. In the event I took rather longer than expected to recover the roof after discovering timber that needed replacing as well as slates and battens but I did finish the job with a full 3 hours of my holiday left to enjoy so it could have been worse.

Thank you again for your advice.

Peter