Anyone ever remove asphalt roof-overs from slate mansards and try to keep the slate? What do you fill the nail holes with? The slate looks and feels very sound, some one got talked into covering it, instead of fixing the flashing leaks
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yikes.. you're kidding , right ?
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Yikes!
Man!
This we gotta see!!!!
I thought I'd heard it all.Guess I was wrong.Asphalt over slate?This could be a new standard in stupidity.You have to find the guy that did this-I need to sell him a bridge.
I hace seen asphalt over slate zillions of times----in fact I have seen plywood over slate with 2 layers of asphalt shingles on top. I have NEVER heard of anyone trying to strip the top layer of asphalt and then save the slate underneath .
my point exactly.... the slate is toast... no , wait.... it's swiss cheese...Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Swiss cheese on toast.
Rich Beckman
I wish I were kidding! I don't want to sell these guys a bridge, I'd like to thorw them off one. We have removed some of the asphalt (verrrry carefully) and the slate actually looks good except for the holes. Unfortunately, it not all that uncommom to find slate under asphalt, I think it was some '70s thing.
seriously, yikes.. if it were one or two.. or even ten or twenty.. you could slip a copper flash under the slate....
but this thing has to have hundreds or thousands of holes.. not to mention, it got roofed over because there was something wrong to begin with..don't waste any more money on this one.... time to strip and reroofMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I would do anything I could to save the slate. Asphalt looks like total crap compared to slate, especially on the highly visable part of a mansard. I suggest getting in touch with Joseph Jenkins, a slate guy in PA (wrote the Slate Roof Bible, highly recommended by the way), who might have some advice on whether the roof can be salvaged and if so how it might be done. You can find him at http://www.jenkinsslate.com
I have no idea whether or not your roof can be saved, but if it were mine (and I do have a slate roof!) I would exhaust all other avenues before stripping. I suppose you could always reslate after stripping, but I haven't seen or heard of anyone doing that since it is much cheaper to just slap on the asphalt after the roof is bare.
-Holly
We are a not-for -profit doing rehab and have repaired/re-roofed in slate before. We would do anything not to use asphalt if the original roof was slate. Our contractor has been refering to the "Slate Bible" already so I'm comfortable we will come up with a viable solution, even if it means new slate.
Just thought I'd update you folks. We're pulling off all the slate, culling out the cracked and swiss cheese pieces, checking & repairing sheathing, & re-installing the slate with new flashing( the real problem as it turns out).There was also a little matter of an architectual detail at the dormers where they meet the roof that a good cant strip would have solved. We're buying new slate slate to replace the unusable ones & installing it on the face mansard. There goes my raise! Thanks all. Yikes.
There are no real problems, it's only money.
Awesome! Way to go with doing it right! Luckily my roof is in great shape so I am not forced with these tough decisions, but I like to think that if I was in your situation I would persevere and do the right thing like you have, painful as it is to the bank account.
Good luck,
-Holly
Believe it or not there many slates with no holes because of the overlap of the "hurricane" asphalt. Many slate roofs were covered because during the '60s & '70s it was difficult to find anyone who knew how to repair them. Usually it was the flashing that failed and the owner was then talked into re-roofing as an answer. We're still keeping an open mind on the best approach