Traditional Slate Roof Pitch

With over 10 years of experience in roofing and custom copper work tsr offers the best solutions for all kinds of roofing related problems.

Traditional slate roof pitch. Slate was especially soigne he felt for french roof houses where the lower part of the inimitable double pitch mansard roofs could be imbricated in patterned shapes and colors such as green purple and red. It is uncommon to find a roof below 15 but for those very low pitch applications there are interlocking clay pantiles available suitable for use down to 12 5. Pitch of roof in general the lower the pitch of the roof the greater should be the lap. Underlayments are installed on the roof deck prior to the installation of the slate roofing shingles.

Traditional slate roofing is a slate roofing company based in cleveland ohio. These are utilized in residential applications. With regards to the pitch the building standard code bs 5534 recommends a minimum pitch of 200 for slate roofs. The steeper the slope the less water migration there will be.

But since there is still a wide variety of slate roofing systems there are occasions when the minimum pitch can go down to as low as 15 0 depending on the uniqueness of the roof. However our technical team always believed that it would be possible to specify natural slates with confidence at lower than 20 if the circumstances were right. In slate roofing water migration is controlled primarily by the angle of the roof s slope. By the 1870s as truly large houses become more widespread prominent roofs continued to grow in importance.

It is agreed that the roof pitch should be a minimum of 20 degrees preferably a bit more. The minimum recommended pitch of a natural slate roof is a function of the exposure level of the site location. Traditionally a minimum roof pitch of 20 was recommended in bs 5534 but modern tiles and slates have now been designed for applications as low as 15. Traditionally natural slate roofs were not recommended below 20 pitch.

You consider some alternative solutions. For exposed sites wide slates with a greater lap should be used see clause 18 of bs 5534. Roof underlayments include traditional asphalt saturated organic felts. This longer lap will help to resist both capillary action and wind uplift.

On steeper pitches with free flowing drainage smaller slates may be used. A couple of likely slate suppliers are consulted and they confirm that they are happy to supply 600x300mm slates for a minimum roof pitch of 20 degrees assuming a minimum lap of 125mm. Some of the most common roof pitch types are conventional slope type roofs designed with pitch ranging from 4 12 to 9 12.