Hall of Shame

Tar is Evil

There is a right way and a wrong way to repair your slate roof. A roofer with little or no knowledge of slate roof restoration may perform a "quick fix" on your roof for very little money. While this sounds like a good idea, the "quick fix" will cost you more in the future. The original problem areas will need to be correctly repaired along with the areas that became part of the "quick fix" but were not part of the original problem.

Below are pictures of "quick fixes".

gooey pipe

Note the tar slathered around the pipe. Not just the slates at the pipe were tarred but several in the immediate area were also tarred, detracting from the roof's beauty and functionality. The tar will not withstand the temperature changes that take place on a roof and will fail. Instead of repairing just the faulty slate to fix the problem, the homeowner will have to replace additional slates to maintain the functionality of the roof.

In this example, there was a leak in the homeowner's roof near the gutter. Instead of removing the slate to identify the problem a "quick fix" was employed. The roofer chose to spread tar the entire length of the roof hoping to catch the problem in the process.

gooey gutter

Some roofers patch the roof using anything they can find.

In this picture, you can see that the roofer used underlayment and half a piece of slate to cover a hole.

Face nailing and roof cement are also signs of improper repairs.

gooey chimney

So how do you find a qualified roofer?

Get several estimates. There are many roofers and many styles of roofs.

Make sure the roofer has experience in slate work and ask for references.

104 Shuff Drive, Red Lion, PA 17356

1-800-399-4114

Hall of Shame

Tar is Evil

So how do you find a qualified roofer?

At McCreesh Slate Roofing, 99% of our income is from slate and custom copper work.