Slate and tile roof repairs Dublin

The short answer

Slates and tiles fail one at a time. The repair is to put that one right, match it, and check the ones around it before they go too.

We repair natural slate, fibre-cement slate, concrete tile and clay tile roofs across Dublin, along with the ridges, hips, valleys and flashings that hold them together.

Send a photo of the slipped slate or the gap and we will price it. Most slate and tile repairs are a half day from a roof ladder; work on a steep pitch or a high roof gets a tower and that is in the quote.

Slate roofs in Dublin

The Victorian and Edwardian terraces and the redbrick semis of the older suburbs, from Rathgar and Ranelagh across to Drumcondra and Glasnevin, mostly carry natural slate, much of it the blue-grey Welsh slate that came in by the shipload a century ago. Slate itself lasts a very long time. The nails holding it do not. When the nail rusts through, the slate slides down the roof and either lodges in the gutter or ends up on the path. The slate is usually fine; it is refixed with a lead or copper tingle, a strip that hooks under the bottom edge and holds it where the nail used to.

Where slates are cracked, delaminating or missing, they are replaced with a matching slate, reclaimed where the roof is old enough that a new slate would look wrong. Fibre-cement slates on the houses built from the nineties on are a different material and are matched to the maker's profile and colour.

Tile roofs in Dublin

The estates built from the sixties through the eighties across the city and county were mostly roofed in concrete interlocking tiles. They are heavy, they last, and the problems are nearly always at the edges rather than in the field of the roof: ridge tiles where the mortar bedding has cracked and fallen out, verges where the pointing has gone, and the odd tile cracked by someone walking on it to fit an aerial or clean a gutter.

Clay tiles turn up on some older and some newer houses. They are more brittle than concrete and crack in frost once the glaze or the surface has worn. Both are replaced like for like, with the fixing clip or nail renewed, and the tiles around the repair checked while we are there.

Slate and tile repairs we carry out

All matched to the existing roof, all photographed before and after.

• Slipped slates refixed with lead or copper tingles
• Cracked, missing and delaminating slates replaced, reclaimed slate used on older roofs
• Cracked and displaced concrete and clay tiles replaced and clipped
• Ridge and hip tiles rebedded and pointed, or refixed on a dry ridge system where mortar has failed more than once
• Verges repointed or fitted with dry verge units
• Valleys cleared, patched or relined in lead or GRP
• Lead flashings at chimneys, walls and dormers renewed in Code 4 or Code 5 milled lead
• Torn felt and rotten battens under the repair replaced

Matching the repair to the roof

A repair that stands out from the road is a poor repair. Slates are matched for colour, thickness and size, which on an old roof means reclaimed slate from a merchant rather than a bright new one. Concrete tiles are matched to the profile and, as far as a new tile allows, the weathered colour of the old ones; a new tile will always be a shade darker for the first year and then blend in. Ridge tiles are bedded in a mortar matched to the existing colour and struck to the same finish.

Where the slates around a repair are loose or nail-sick as well, we tell you. Fixing one and leaving four that will go next winter is not a repair worth paying for, and the quote will say how far we think the work should go.

How it goes

1. Ring or send a photo. A photo of the gap, the slipped slate or the loose ridge from the ground is usually enough for a price on a straightforward repair.
2. Look and quote. Same-week visit on most calls where it is needed. We photograph the damage and the slates or tiles around it from the ladder, and the written quote follows within 48 hours.
3. The repair. Most slate, tile and ridge repairs are a half day to a day from a roof ladder. High or steep roofs get a scaffold tower, which is in the quote.
4. Photos and sign-off. Before and after photos from the same spot the same day, so you can see the match without going up.

What we do not do

We repair slate and tile roofs. We do not strip and re-slate or re-tile whole roofs. When the slates are delaminating across the roof, or the nails have gone everywhere and slates are slipping every winter, the roof is nail-sick and needs re-slating; we will show you that in photos and say so. A repair on a roof like that would only buy a season.

Common questions

Can a slipped slate be put back rather than replaced?

Yes, if the slate is sound. It is refixed with a lead or copper tingle that hooks under the bottom edge and holds it in place. If it is cracked or the edges have gone, it is replaced with a matching slate.

Can you match old Welsh slate?

With reclaimed slate, yes. Salvage merchants carry the blue-grey slate used across Dublin, and on an old roof a reclaimed slate blends in where a new one would not.

My ridge tiles keep coming loose. Is there a permanent fix?

A dry ridge system. The ridge tiles are fixed mechanically with clamps onto a ventilated roll rather than bedded in mortar, so there is no mortar to crack. It costs more than repointing but it does not need doing again.

How many slipped slates before it is a new roof?

It is not the number, it is the cause. A few slates slipping over a few years on an otherwise sound roof is normal wear. Slates slipping across the whole roof every winter means the nails have gone everywhere, and that roof needs re-slating rather than patching. We tell you which from the ladder.

Get a free quote

Call 085 781 4603 or request a quote. Free site visit, written quote within 48 hours.