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Professional tip :  Make certain to choose a roofing slate that’s the most suitable for your own needs. There are many types of roofing slate on offer around Melbourne. Some cheap budget types and also some over the top premium ones.  So choose wisely the one that’s going to meet your specific needs and expectations the best. 

Choose quality slate and expert installers.

If you’re building a new home in Balwyn and considering installing a slate roof, we can offer you a no obligation estimate and advice or answer any questions you may have.

Our company was established over 20 years ago and we’ve been installing quality slate roofing for Melbourne‘s owner builders, professional builders and architects for many years before that. It takes many years of practical and continual experience installing these roofs to be able to get a flat, tight, fully functional and long lasting slate roof. The last thing you need is a roof that has continual problems for years after the installation due to inexperienced installers or skimping on best practice fixing methods.

To read a few “frequently asked questions about slate roofs in Melbourne” click the link.

Our preferred roofing slate comes with a 100 year manufacturers warranty. What does this mean to you ? I think you can safely assume that unlike other roofing slate that’s in use around Melbourne, this slate is going to last problem free for many many years. It’s going to be free from all the problems that the cheaper low grade slates suffer from in a few short years. Problems like

1. Small traces of pyrites – an iron ore like mineral – causing “slate bleed”; a rusty stain that streaks down the roof and is very unsightly. It can’t be stopped and just continues on staining
2. High calcium carbonate content causing the slate to fade inconsistently or in extreme cases turning almost white. Not a good look at all. High quality slate should keep its color for its lifetime with zero fading. Higher levels of calcium carbonate can also cause slate to soften in a short space of time allowing water to be absorbed and leak through them.
3. Dense concentration spots of pyrites occurring randomly on slate. Like the smaller traces of pyrites rusting and staining the slate as 1. above, these dense concentrations rust out and eventually go right through the slate creating holes and weak spots.

It doesn’t matter what style of home you’re building. With our quality guaranteed slate and team of experienced and highly skilled slate craftsmen, we can install for you a functional,  long lasting, trouble free and very attractive slate roof. Guaranteed.

Building a new French Provincial style home ?

French provincial style homes with slate roofs are at present very popular in Balwyn and neighboring suburbs.

The main roof features of this style are high steeply pitched, but short facade roofs with mitred hips and valleys. Sometimes the roof slopes continue in a straight line from the top of the roof ridge to the spouting, but on many homes the lower third of the roof sweeps out slightly to create a bell like effect to the roof.  This sweeping look is in fact very pleasing to the eye. Occasionally dormer windows or decorative air vents are added to the front facing roof slopes which can give an attractive and appealing look to the home. At the very top of these roofs there is almost universally a flat deck type metal roof that drains to a box gutter hidden on top of the roof. The rain water is taken via large, usually PVC, down pipes that often pass through the ceiling space to the external wall and down to the storm water system on the ground.

Normal tiles or slate for French provincial homes roofing

These homes are sometimes seen with a flat pattern terracotta or concrete tile installed on the roof. Because of the design of these tiles and how they function, they can give a “bulky ” appearance to the roof. This is mainly because of the short length of the sides and the much thicker, chunkier and larger look of these tiles. This look can and often does detract from the overall appearance of the home.

However… more popular and much more suited and pleasing aesthetically is a roof of natural slate tiles. It’s generally agreed by people who should know, that slate tiles not only give the whole home a much more overall beautiful appearance but they add much more selling or resale value for the extra investment.

Installation features of these roofs using slate tiles

Mitred hips are one of the features of these homes and are almost always used around the Balwyn areas. Mitred simply means that the slates at the external corners – known as hips – are carefully cut and butted up against each other. A flashing is carefully installed and hidden underneath the slates during the installation process. This method of finishing the hips eliminates the need for any type of hip capping that’s most commonly seen on other types of tiled and metal roofing. It makes for a nice streamlined appearance to the whole roof.

Internal corners on roofs are referred to as valleys. The valleys on French provincial style homes are usually finished in one of two ways.

The first and probably most common is an open valley.  This valley has a metal gutter installed on top of valley boards that run along the junction of the internal corner  The roofing slates are then laid over the gutter from both sides and cut in a straight line leaving an opening of around 100 mm in the middle of the valley. When done neatly and properly this type of valley is very effective, looks good and functions very well.

The second type of valley finish that is perhaps less seen but still fairly common is called a mitred valley. The timber work preparation for these valleys is the same as for open valleys but there is no metal valley gutter installed. Like a mitred hip, the slates are simply laid in to meet each other at the center of the valley junction. The slates are neatly trimmed and cut up against each other with no gap left between. As with mitred hips, individual soaker flashings for each course are installed as the slates are laid up the roof slope. The resultant valley is also very pleasing to the eye and appears to almost just sweep around the internal corner. Care must be taken to ensure that the tails of the slates from each side line up against each other to make these valleys attractive.

The type of valley chosen for these slate roofs is really up to personal choice. Valleys by their design have to cope with larger volumes of water than any other parts of a roof. Unlike hips which actually shed water away from themselves, valleys collect water. In times of heavy rain it’s more often than not that roofs leak due to a poor valley installation.

If you’re building this style home and have a few questions or need a bit of advice regarding slate roofing, feel free to contact us.  Call 0403022137

Abardeen Roof Slating & Tiling 66 Eglinton St Moonee Ponds VIC 3039