Roofs that outlive the mortgage.
Natural slate, copper, clay and standing seam, laid by hand in the Wexford valley since 2008.
Welsh slate, Hollow Farm, 2024
A hundred year decision
A roof is the one part of a house that should be bought once a century. Most of what is sold as roofing today is designed to last thirty years and priced to be replaced. We lay the four materials that will still be doing their job when the mortgage is paid, the children have moved out, and the house has changed hands twice. That is the whole business.
- Founded
- 2008
- Crews
- Two of four
- Materials
- Four, no more
Three roofs, three materials.
2023 to 2025
01
Hollow FarmWexford Hollow
The original slate had been patched with concrete tiles in the seventies, at three times the weight the rafters were cut for. We stripped it back to the timber, sistered four rafters, and relaid in random-width Welsh slate with lead soakers and a copper ridge.
- House
- 1780s stone farmhouse
- Material
- Welsh slate, diminishing courses
- Laid
- 2024
02
The Chapel StudioAshcombe
A deconsecrated chapel turned into a painter’s studio. The client wanted a roof that would change colour with the building, so we laid 0.7 mm copper and let the weather do the rest. The dormer is the newest metal on the house, and in fifteen years you will not be able to tell.
- House
- 1860s chapel, converted
- Material
- Copper, standing seam, 0.7 mm
- Laid
- 2023
03
Ridge Line HouseUpper Wexford
A new house on the ridge where the wind does its worst work. The architect drew a single unbroken plane with one rooflight and asked that nothing interrupt it. We folded every seam on site so no panel is cut across the fall, and there is not one exposed fastener on the roof.
- House
- New build, architect designed
- Material
- Standing seam, dark zinc-coated steel
- Laid
- 2025
Four materials, measured in decades.
Service life is what we would expect from a roof we laid, with the fixings and flashings done properly. Asphalt shingle, for comparison, is twenty to thirty years, which is why we do not lay it.
Handmade clay, reclaimed and relaid, Lower Wexford.
Natural slate
Welsh and Vermont quarries
Split by hand, holed and dressed in our yard, laid in diminishing courses on period houses. Slate does not fade, burn or rot. The nails and the battens will need attention before the slate does.
100+
years
Copper
0.6 to 0.7 mm sheet
Laid in standing seam or batten roll, folded on site. Bright for a year, brown for a decade, then the verdigris arrives. It asks for nothing after that except to be left alone.
80+
years
Clay tile
Handmade plain and pantile
For houses that were built for it. We match handmade tiles to the originals by colour and camber, and reuse every sound tile from the old roof before opening a new pallet.
75+
years
Standing seam
Zinc, aluminium and coated steel
The right roof for a new house with a low pitch and a long plane. Seams are folded twice and closed by hand at the eaves, so there is no fastener for water to find.
50+
years
How a slate roof is laid.
The method has not changed much in two hundred years, because it did not need to. What has changed is how few people still do it this way.
Dressing slate to size in the yard at Kiln Lane.
01
Survey
We climb the roof, not a ladder beside it. Rafters are checked for size and sag, the old covering is weighed, and the attic is inspected for the leaks the ceiling has not shown yet.
02
Strip and sort
The old roof comes off in a day. Anything reusable is stacked by size. Rotten timber is replaced like for like, and the whole deck is checked with a straight edge before a batten goes on.
03
Grade the slate
Every slate is rung with a knuckle and sorted into thick, medium and thin. Thick goes to the eaves, thin to the ridge, so the roof tapers the way it did two hundred years ago.
04
Hole and dress
Slates are holed for copper nails on the bench, and the edges are dressed by hand with a zax so each one sits flat on its neighbour. We do not use a nail gun on slate.
05
Lay from the eaves
Undercourse, then diminishing courses up to the ridge, each slate lapped over the head of the one two courses down. Valleys are laid open in lead or copper, never with a mitred shortcut.
06
Flash and ridge
Chimneys, dormers and abutments are flashed in lead or copper, stepped and cut into the joints. The ridge is finished in copper or clay to suit the house, and the site is left clean.
Aled Penrose, founder and master slater.
The workshop
“I have never taken a roof off that was laid properly. Every one I have replaced failed at a nail, a batten or a flashing, never at the slate. So we spend our time on the parts nobody will see.”
Aled trained as a slater in North Wales and started Slate & Ridge in Wexford Hollow in 2008 with one van and a stock of reclaimed slate. There are now eight of us, in two crews of four, and each crew is led by someone who has been here more than a decade.
The yard at 6 Kiln Lane holds around four hundred square metres of slate at any time, sorted by quarry and thickness, so a repair on a hundred year old roof is done with slate that matches it. We also keep a bench for holing and dressing, and a folding brake for copper and steel.
- Guild of Traditional Roofers, Master Slater, since 2012
- Wexford Valley Heritage Trust, Craft Award, 2021
- Period Home Quarterly, Roof of the Year, 2023
- Metal Roofing Guild, Copper Commendation, 2024
Tell us about the house.
We survey within the Wexford valley and up to an hour’s drive from it. A survey takes about ninety minutes, on the roof, and there is no charge for it. We do not quote on asphalt shingle or concrete tile, so if that is what you need we will say so and suggest someone who does.
Or call (555) 014-2008, Monday to Friday, eight to five.