If a slate roof starts to leak after many years of use, it means that it's time to start repairing it. You should not fall into despair, because often the repair of a slate roof can be easily done by yourself without involving the expensive services of professional repairmen to eliminate the cause of the leak.
Causes and methods of eliminating slate roof leaks
If the roof has served faithfully for many years, problems have arisen only now, most likely the reason is the loss of the integrity of the slate.
Often, you can do without replacing entire sheets entirely, limiting yourself to applying patches to problem areas.If the damage is extensive, you should also not worry - it will not be difficult to replace a certain number of damaged slate sheets on your own.
So, let's consider in order how to repair a slate roof.
Elimination of minor defects in slate roofing
If minor chips or cracks are found on the roof on one or more sheets of slate after laying the slate on the roof with your own hands, you should try to patch them. Do it like this:
- Before proceeding directly to the repair, the areas of the roof required to be repaired are cleaned of dirt and debris with a brush, after which they are washed with water from a hose.
- During the drying of the washed roof, the repair composition is prepared. Prepare PVA glue, cement grade M300 or higher, asbestos (rub the sheet on a fine grater or take a ready-made fluffy one).
When working with asbestos, it is mandatory to arm yourself with a respirator, although when installing corrugated board on the roof - it's too much. The repair mixture is obtained by mixing 1-2 parts of cement with 3 parts of prepared fluffed asbestos.
Next, a mixture of water and PVA glue is poured into the composition in a ratio of 1 to 1 and mixed thoroughly. The resulting repair mass should have a consistency identical to thick sour cream.
Remember that painting a slate roof immediately after its installation will extend the life of the roof by 2-3 times.
- At the end of the preparation of the mixture (it is better to cook it in small portions, because the mixture retains maximum efficiency for only two hours), they begin to repair the slate.
- Problem areas of damaged slate are first primed with a solution of PVA glue diluted with water in a ratio of 1 to 3.
- The primed areas of damage are filled with a repair mortar at least twice so that the total layer of this mortar is more than 2 mm. It is recommended to carry out repairs in cloudy, but dry weather, since the mixture in such conditions will dry out more slowly, while being able to gain maximum strength.
The device of the slate roof is such that during repairs it is usually necessary to apply the solution in hard-to-reach places, so in order to get close to them without crushing the slate, you must use a board with transverse bars stuffed on it.
Having hooked such a board on the skate, you can freely move along it without excessive pressure created on the slate.
This method of repair, as practice shows, is also good in cases of repairing the roof of a garage and even a balcony, so how to cover the roof with both corrugated board and slate need wisely.
The use of a repair composition made according to this recipe can extend the life of the roof by at least 5-7 years.
How to replace slate sheets
With sufficiently severe damage to the roof, the only way out of the situation is to dismantle the old coating and cover the roof with slate again with new sheets.
The replacement process looks like this:
- Taking out the slate nails, the old coating is dismantled in the reverse order in comparison with the installation of the roof.
- Assess the condition of the formwork and rafters, if necessary, replace or repair them.
- To ensure maximum tightness of the roof, a layer of roofing material or other insulating material is laid over the rafters.If necessary, carry out the insulation of the slate roof.
- After laying the roofing material, proceed to the flooring of the slate. Slate sheets begin to be laid from the bottom corner, moving along the roof ascending to the opposite corner. In this way, geometrically correct laying of slate sheets with the necessary overlap is ensured.
- The overlap is provided by laying sheets in such a way that the extreme wave of one sheet is covered by the extreme wave of the next one.
- After laying the first horizontal row of slate, proceed to laying the next one with an overlap of at least 10 cm.
- In places where the slate sheets protrude beyond the roof or when they rest against the chimney, they are cut with a grinder with a diamond disk installed on it.
- Slate sheets are attached to the crate with special nails. To prevent the formation of chips and microcracks in the sheet, the nails are driven into the crest of the slate wave, pre-drilling holes for the nails and at the same time not forgetting to make a sufficient indent from the edge.
- To ensure the most reliable fixation of slate sheets, nails of a sufficiently large length are used. At the same time, the length of the nails is directly proportional to the life of the structure without displacement of the slate sheets.
- In the end, the repair of a slate roof involves the provision of protection for fractures and the ridge of the roof. Their tightness is ensured by means of special plastic, metal or metal linings.
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