Slate
Slate roofing falls into 2 basic categories; genuine slate and imitation slate. Genuine slate is one of the oldest widely used roofing materials available. Admired for both it�s durability and rugged beauty, it is found all over the world often on buildings hundreds of years old. Formed by natural processes, dependant on the exact chemical makeup of the environment for its color, no two slate roofs or even 2 pieces of slate are exactly alike.
The availability or relative scarcity of certain colors makes slate one of the few roofing materials for which color is a factor in determining the price.
Other unusual pricing factors for slate roofs include the thickness of the slate, relative size of the pieces and the distance between the job site and the nearest slate quarry. In the United States almost all slate is quarried in Vermont. Freight from Vermont to Texas typically adds about $50.00 per square to the slate roof. Density and water impermeability are other important factors in making one source of slate preferable over another.
Imitation slates are man made products designed to replicate as closely as possible both the look and effectiveness of a genuine slate roof at a lesser cost. There are a large number of available products and they vary greatly in the effectiveness of their reproductive efforts. Some are affective roof materials but don�t look much like slate. Some look a lot like slate but aren�t very durable. A few do a pretty good job of both. For a long time most of the slate imitations were made from a composition of concrete and some type of bonding fiber. The best of these used asbestos as the bonding agent but have since gone out of production due to the dangers associated with asbestos production. In recent years the roofing industry have seen the advent of imitation slates made from rubber, plastic or hardened poly resin. Many of these have done such a good job of duplicating slate it is difficult to tell them from the real thing from a hundred feet away. Unfortunately many of these products are so new on the market that we have no long term experience that tell us how well they will hold up.