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Specialty roof systems

Slate, cedar, and specialty roofing help

Slate, cedar, specialty metal, historic, and mixed-material roofs require repair methods and replacement decisions matched to the actual material and building.

SlateCedarHistoric roofsMixed materials

Specialty roofing requests

  • Broken, slipped, or missing slate
  • Slate flashings, valleys, ridges, fasteners, and snow guards
  • Cedar shake or shingle repair and replacement
  • Exposed-fastener metal roof repair or replacement
  • Copper, terne, or other architectural metal details
  • Historic homes, barns, churches, and buildings with preservation constraints
  • Mixed asphalt, metal, slate, cedar, and low-slope transitions

Why specialist experience matters

Materials differ in how they are walked, cut, fastened, matched, flashed, repaired, salvaged, and replaced. An otherwise competent asphalt installer may not accept or be equipped for slate, cedar, or architectural metal work.

What to ask

  • Does the roofing company regularly work on this exact material?
  • Will damaged pieces be repaired, replaced, salvaged, or substituted?
  • How will material matching, flashings, fasteners, underlayment, and adjacent roof areas be handled?
  • Are older-material, lead, asbestos, structural, or preservation reviews required before work?

Slate fails at the fasteners and flashings long before the stone fails

Short answerA genuine slate roof commonly outlives the nails and flashings holding it, so the deciding question is usually whether the roof needs targeted repair and flashing renewal or a full removal and re-lay — not whether the slate itself is worn out.

This distinction is repeatedly missed, and it is expensive when it is. Slate has an extremely long service life; the copper or steel nails securing it, and the flashings at valleys, chimneys and sidewalls, do not. A roof shedding individual slates from the same area often has a fastener problem in that area. A roof shedding slates everywhere may have reached the end of its nail life, which is a different and much larger project.

Vermont has a real slate industry and a large stock of historic slate roofs, which means both genuine expertise and a supply of matched material exist here. It also means the wrong intervention is common — a slate roof replaced with asphalt because nobody assessed it properly is a permanent loss of both material and value.

  • Whether slates are failing in one area or across the whole roof
  • The fastener condition, and whether nail life is the actual limit
  • Whether matching slate can be sourced by colour, size, thickness and origin
  • The condition of valley, chimney and sidewall flashings independent of the slate
  • Whether the proposal is repair, selective re-lay, or complete removal

Why generalist roofing experience does not transfer

Slate, cedar and historic metal roofs are not shingle work with different material. Slate is nailed to hang rather than clamped tight, it breaks if walked on incorrectly, it requires specific hooks or hangers for individual replacement, and the repair techniques are trade skills that take time to acquire. Cedar needs to dry from both faces and behaves badly over solid unventilated substrate. Historic metal often needs fabrication rather than purchased components.

Ask directly and specifically about the material in question. General roofing volume is not evidence of slate capability, and the honest answer from many competent asphalt and metal contractors is that they do not do this work — which is a much better answer than an attempt.

  • Direct experience with this specific material, described concretely
  • How individual units are replaced without damaging neighbouring material
  • Whether the company fabricates flashings or purchases stock components
  • How access and staging avoid breaking material underfoot
  • Whether any historic or heritage requirements apply to the property

Service information last reviewed August 16, 2026. Project acceptance, scheduling, and recommendations are confirmed by the roofing company.

Roofing FAQs

Slate, cedar, and specialty roofing help questions

Can a few broken slate pieces be repaired?

Often, when surrounding slate, flashings, fasteners, and roof structure remain serviceable and compatible replacement pieces are available.

Should a specialty roof be inspected by any roofing company?

Use a company with documented experience in the specific material and repair method, including safe access, fastening, flashing, and material matching.

Can asphalt or sealant be used as a permanent slate repair?

Improvised patches may hide the failure or complicate later work. Ask for a material-compatible repair and written explanation of any temporary measure.

What information helps with a specialty-roof request?

Share clear ground-level photos, the known material, leak location, roof age if known, prior repairs, building age, access limits, and whether historic requirements may apply.

My slate roof is losing slates — does it need replacing?

Not necessarily, and this is worth establishing before anything else. Slates lost from one area usually indicate a localized fastener or flashing problem that is repairable. Slates failing across the whole roof may mean the nails have reached the end of their life, which is a much larger project. Get the pattern assessed by someone who works on slate.

Can slate be repaired, or does it have to be replaced in full?

Individual slates are routinely replaced by someone who knows how, using hooks or hangers rather than by disturbing the surrounding courses. Repair is the normal outcome for localized problems on an otherwise sound slate roof.

Can I replace a slate roof with asphalt shingles?

Physically often yes — the structure, weight, and detailing all need checking first. Whether you should is a different question. Replacing an intact slate roof that needed flashing work is a permanent loss of a very long-lived material and frequently of property value. Get it assessed by a slate specialist before deciding.

Can any roofing company work on slate?

No, and most competent asphalt and metal contractors will say so. Slate requires specific techniques for walking, removing, and securing individual units, and the wrong approach breaks more material than it fixes. Ask about direct slate experience specifically, not general roofing volume.

Is cedar a realistic roof in Vermont?

It is used here, and it requires more from the assembly and the owner than asphalt does — ventilation beneath the shakes so they can dry from both faces, attention to shade and moss, and periodic maintenance. It is a legitimate choice made knowingly and a poor one made casually.

How do I find matching slate?

Matched material is often obtainable, particularly in Vermont, by colour, size, thickness and quarry origin — sometimes new, sometimes salvaged. A specialist should be able to describe how they will source it rather than assuming a visible mismatch is unavoidable.

Are all slate roofs the same thickness and weight?

No. Slate thickness and weight vary by quarry and grade, which affects the structural load a roof frame carries and how the slate is fastened. A specialist should confirm the existing slate's specification rather than assume it matches a generic standard when planning any repair or partial re-lay.

Can a slate roof be walked on for routine maintenance without breaking tiles?

Not casually. Slate is nailed to hang rather than clamped tight and breaks under improper foot placement, so anyone walking a slate roof needs to know where and how to step, often using ladders, hooks, or staging rather than walking the field directly.

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