Most of the roofs in Perth and Perthshire that are worth saving are slate. It’s the traditional covering of this part of Scotland, it’s beautiful, and when it’s laid properly it lasts a century or more. It also demands a specific skill set that not every roofer has.
Most people who call us are in one of four situations. Find yours.
The original choice (Ballachulish, Aberfoyle, Macduff). Dark, dense, irregular, and laid in diminishing courses. Quarries are closed, so only reclaimed slate is available—expensive, high-demand, and often required for listed buildings.
Purple-grey, exceptionally consistent, and superb quality. Still actively quarried, making it the premier new-slate option for Perthshire reroofs needing a long lifespan.
The volume option. Quality varies widely — high grades last decades, while poor grades delaminate early. We explain the exact grade and specification we recommend for your roof.
Man-made, uniform, significantly lighter, and cost-effective. Ideal for marginal roof structures. Delivers a clean aesthetic ground-up with an expected lifespan of 30–50 years.
Cheapest per square metre and highly durable, but heavy. Older Victorian timber structures designed for slate may require structural reinforcement before installing concrete tiles.
Warm and handsome with a long service life. Less common on Perthshire's traditional slate stock, but a proven, highly durable option where character and longevity are key.
If you’re comparing quotes, these are the things to ask about. A roofer who can answer them confidently is a roofer who’s done it before
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Not galvanised, and absolutely not iron. This is the single most important specification decision on the whole job. The reason your current roof is failing is almost certainly that its iron nails have corroded — nail sickness. Fixing a new roof with the wrong nails is building in the same failure for the next owner.
The amount each slate overlaps the one two courses below. Too little and wind-driven rain gets underneath. On a low-pitch, exposed Perthshire roof the headlap needs to be generous, and it’s a calculation, not a guess.
If your roof was laid in diminishing courses and it’s a visible elevation, it should go back that way. It costs more in labour. It’s also the difference between a repair that disappears and one you can see from the street forever.
You cannot re-nail a single slate in the middle of an existing roof without lifting everything above it. So individual replacements are held either by a slate hook (a stainless hook that goes up between the slates) or a lead tingle (a strip that folds over the bottom edge). Both are legitimate. Neither is “just bodged in with mastic” — if a roofer has silicone in his hand near your slates, ask what he’s doing with it.
Not cement fillets. See chimney and leadwork.
Usually. For repairs we hold reclaimed slate in common Perthshire sizes. If it’s an unusual size or a Scottish slate in a conservation area, sourcing takes longer but it’s generally possible.
Yes, and it’s work we take seriously. The material and the method may be constrained by planning consent, and we’ll tell you where that’s likely before you commit to anything. Parts of Perth city centre and much of Dunkeld are affected.
For a traditional Perthshire property, on any elevation you can see:
yes, and it isn’t close. On a modern estate house that was built with concrete tile, going
back to concrete tile is the sensible answer.
Good natural slate, fixed with copper or stainless
nails, on sound sarking, with proper leadwork — you are realistically looking at 80 to 100
years plus. The slate isn’t the limiting factor. It never was.
