Random Westmorland Slate Roofing

‘Westmorland Green’ is quite possibly the most famous and best quality green slate found anywhere in the world. It is a thick, textured beautiful green slate which covers many of the UK’s and Ireland’s most prestigious and landmark buildings.

Available in random lengths and widths, the slates can be laid in diminishing courses with the larger slates used at the eaves and the smaller slates as you work up towards the ridge.  This tradition of laying slates in diminishing courses is very traditional and gives a pleasing perspective to the roof.

What are random slates? The usual definition is roofing slates or stones in a range of lengths and widths.  In European Standard terminology they are slates with undefined dimensions. But that’s only half the story and misses some of their most important characteristics

Here at Cumberland roofing we have removed and relayed many random slate roofs across the whole of Cumbria. Successfully achieving a random slate effect relies on careful planning and accurately marking up the roof. Once the old roof has been stripped off, each and every slate has to be carefully dressed and re-holed then graded, first by length and then by thickness.

Once sorted, the number of slates of each length will determine how many courses using that length can be laid across the roof. When the number of courses is known, the gauge of the battens must be carefully worked out to maintain the minimum headlap required.

Then finally, the roof is then re-slated by carefully going through the random widths as you proceed.