don't see many roofing questions here but here goes....

i have 100 year old 4 bed victorian house with a large close boarded slate roof.

The roof has been repaired 3 times since i have owned it
(slipped slates etc) and I'm thinking of getting it renewed.


1. I'm looking to re-roof in composite slates...has anyone got any advice on this.

2.The roofing companys i approach will need to take account of the scrap value of the existing slates. Is there a way i can work this out or am i entirely in there hands

[quote author=WOLF  link=1111962927/0#1 date=1111966445]Hi there, i'm not 100% up on slate roof's but my sister had her 110yr old end of terr done about 2 years ago, was same as yours close board/slate etc,
the composite slate she looked at were a resin and slate powder mix, very strong but looked out of place when a sample panel was put up on the rear, due to the high gloss nature, in the end went for original slates, which worked out about 5% more than the composite jobbies, and of all the tilers..not roofers we vetted, not one of them wanted to keep the old slates.. so we ended up removing them our selves(me actually-typically!! thanks claire!!) then once i had repaired the timber work, and covered with a tilers felt, the tiler came in and hey presto the roof was complete, and we sold the tiles as a batch to some guy doing  a renovation job about 3 weeks later... so that's my/our experience of slate, don't know if it helps!! 8) [/quote]

thnx thats helpful.

agreed what you say with regard to composite. will get quote for slates.

As a general rule the salvage rights will be those of the contractor, unless you intend to strip them yourself.
If it were me and the customer wanted to keep and resell the slate then I woulld strip them in an hour with a shovel and what could be salvaged is left to the customer. If the salvage rights are mine then I would be less heavy handed as the latter is beneffiting me.
The slates are suffering from nail fatigue whereby the fixings have corroded and the slates then become loose...a continuous problem only overcome by ree roofing. I would assume the slates are still sound and if you can match them by far the best option would be to reuse what you have in my opinion. Perhaps using reclaimed slate that may not be an exact match to the original on a section of roof that is obscured from view..
New tanalised lath and felt, copper or aluminium fixings with facia mounted continuous vent strip is my preference.
No real way here to tell how much slate can be salvaged, could be as much as 25% loss  but more likely 10% if stripped carefully and the slate is good.
You could look at new spanish slate... much cheaper than welsh and while not as good will last long enough for you to not worry about it from on high... or below!!!
Composite... have not used them, unless by this you mean Eternit fibre cement type??

close boarded, well built, replace only rotten boards, dont strip.