NATURAL SLATE
THE KING OF ROOFING

Natural slate is a unique, long-lasting and noble material. This building material gives elegance and beauty to the roof and the facade. The multitude of shapes and sizes formed during the decades provides a wide range of roof-laying options that are limited only by your imagination. These days natural and biologically valuable building materials are preferred at constructions. Natural slate has belonged to these building materials for ages as a witness to the history of the Earth. Generations of architects and roof layers have created various architectural styles, artistic values, traditions and cultures.

The utilization of natural slate in Europe has a tradition of more than six hundred years. We can talk about traditions in connection with Hungary too. During the decades before the two world wars natural slate was a popular material for the roofing of palaces and mansions. The most beautiful examples of this in Hungary are the Festetics palace in Keszthely, the Károlyi palace in Parádsasvár (implemented by our company) and there are many more. Originally the Parliament was also covered with natural slate.
In Hungary there are no deposits of good quality slate suitable for roof and facade covering, so we have to import this material from Western Europe. This is the reason why this noble material was almost completely forgotten until the change of the political regime in 1989-90.

What is slate and how does it form?

Slate is a sort of sediment. Its formation started 400 million years ago in various circumstances. Good quality slate which is suitable for roofing and wall covering forms only in such areas where just a small amount of pollutants is washed into it and there are optimal pressure and temperature conditions. Slate is usually exploited in open mines and the mined blocks are broken down into pieces of varous sizes, then they are split manually into thin slices. Good quality slate has a long lifetime (200 to 300 years), retains its colour, is acid and frost-resistant and watertight as a result of which it almost never becomes mossy.
The base of a slate roof is generally full sheeting. The weight of the tiled roof per m2 varies depending on the type of roofing (ca.32 kg). In Hungary one of the most well-known roofing methods is the Bogen (roofing with curved-end slates) type which makes the roof look harmonious and due to its favourable price it is the most popular type of roofing. The Schuppen (imbricated roofing) type provides a variety of roof-laying solutions, due to the wide range of slate sizes.
The Rechteck (double tiling) method is characterized by the straight alignment of slates and symmetrical structures which are perfectly suitable for the roofing of listed buildings.

Slates are not all alike. You can also notice it if you take a look at the slate and the way it was formed. This is the reason why it is so important to visit the site where the slate is mined and to make it sure that the people working there are real experts if you want to be certain of the quality of the material and the work.

SPLITTING THE SLATE	CUTTING TO SIZE