Slate Roofing in Bayside, NY

Some of the best roofs in Bayside are slate, and a lot of them went on in the 1920s and 1930s. The good news is slate stone can outlast the house. The bad news is the nails and the flashing don’t. So when a Bayside slate roof leaks, the question isn’t always “new roof.” It’s keep it, reset it or replace it.

Which Bayside houses still have slate

You’ll find it on the older Colonials and Tudors near Bell Boulevard and Crocheron Park, in Bayside Gables, and on the streets that run toward Douglaston. Steep pitches, dormers, turrets and chimneys. Every one of those turns in the roofline is a place where copper flashing has to be right, because water follows the shape of the house.

Keep it, reset it or replace it

First, I go up and look at the slate itself. If the stone is sound and the problem is failed nails or worn flashing, we can often keep the slate, strip the roof, put down new underlayment and ice and water shield, and reinstall the good slate with new copper flashing. Cracked or broken slate can’t be reused under city rules, so we replace those pieces with matching stone.

If a lot of the slate is delaminating or flaking, then it’s a replacement, and we talk about new natural slate or composite. Either way, you get it in writing with one price.

Composite slate on a 1920s frame

Natural slate is heavy and expensive. It runs about $2,200 to $3,500 a square installed. Composite slate gets you close to the look at about $1,200 to $1,800 a square, it’s much lighter on an old frame, and you can walk on it. For a lot of Bayside homeowners who love the look but not the price, that’s the smarter call. I’ll show you samples of both so you can see them on your house.

Why it’s done once, the right way

Slate is a different trade from shingles. You don’t walk on it like a shingle roof, you hang it with copper or stainless nails, and the flashing is a skill on its own. Our crews have 15 to 20 years on roofs, and you get a 10-year workmanship warranty on the work we do. My pricing usually runs 25 to 35% less than the big companies, and if you have a written quote for the same system, we’ll price match it.

What a Bayside slate job looks like, start to finish

First, I go up with you or send you the photos, slope by slope, so you can see which slates are sound and which are cracked, slipped or flaking. Then we decide together: reset, partial replacement or a full new roof. You get one written price for that scope.

On the job, the crew sets up staging so nobody walks on the slate. We strip the slate carefully and stack the good pieces, then strip down to the deck and replace any soft boards. Ice and water shield goes at the eaves, in the valleys and around the chimney, with a high-temperature underlayment over the field. Then the copper: new step flashing, counter flashing at the chimney, and valleys. The slate goes back up with copper nails, and we match any replacement stone to your color and thickness as close as we can.

A slate job takes longer than a shingle roof, usually several days to a couple of weeks depending on the size of the house and how much detail it has. I’ll give you the schedule in writing, and we clean up every day, because broken slate in a Bayside driveway is nobody’s idea of a good week.