Ireland Contracting repairs slate roofs throughout the Pittsburgh area: replacing cracked, slipped, or missing slate with closely matched pieces, tracing leaks to their true source, and repairing the flashing, valleys, and ridges that fail long before the slate itself. When the majority of a slate roof is still serviceable, targeted repairs can preserve it for many more years, and that is almost always the better value than tearing off a hundred-year-old roof.
Slate is one of the longest-lasting roofing materials available, and a few broken or missing pieces don't mean it's time for a new roof. One of slate's biggest advantages is that individual damaged pieces can be replaced without disturbing the rest of the roof, and matching them well involves more than color: size, thickness, shape, texture, and weathering all play a role. We keep reclaimed and new slate on hand in the common Pittsburgh sizes so a repair blends in rather than standing out.
Broken slate or worn-out slate? That's the question that decides whether a repair makes sense. Slate that's cracked, slipped, or knocked out by a limb is a repair. Slate that's flaking, delaminating in layers, or crumbling when you press a thumbnail into it is reaching the end of its life, and it will keep failing a few pieces at a time no matter how many you replace. The difference is usually the quarry: the soft Pennsylvania slate common on Pittsburgh homes from the 1890s to 1920s runs 75 to 100 years, while hard Vermont and Buckingham slate can go 150 or more. We tell you which you have and what that means before you spend money.
How a proper slate repair is done: the broken piece comes out with a slate ripper, and the replacement goes in on a stainless slate hook or a copper bib, never face-nailed through the slate, never glued down with roofing cement. Face nails and tar are the two things a general roofer does to slate that guarantee the next leak. It's slower work, and it's why slate should be repaired by someone who does it regularly.
A leak on a slate roof often isn't the slate at all. The metal components installed with it (chimney flashing, valleys, sidewall and roof-to-wall transitions, and penetrations) deteriorate decades before the stone does. Original tin and galvanized flashing rusts through; we replace it in copper or lead-coated copper that will outlast the slate around it. We identify where water is actually entering before recommending a repair, which is how a small fix stays small.
Storm damage on slate: wind rarely lifts slate the way it lifts shingles, but falling limbs and hail do break it, and most homeowners policies treat that as covered sudden damage. We document broken and displaced pieces, meet the adjuster, and repair with matched slate rather than letting a claim turn into an unnecessary full replacement.
One thing we don't do: built-in box gutters. Many Pittsburgh slate homes have gutters built into the eave and lined in metal, and relining them is a specialty of its own. We'll repair the slate and the flashing above them, and we're straightforward that the gutter liner itself isn't our work.
Asphalt shingle roof instead? Leaks and storm damage go to our Pittsburgh roof repair .
If a slate roof really is past saving, see the replacement systems our Pittsburgh roofing contractors .
Slate on Pittsburgh's older homes
Slate roofs are a defining feature of Pittsburgh's older neighborhoods: the brick foursquares and Tudors of Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Highland Park, and Point Breeze, the hillside homes of Mt. Lebanon, Dormont, and Edgewood, and the river towns of Sewickley, Ben Avon, and Bellevue. Most of that slate went on between 1890 and 1930 and has already protected the house for three or four generations. Keeping it intact preserves both the character and the value of these homes. A repair that matches the existing roof beats a replacement that erases it.
Western Pennsylvania weather is what usually forces the issue: freeze-thaw cycles work into hairline cracks, heavy wet snow slides and takes loose pieces with it, wind-driven storms and the region's mature trees drop limbs, and decades of the same weather corrode the fasteners and flashing underneath. The original cut nails rust through and slates start to slip even when the stone itself is sound. Catching that early is the difference between replacing a few slates and repairing a rotted deck.
The other Pittsburgh problem is bad past repairs. A century-old roof has usually been worked on by a dozen hands, and we routinely find asphalt shingles patched into slate, tar over valleys, and slates face-nailed through the middle. We undo what we can, and we don't add to it.
What's included
- Individual slate replacement matched for size, thickness, texture, and weathering
- Slate hooks and copper bibs, no face nails, no roofing cement
- Leak-source diagnosis: we find where water actually enters, not just the stain
- Storm-damage repairs and insurance documentation on slate roofs
- Honest repair-first assessments that preserve your existing roof
- Licensed and insured under PA #026195, family-owned since 1994
Our slate repair process
- 1 Roof evaluation. We inspect the affected area and the roof's overall condition (slate type and hardness, fasteners, flashing, valleys, and ridges) and identify visible problems.
- 2 Leak-source diagnosis. If water is getting in, we trace it to its true entry point, often flashing or a valley rather than the slate itself.
- 3 Matched repair. We remove damaged slate with a ripper and install replacement pieces matched to your roof on hooks or bibs, and repair or replace deteriorated flashing and metalwork in copper.
- 4 Verification. We confirm the repair is watertight and the surrounding slate is sound, and tell you honestly what condition the rest of the roof is in.
Slate Repair across Western PA
We provide slate repair throughout the Greater Pittsburgh area and Western Pennsylvania, including:
- Allegheny County
- Butler County
- Washington County
- Westmoreland County
- Beaver County
- Glenshaw
- Wexford
- Gibsonia
- Fox Chapel
- Sewickley
- Shaler
- Mount Lebanon
- Upper St. Clair
- Bethel Park
- Monroeville
- Cranberry Township
- Mars
- Butler
- McMurray
- Canonsburg
- Murrysville
- Monaca
- Beaver Falls
- Beaver
- Aliquippa
- Conway
- Chippewa
- Darlington
- Freedom
- Baden