Slate Roof vs Tiled Roof — Which Should I Choose in Wallasey?

There is a full decision procedure for this — five questions in order, most of which settle the answer before preference comes into it — in our slate or tile guide, and a comparison by building period in the Chester version.

This one is narrower. Two things about Wallasey specifically tend to answer the question before anything else does.

Constraint One: Pitch

Wallasey has an unusually wide spread of roof pitches on it, and where yours falls may remove most of the choice.

The low band

The classical and Italianate seaside property runs to shallow roofs — the Wellington Road conservation area appraisal describes them as relatively low pitched, occasionally behind a parapet.

At the shallow end, slate is often the only sensible answer. It tolerates lower pitches than most tiles, and plain tiles in particular need a notably steeper roof. Some low-pitch interlocking tile ranges will go there; most coverings will not.

The middle band

The inter-war hipped semis mostly sit in a comfortable middle range where almost everything is available. Here the decision genuinely is yours, and the other factors in this guide start to matter.

The steep band

The Gothic-influenced buildings are steeply pitched, and everything works. Steep roofs also shed water fast, which is forgiving.

Constraint Two: It Is a Coastal Position

This does not rule out any covering. It changes what has to be done underneath whichever one you choose.

The fixings

How a roof is held down is a calculation, not a habit — based on exposure, altitude, terrain, the height and dimensions of the building, the roof pitch and the tested resistance of the particular unit. On an exposed position that calculation returns a more demanding answer, and on a fully exposed one it can mean every unit mechanically fixed.

The cost difference between a properly specified fixing pattern and a generic one is small. The difference in how the roof behaves in a gale is not.

The metalwork

Salt-laden air is harder on fixings and flashings than inland air. Two consequences: the fixing metallurgy should suit the covering and the exposure rather than being whatever is cheapest, and lead should be properly formed and dressed rather than bedded in mastic.

It is also an argument for renewing lead at every junction during a re-roof rather than re-using what is there. Old lead that has survived forty years on a sheltered elevation may not have another forty in it here.

Then, and Only Then, the Comparison

The Third Thing, Which Is Not a Constraint

What the building was originally covered with. It is the most reliable single guide there is, because the structure was framed for that weight and the pitch was set for that covering's characteristics.

Two ways to check it cost nothing. Look along the street: on a group of similar houses the majority usually tells you, and if most are slate and yours is not, yours was changed at some point. Then look in the loft: old nail holes in the rafters at a closer spacing than the current battens mean a previous covering of smaller units, which means slate.

Inside The Magazines or Wellington Road conservation areas there is a further consideration: a like-for-like renewal raises no planning question anywhere, but a visible change of covering is assessed more tightly. Wirral Council can confirm whether an address falls inside either boundary.

And the Thing Neither Choice Decides

How long the roof lasts. Roofs almost never fail because the covering wore out. They fail at the fixings, the battens, the underlay and the lead — and those are the same job whichever covering goes on top of them.

The Regulations, in Brief

Two separate systems. Planning: a like-for-like re-roof does not materially affect the external appearance of a building, so under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 it is not development at all and needs no permission. A visible change of covering can be a different matter, particularly inside a conservation area, where the test is applied more tightly.

Building regulations: where more than 50% of the roof's surface area is renewed, or the work forms part of a major renovation, regulation 23 of the Building Regulations 2010 requires the roof to be brought up to current thermal standards so far as that is technically, functionally and economically feasible — 0.16 W/(m²K) for a roof in an existing dwelling. A patch repair does not trigger it, and neither does a roof over unheated space such as a detached garage.

More New Roof Advice for Wallasey

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