Roof Sheathing For Slate

Final color selections should be made using full size shingles.

Roof sheathing for slate.

Goboard structural sheathing is an ultra lightweight yet durable waterproof alterna tive to heavy sheathing products. Felt paper isn t absolutely necessary for the roof to function. Typically 1 4 or 1 6 boards of wood are installed with a 3 5 maximum space between each board directly over the roof rafters or in a cold roof system over the plywood deck. Different categories of wood will work except laminate woods plywood and particleboard.

Spaced sheathing also called skipped decking refers to the construction details of the substrate which the cedar gets nailed to and thus secured to your home. Century old sheathing boards can become pretty hard so if copper nails bend or deform use stainless steel roofing nails instead. Cover the sheathing no matter how green with one layer of 30 lb. Three quarter inch thick planed softwood spruce fir pine boards will last a century or more under slate.

This will insure a roof per fectly tight against fine snow. Slate and tile are relatively brittle expensive. Slate roofs require about the same founda tion as shingles. Also known as decking it is the wood in which the slate is attached to.

The better the foundation the better will be the roof. Colors and shadow lines on the sample board and in the photos should only be used as a guideline and not for your final color selection. Generally the wood will last more than a century to support the slate roof. The proper sheathing is single plank boards which can be 3 4th to 1 inch thick.

Plywood is a bit more expensive than osb but is usually stronger. Plywood may be used instead of osb in cases where the roof covering is especially heavy like in the case of slate clay or concrete tiles. Many slate roofs primarily barn roofs don t have any. Roofing felt paper overlapped about three inches at the top edges and nailed to the roof with 1 galvanized roofing nails egis ok here see below.

Roof decking or sheathing for slate roofing must be adequate to support the loads involved but not less than nominal 1 inch lumber or 5 8 inch plywood sheathing. Tarred or other waterproofed paper should be used under slate where the same is laid on sheathing boards. The sheathing also called decking is the wood to which the slate is attached. Option 4 tongue in groove lumber kiln dried is suitable as a roof decking on slate roofs.

When replacing sections of slate or slatelike materials alternate slate courses with strips of 30 lb.