Case Study — Heritage Slate Restoration
How KN Roofing & Building Delivered a Complete Slate Roof Renewal in Bathford, Bath
Location
Bathford, Bath
Duration
3 weeks
Service
Slate Roof Renewal
Completed
2026
A Full Strip & Re-Slating Project on a Bathford Propert
Bathford sits a few miles east of Bath proper. Quiet village, stone-built homes, traditional slate roofs everywhere you look - the kind of place that still feels like Somerset rather than just outer Bath. Most of the original slate roofs in the area aged about how you'd expect. Slates loosening. Lead going soft at the joints. Felt perishing quietly underneath the lot. Patch jobs work for a while, but eventually you hit the wall where another patch is just throwing good money after bad. That's when a proper slate roof replacement becomes the only honest answer.
That's where we came in. Full strip and re-slate on the main roof of a Bathford property - front pitch, rear pitch, the whole lot. Two weeks on site, weather permitting. A proper natural slate roof, fitted right, set up to do another fifty years without bothering anyone.
“Around 70% of the original slate was saved and re-laid — a roof rebuilt from its own history.”
01 — The Challenge
Why the Main Roof Needed a Complete Renewal
By the time the owner got in touch, the roof had basically run its course. Multiple slipped slates across both pitches. Lead at the abutments cracked through. Underlying felt completely gone in patches where damp had got in.
That's the conversation most homeowners dread: slate roof replacement cost lands on the table. Fair enough - it's not small money. But a string of slate roof replacement options that don't fix the underlying problem ends up costing more. Replacement slate roof tiles on a roof with perished felt won't last either. A slate roof replacement cost calculator gives you a ballpark, and the slate roof replacement cost calculator UK averages assume a fairly standard build - but every roof's different. We came out, measured properly, and gave a clear written quote based on what the roof actually needed.
02 — The Approach
A Two-Week, In-House Slate Roof Renewal
A job this size needs proper sequencing. Strip the old roof off, sort what's underneath, rebuild it back up in the right order - ideally with one team running the whole show. We kept everything in-house. No subbies for the leadwork, no separate firm for the ridge.
How we did it
Delivered in-house, start to finish
01
Stripping the roof & installing new membrane and battens
Slates came down, the existing lead valley got prised carefully out where the main roof meets the extension, and the perished felt stripped out entirely. All of it straight in the skip and off site - not piled on the driveway for a fortnight. With rafters exposed, fresh breathable roofing membrane went on across both pitches. Breathable roofing membrane genuinely matters on a job like this. The older bitumen felt just traps moisture, slow rot waiting to happen. A modern roofing breathable membrane works the other way: vapour escapes from inside, wind-driven rain stays out. That's a roofing membrane that actually does its job. Best roofing membrane on the market depends who you ask - every manufacturer reckons theirs is the one. What matters more is a properly waterproof roofing membrane underlay laid right. Roofing membrane roll work isn't where you cut corners. After the membrane, new 25x50 treated timber battens went on throughout, all to current UK standards.
02
Laying new Spanish natural slates to both pitches
The slates were Spanish slate - Spanish natural slate, supplied as Spanish slate roof tiles in matching profiles for both pitches. There's a reason Spanish slate has become the go-to for UK roofing. Dense, dark, weather-resistant, consistent batch to batch. A Spanish slate roof done properly outlasts almost anything in its price range, and Spanish slate prices are competitive once you factor in lifespan. We laid the Spanish slate tiles to the correct gauge across both pitches, fixed to manufacturer and industry specs. Each row measured, sized, and nailed individually - natural slate roof tiles aren't forgiving if you rush them. The natural slate roof tile sizing varies slightly between batches. Spanish slate cost per m2 and natural slate roof tiles per m2 figures get thrown about online, but the finish depends on the hand laying them. The result is natural slate roof tiles UK homeowners would recognise - natural slate tiles roof work meant to look like one continuous surface. Done right, the natural roof slate looks better in twenty years than on day one.
03
Lead soakers, flashings & bonding gutter at abutments
Wherever the new roof met the neighbouring property, we fitted new lead soakers. What are lead soakers? Small pieces of lead worked individually under each slate at an abutment, designed to keep water from tracking down the join. Lead soakers on slate roof work is where a lot of leaks start when done badly. Lead soakers for slates need sizing right and tucking far enough under the slate above to actually do their job. Lead soakers and flashing work was carried out around the chimneys too, with proper flashing dressed over the lead soakers chimney junctions. Where existing render at the party wall was in the way, we hacked it off cleanly so new lead could be chased in. Lead soakers for tiles work the same in principle, but on slate the sizing has to be precise. To finish, we re-rendered the party walls with a bellcast bead, then installed a GRP bonding gutter along the shared edge. Fully sealed waterproof junction.
04
Eaves protection, fascia ventilation & new dry ridge
Eaves protection trays went on at both elevations to direct drainage into the guttering. Fascia ventilation followed front and rear - roof ventilation is one of those things you don't notice when it's working. Pitched roof ventilation done properly stops condensation in the loft. Roof ventilation tiles, roof ventilation system, roof eaves ventilation - the principle is simple: airflow in at the eaves, out at the ridge. Roof ventilation types vary, but roof ventilation requirements UK standards point to a balanced setup. Finally, the old ridge tiles and bedding came off, and we fitted a new dry ridge system along the full ridge line. A dry ridge system uses mechanical fixings rather than mortar - quicker, cleaner, more reliable long-term. Dry ridge system cost and dry ridge system cost UK figures sit higher upfront than traditional bedding, but the cost of dry ridge system installation pays back through near-zero maintenance. Dry fix ridge system fixings hold tight in high winds, and dry ridge system problems are rare. Even dry ridge system on old roof setups perform well as long as the ridge line is sound.
Results delivered
What this project left behind
Complete strip of front and rear pitches, plus old lead valley.
New breathable membrane and 19x38 treated battens throughout.
Spanish natural slates laid to both pitches, to UK spec.
New lead soakers, flashings, and bonding gutter at all abutments.
Party walls re-rendered with bellcast bead.
Eaves protection trays and fascia ventilation fitted front and rear.
New dry ridge system installed along the full ridge line.
All waste cleared, property left clean.
What happened next
The roof’s set up to last fifty-plus years with hardly any intervention. The owner avoided the bigger costs of leaving a failing slate roof through another winter — internal damp, ceiling damage, knock-on repairs.
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