Slate Roofing Middle Ages

Davinci slate delivers on that promise with its astonishing versatility.

Slate roofing middle ages.

For people who do not plan to ever sell their home the incredible longevity of slate is a highly desirable benefit. Many slate tile manufacturers offer up to 100 year warranty on their products. Our tiles are engineered to be lighter to resist impact and to maintain their color longer. Slate or shale lovely stuff.

Straw usually termed thatch. Slate was commonly used as a roofing material for rich houses due to its low water absorption properties fixing is typically with double nails onto timber battens england and wales or nailed directly onto timber sarking boards scotland and northern ireland. Durability and low maintenance. That s because it s chiseled from real rock to form shingles.

Documentary sources and excavated evidence have both shown that blue slate occurring naturally in the older rock formations of the more westerly parts of britain was used to a considerable extent for roofing during the middle ages in a wide area of southern england. There is for instance only one historic reference to slate as roofing material at medieval buildings. This document written by bishop arne in 1308 concerns king haakon s hall in bergen built from the middle of the 13th century onward. It s very strong and very durable but it s also very heavy.

A very popular choice. Lumber the spaces between the logs would have been chinked with clay wattle soil and turf anything to keep out the rain wind and snow. There is evidence of the use of slate stone and clay tile roofing materials in britain dating back to roman times. Historically slate was used as roofing on castles and churches to protect them from the elements extreme weather and most importantly from fire.

It lies in the idea that this situation persisted until. Although for much of the early medieval period thatch of one form or another predominated by the 12th century the most important buildings tended to be roofed in more permanent materials once again. Slate is naturally fireproof and waterproof and when installed by an experienced slate roofing company and cared for correctly can last for decades or even centuries. The evidence as at present known is summarized in the map fig.

What did medieval houses use for roofs. Slate roofing has been in use since the middle ages and is seen in exceptional architecture throughout the world. The myth of the middle ages as a dark age does not lie in the fact that things declined markedly after the fall of rome they did. Some homes were created with the promise of a slate roof in mind.