Company Mission

Our mission is to provide the finest quality of installation and restoration of slate roofing and other traditional roofing materials at a fair price. As one of the largest installer and restorer of slate roofing in the country, The Durable Slate Company is the leading expert in all aspects of slate roofing. Our other specialties include clay tile roofing, copper and stainless steel roofing, and the traditional gutter systems that accompany these roofs. Our aim is a water-tight and aesthetically pleasing roof that will last the decades or even centuries as one would expect from time-tested old world craftsmanship and to deliver these services with a level of quality and integrity that exceed our client's expectations, Award-winning quality, world-class service, and uncompromising integrity are the hallmarks of The Durable Slate Company.

The Durable Slate Company

We are one of the largest installers and restorers of slate roofing in the world. With offices across the Eastern United States , our artisans will travel anywhere in the country to install and restore slate roofs. Our expertise extends to all aspects of traditional roofing including all types of roof coverings of slate, clay tile, copper, lead, stainless steel, and wood. We are also expert in all facets that accompany the roofing project such as built-in guttering, ornamental metal, masonry penetrations, and structural members. For work extending beyond the roof, our sister company, the Durable Restoration Company, is an award winning general contractor employing craftsmen specializing in the more than a dozen traditional trades.

A successful project for any type of historical roofing comprises of the many part that we call the Durable Way. The Durable Way consists of:

Proper Assessment

Proper assessment and the resulting plan of action are extremely important in the repair and restoration of all historical roofing types. A skilled roofer will not provide an aesthetic and leak-proof roof without having an initial proper assessment of what is wrong with the roof. Many of the "basic principles" and diagnostic techniquest used by generic modern day roofers do not apply to historic roofing as slate, tile, and copper roofing have quite different properties to asphalt roofing. Our extensive experience on diagnosing roof problems on old buildings (some that date back 300 years) also provide us a great advantage in new installations as we have seen the methodologies that have worked and failed in our thousands of observations of historical roofs. Our senior technical expert, John Chan, serves on the board of the National Slate Association, and is one of the leading experts in slate and clay tile roofing in the country.

Appropriate Materials

With one of the largest stocks of re-claimed slate and tile in the country, we can provide matching pieces for most slate or tile restorations. Most of the clay tiles made fifty to hundred years ago are no longer manufactured and the only way to match existing is a reclaimed tile. On the other hand, many types of slate that were used on older buildings are still quarried but have weathered to a shade that can be vastly different than that fresh out of a quarry. Choosing new materials is just as critical of a choice. Factors such as weathering, the quality of the clay or stone at the time of quarrying, the quality of the stone at the time of cleaving and cutting, etc. can contribute greatly to whether one has a one hundred year product or a much inferior product. When it comes to new installations, we source only materials that have a proven track record to last many generations and use suppliers who have a similar integrity to provide only the very best.

Skilled Artisans

At Durable Slate, we train our artisans on the knowledge accumulated over generations of experence from expert slaters as well as from our thousands of completed projects. However, the restoration and installation of historic roofing requires extensive practice and application of that knowledge to a high level of skill. The difference between a roof installed with this knowledge and skill or lack thereof can mean a hundred plus year roof or one that will not perform satisfactorily for more than a few years. This pride of creating and restoring beautiful roofs that lasts generations has resulted in numerous local and national awards for craftsmanship to many of our fine artisans.

“In the two and one-half years it has taken to reconstruct my house, your company has been without question by far the best organization I have dealt with. Thank you for employing neat, courteous, skilled, knowledgeable, experienced and conscientious workers and thank you for following through on the entire job.” – Lawrence F. Smith, Royal Oak, Michigan

Quality Control

Our Quality Control staff assures that every single job is completed to the same uniformly, high standard. They are responsible for the training and apprenticing of our personnel in the Durable Way. This high standard of integrity in the company has lead to multiple awards for ethics and integrity including the International Award for Marketplace Ethics from the Better Business Bureau.