Connoisseur Slate & Tile offers a full spectrum of repair and/or replacement services on slate, tile, wood shake, and shingle roofs.
Slate
We have the knowledge necessary to install a graduated slate roof. This is one of the more difficult installations to do properly. It requires the gradual shrinking of both thickness and exposure as the slate shingles proceed from the eave to the peak.
And, to make it more interesting, several colors can be blended evenly into the roof. We use only grade S1 slate, which is the densest of all slate.
Tile
Lines are struck such that the first course of tile will have the same exposure as the top course of tile. Sounds mundane, but we took over a job from a roofer who was trying to install a clay Spanish roof tile without any lines. Instead of using tar to point the hips, we use chicken wire screen (to aid in mortar retention) and mortar. Slate or tile roofs can get so hot that the tar can start oozing out. Rather unsightly. Mortar will not run.
Wood Shake
We can install either mediums, heavies, or "Perfection" wood shake shingles. Our most recent project was the installation of Perfection wood shake shingles in a Japanese, tiered style, on a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Riverside.
Copper downspouts and gutters
We specialize in the installation of one-piece copper gutters. This type of gutter is especially important to use when replacing old copper gutters with new. When copper gutters need to be replaced, it's because they've reached the end of the coppers life expectancy, which is anywhere between fifty and seventy years, approximate. This means that the fascia board behind the gutter is of a similar age, and due to this age, is of a "softer" nature.
It is quite common to cut off the old gutter and slide a new copper gutter underneath a portion of the old gutter that has been left behind. With this method, the only means of fastening this new gutter is to the old, "soft", fascia. And, give or take a few wet, heavy snowfalls, this new gutter can be found on the ground.
In order to install a one-piece gutter, some of the existing roof material needs to be removed in order to remove/replace the gutter. It is at this time that one can install ice and watershield, a product that is now specified for virtually every pitched roof. And the gutters can get attached to the roof, not the fascia, offering a far superior, lasting installation.
Chimneys
Some roofers will just fasten a piece of metal topically to a chimney and run a bead of caulk across the top of the metal. With this method, your roof is only as water tight as the caulk. Using a diamond saw blade, we score out the joints, thus allowing the sheet metal to be "let into" the mortar joint. Then its caulked. With this method, even if the caulk fails, your chimney can remain water tight until the caulk gets replaced.
Copper embellishments
We can custom fabricate many types of conductor boxes, spires, and flashings.
Minor carpentry work
As roughly half of our business is repairs, it is vital to be able to not only repair sheathing, but also to perform structural repair. We have re-built inlaid gutter systems. We have removed/replaced bead board soffit systems, primed and painted or stained.
Standing seam panels
We take the time and care to install standing seam panels such that they are centered and evenly exposed.
Flat locked panels
Some roofers lay one sheet of copper on top of another and solder it. Given coppers ability to expand and contract, this unlocked seam will surely fail. We use five cleats per flat lock panel, interlock each panel into the adjacent one, then solder it.