/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Speaking of slate and tile. Contractors here drive around looking for houses with those then get the owners to switch to asphalt shingles. So, some roofer walking around on your slate or tiles is probably TRYING to break them on purpose in order to convince you to switch to "more durable" asphalt shingles. I know this because I worked for some roofers. They even had a guy with a hammer at the dumpster bashing up every tile or piece of slate so that no one could use it again. One of my bosses even said, "That fucking shit is really bad for business."

I've helped work with, repair, and install a few slate roofs. They are fucking awesome to work with, if you have the proper tools and knowledge. Though the slate is fucking heavy and can CUT YOU DEEP if you are an idiot. I've had to rip out Johnny DIYer's shit work and Billy Hick's contract disaster work on slate when the fuckers thought it was a good idea to caulk up the slate to fix leaks. One contractor guy, who installs metal roofing, said that when he repairs a slate roof he makes sure to, "face nail," because that causes those sections to wear out faster.

Working with contractors for the first half of my life really made me have a monumentally bad opinion of them.