Removing slates

[MetManMark2]

Morning all
We have a garage that needs to be rebuilt as it is not wide enough to get a car in. We would like to recycle as many of the bricks and slates as possible as they are all in good condition. How does one go about removing slates without breaking them? I have searched online but without much success. I was obviously going to start from the top and work down. I have yet to take a good look but I thought I might be able just to lift some off or failing that take the head of the nail off with a pair of pliers / pincers.
Has anyone done this successfully in the past or have some other ideas?
Thanks in advance
Mark

 

[88v8]

Hello and welcome, brother of MetmanMark.

There's actually a widely available tool for the purpose.
https://www.roofingsuperstore.co.uk/product/roofers-edma-slate-ripper-sprung-steel-600mm.html?gclid=CP2Vie-E_MoCFcYcGwodWCkM1w

Slide it under the slate.
Hook the slot around the nail.
Hit the butt downwards with a hammer.
With care and luck, the nail will break or pull out.

Ivor

PS is the garage not big enough, or is that it's not big enough for a bulbous modern car?
We have three cars that are less than 5'2" wide.

 

[steveb]

exactly as Ivor says - get a slate ripper. right tool for the job

 

[malcolm]

My roofers (who I wouldn't have back because they were bodge artists) chipped away at the slates around the nails with a pointy hammer and then made new nail holes. I guess that wasn't the best approach for long term re-use of slates.

 

[kreyszig]

My roofers (who I wouldn't have back because they were bodge artists) chipped away at the slates around the nails with a pointy hammer and then made new nail holes. I guess that wasn't the best approach for long term re-use of slates but was fairly quick.

if the nails aren't corroded then I could see this being faster than trying to rip them out. careful use of a mini hole saw could work here too

 

[CliffordPope]

I thought slate rippers were special tools for cutting nails so that you could remove isolated slates, where the nails were covered by the slate above?
If you are taking all of them off I'd start at the top as you say and snip the heads off the nails, then lift the slates off carefully without risking breaking them.

 

[CliffordPope]

I thought slate rippers were special tools for cutting nails so that you could remove isolated slates, where the nails were covered by the slate above?
If you are taking all of them off I'd start at the top as you say and snip the heads off the nails, then lift the slates off carefully without risking breaking them.

 

[MetManMark2]

Thanks all for your replies. I'll be having a go at this tomorrow - in the pouring rain! I'll let you know how I get on. I don't know how old the slates are but they look in reasonable condition so it seems a shame to waste them.

In response to some of the other comment - our car is a 1998 saab 9-3 which has been in the family since nearly new. I have managed to get it into the garage but not then able to open any of the doors. I think the garage is ~100 or so years old. IT had previously been used to store a model T ford! It is interesting in that the floor of the garage is actually wood (pretty much rotten) and then underneath this black diamond paving (which is the same as outside the garage). I don't understand why they put a wooden floor down.

We have been doing up our house over the last 4 years and our car has taken a pounding. Trips to the skip and builders yard to get bricks and lime etc. I am not allowed to replace it until all the work on the house is complete which is an incentive .

I had to update my username as I had forgotten my password and have been unable to request a new one. I have tried o my android phone, chromebook and also my linux desktop but to no avail. I kept getting SSL connection error :'( So in desperation I got a new login.

Cheers - and thanks for the advice.
Mark

 

[88v8]

In response to some of the other comment - our car is a 1998 saab 9-3 which has been in the family since nearly new. I have managed to get it into the garage but not then able to open any of the doors.

Ahh, 5'7" wide. Could be worse. Mind you, it's a hatch, you can climb out of the back
Our Landrover Lightweight is 5'0", TR6 is 4'10", Pug 205 is 5'2". Although I must admit the Shadow is 5'11"..

In the 60s, my father changed our Daimler Conquest (5'5") for a Rover 3 litre (5'10"). It was rather longer than the Daimler and hit the vice on the workbench at the end of the garage. In a feat of inspiration, he mounted the vice on a pair of spare bonnet hinges so it would lift out of the way, and triumphantly drove the car into the garage, only to find that he couldn't open the door.

Our Shadow will be disappearing this year, not because it is too wide, but because it's too long. I built our new olde garage to comfortably accommodate cars 12' long, not one that's 16'11", and much as I love the car, to have 2'0" of nose projecting into my workshop is 'not on' as my neighbour used to say.

Ivor

 

[MatthewC]

My roofers (who I wouldn't have back because they were bodge artists) chipped away at the slates around the nails with a pointy hammer and then made new nail holes. I guess that wasn't the best approach for long term re-use of slates.

My roofers (who were pretty good) actually just hit each nail with a hammer, which caused a small hole around the nail and the slate was lifted off. They were then re-used with a new hole. The old hole is not a problem when re-using, unless it's been done badly, or more than twice!

There was some loss of slates as well, but I think their prediction was that you only expect to re-use about 70% at best (although I might have got that number wrong).

 

[Lewis Tiffany]

Slate ripper's are used to remove slates without stripping the roof from the top down for example putting a velux halfway down the roof or removing the odd broken slate
If you are removing the whole roof start from the top down .
The best tool I've found to remove slates is a pair of pincers
electrician pincers are usually thinner and don't put as much pressure on the slate when grabbing hold under the nail head .

Put the pincers under the head of the nail squeezing hard then twist the nail until it snaps or becomes loose then pull straight out without levering on the slate .

If the nails are thin gauge its sometimes easier to nip the heads off
If you lever on the slate you will you will break them

SSL error I've had the same thing
Found out it was google/ chrome browser
Switched to yahoo browser and its been working just fine