We are renovating the facade of the top floor with similar slate that was there before. It is called Pennsylvania Black diamond cut. It actually looks grey. PA Black is a little softer than other slates but still great stuff. We bought our slate from Doug Cochran at Reclaimed Roofs, Inc.
Doug is a good guy. Very sincere and a fan of green building before it was called green building. His prices are good and his service is great. I contacted about seven salvage companies and liked his the best.
Price is about $350/100 sq.ft, which is in my eyes a really good deal for something that looks amazing for the next 200 years. We nailed them in with copper nails, again because they last a long time. This kind of job is something I can really get excited about. It ain’t the pyramids but it’s getting close!
Below are pics of the original painted slate and the new slate we are putting on since we are raising the wall four feet. We are stripping the brown paint off the old slate so that the whole wall is the original slate color. Doug doesn’t think stripping will be effective since PA Black is a soft slate and he thinks it has absorbed the paint. I tend to get a lot of expert opinions and then do what I want anyway 
so the verdict is not out on that yet since we’ve not done stripping.
Jack Watson, one of my workers and a great green builder is taking on this job.
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