Slate is a very old and widely used building material which has found extensive use around the world and both indoors and outdoors. It is hard wearing and durable, looks great and is an environmentally sound material to use. There are plenty of advantages for using slate, though there are some drawbacks too.

Advantages

Slate is a fantastic building material which is suitable for floors, walls and roofs. It is eminently workable and capable of being applied to a wide variety of design and architectural situations, both in the home and as part of the exterior cladding and roof or indeed, as part of the surrounding landscaping.

Slate is fire proof – it simply will not burn, which makes it an ideal material for use in areas where fires are an all-too common danger. Slate is also water proof – water will not penetrate the slate no matter how hard the rain or snow. It will not hold any moisture at all, so dampness has an almost impossible task in gaining a foothold. The lack of any moisture retention and the fact it is a rock, means that pests such as mold and mildew are unable to use the material for the basis of their own habitat. Birds and insects cannot affect it, nor is it a food source for them.
Slate is also a low maintenance material. Slate requires no maintenance or cleaning; indeed weathering tends to improve the appearance and effect. Slate also requires no protective covering or shielding, using potentially harmful chemicals (in any event, slate is also resistant to chemical attack as well, so they simply would not work well with it to begin with).

Slate retains its strength and integrity no matter what the extremes of weather and temperature. Slate will withstand very low or very high temperatures and will not warp or buckle due to temperature differentials. As slate is also exceptionally strong, possessing a much greater physical strength than wood or an architectural roof shingle, a slate roof or installation will handle severe weather much better than other building materials.

Slate is highly versatile, strong and easily worked, which is why it has become such a popular building material.

Disadvantages

There are few drawbacks to using slate as a building material. Principally, slate drawbacks revolve around the cost of the material. It is relatively expensive to buy and install, though when you look at the total cost of ownership throughout the life of an installation it is actually one of the cheapest building materials to use.

Slate installations will also frequently need the expertise of a skilled craftsman. Flooring installations, landscaping and cladding are fairly straight forward, however when slat e is used as a roofing material you must make sure your contractor knows how to fit slate properly.

While slate is an environmentally sound material in that it is naturally occurring, there is an impact which the green conscious consumer should consider. Slate is mined in open quarries, frequently in excess of 100 feet deep and covering a very large area. Poor mining practice does have a severe environmental impact, though it is easy to find slate which is mined in an environmentally friendly fashion.

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