Gull Lake Estate — Natural Slate Install

Gull Lake is the top of the market in this part of the state — 9,400-plus acres, close to 40 miles of shoreline, and lake homes here regularly run into seven figures. This owner's family had held the property for three generations and was on a second planned upgrade after buying out other family shares. They wanted the roof to match what the house had become: a year-round estate, not the fishing cabin it started as in the 1960s.

They wanted natural slate, which is a conversation we have carefully before any deposit changes hands. Slate adds 9 to 12 pounds per square foot to a roof system — an order of magnitude more than asphalt. The first move on any slate job is a structural assessment. Here we brought in a structural engineer to check the rafter and truss system before signing anything. The existing structure was built to standard residential loads, and the vaulted great room already meant less margin than a typical attic. The engineer specified sistered rafters at 24-inch intervals across the main field before any slate went on.

Sistering ran three days ahead of the roofing crew. Once the structure was confirmed, the job moved as a standard steep-slope slate install: new skip sheathing where needed, 30-pound felt underlayment, copper valleys and step flashing at the two dormers, random-width grey-purple Vermont slate set in diminishing courses from eave to ridge. Copper saddle at the stone chimney.

The 10/12 pitch sheds snow cleanly, and with the ridge ventilation this house already had, we don't expect any ice dam risk here. Slate carries no manufacturer warranty — it's quarried stone — but the install carries a 5-year workmanship warranty, and the material itself is rated for 75 to 150 years under normal conditions. Whoever owns this place next won't have to think about the roof.