Kframe thanks for replying. I am not sure how good roofing with asphalt shingles over slate would be. You would think that slate would provide a pretty uneven surface and that plywood would be better if necessary. If we go the asphalt shingles route our roofer plans to use the boards if they are tight enough and adding to them otherwise -he did this on a side porch of our own house which was too low slope to take slate successfully (my husband had retiled in slate 20 years before not realizing it was the slope/slate combination causing water in the porch). Anyway the boards there were tight enough to take asphalt. Back to son's roof we are going up on a ladder to take photos of the slate today and submitting them to the Joe Jenkins forum to check if the slate is really shot although one side from the ground looks so. Then, if so, the issue becomes how, if at all, to vent a new asphalt roof (replacement with slate is out of the question). There is no possibility of a soffit vent which is normally associated with ridge vents to get air flowing. So perhaps better not to have anything other than the one gable vent there already although even with the board and slate and associated air gaps the area is very very hot. I would love to hear more about venting these retrofitted old roofs.

Re PA slate - ours was crumbling and we were finding bits of slate on the ground. I don't want to get you too worried elaine114, but yours might be reaching the end of its useful life. I went up to the roof with one of the guys who came to give us a quote. There were slates I could push a finger into they were so soft. That was the source of the bits falling on the ground. The guys that repaired the roof went over the whole roof slate by slate tapping on them with a small hammer to see if they were sound. Bad ones came out and good ones stayed. As mentioned in a previous message, this was not inexpensive and I honestly am not sure it was the right call. We are going to have slates failing off and on until they have either all been replaced or we give up and go for another roof.

I had originally posted a response back in March, but I now see it only went to the person sending the email, not the group. So, here it is: Wow, hard to believe that my post from over two years ago is re-circulated! And sorry to hear that someone else is going through what we did:( I agree with previous reponse that you do not need to replace it. Asbestos is a scary word, but the form it takes in a roof is not dangerous, as even if it does shread off, the particles are too large to be inhaled, like dust. We were told that the roof was leaking (although we saw no evidence of it yet) so we had to replace. Yup, EPA was notified (scarier sounding than it actually was...roofing co. did all of it) and specail dumpsters were ordered (more money than regualr ones). Since it was wood shake underneath, that had to be removed (sooooo messy) and then plywood had to be installed. Whole thing cost $25,000 which we will never be able to recoop in the sale of the house. I don't think it effected the price of our house by that much, but I'm sure that a slate roof was factored into the over-all desirability of the house. For us, it was more a matter of being told it was slate, confirmend by our inspector and being told it was in great condition. We never, ever, ever would have paid what we did if we knew it was 1) Asbestos and 2) needed to be completely replaced tothe tune of $25,000. We (as you) did everything right and our "professionals" lead us astray. There will probably be no recourse with the real estate co. as they just put down what they are told. your only other options are to find out that the previous owners KNEW it was not slate (old records? Call roofing Companies? Check permits to see when they had roof repair done??) and possibly the inspector. That can be tricky as inspectors may not be insured and often they have a clause stating that they do not inspect roofs. Mine however, wrote out 2 pages about our slate roof and how to care for it. And he was less than 6 inches away from it when he said what great condition it was in. Grrr! That being said, I don't know how much it will effect the listing value of your home. Sure, slate roofs are $100,000 to put on, but you can never assume that your house would be listed for that much more. Call a realtor and talk about it. Good luck!

It breaks my heart to hear of Marilyn's losses. Tragedy. To answer the question yes I was able to get out today! A neighbor came and got us. I was able to use the transport walker of the lady I am staying with since we were just going out for a short time. We got lucky the Kroger was not crowded and there were scooters available. There was an att store next door so I got a replacement phone. Not everything is on it but a lot is. We saw the sun! The water dropped a lot! We could not get down our street boats only but we could see the roof of husband's truck! We are watching the TV right now and the just showed video by a drone going down my street! Saw my friends house but they can it off before my house. But the water looks like it was about the middle of the house. Here's some pics from my subdivision.