How to repair holes in slate using improvised means without dismantling

It is quite difficult to replace a single sheet of slate with damage, especially in the center of the roof, on your own. To do this, you will have to, if not dismantle the adjacent sheets, then loosen the nails with which they are nailed to the sheathing. You can't do it without helpers. But cracks, chips and holes in slate can be easily and simply eliminated without replacing it with a new one using accessible and inexpensive materials. Any adult can handle this job if he is careful and careful when moving on the roof.

Will need

damaged slate sheet;
rag flap;
a piece of foam;
xylene or P-650 solvent;
small plastic container.

The process of sealing through holes and cracks in slate

Pour the required amount of solvent into a small plastic container. This can be ordinary xylene or the common solvent P-650. We lower a proportionate piece of foam into it, lightly pressing and stirring.

The polystyrene foam partially dissolves, turning into a jelly-like mass, which, when the required amount is obtained, is removed from the solvent and slightly dried by squeezing with a cloth.

As a result, our hands end up with a white, very sticky substance that sticks firmly to everything, including our hands, so it must be handled with extreme caution.

Apply the resulting sticky mass to the previously cleaned and dried edges of the damage in the slate and cover the defective area with an overlap with a piece of fabric material, lightly pressing it against the glue underneath.

We place another amount of the resulting adhesive substance on top of the fabric and carefully distribute it over the piece of fabric, moving onto adjacent undamaged areas of the slate around the entire perimeter.

If it is necessary to lay a piece of cloth over the through holes for strength, then the cracks can simply be covered with the resulting glue without any backing. After a short drying period, the adhesive coating acquires strength commensurate with the strength of asbestos-cement slate, and a slate sheet repaired in this simple way will last for many, many years.

Numerous experience shows that slate repaired in this way is not afraid of frost, summer heat, rain and snow. The adhesive coating made of solvent and foam plastic does not crack, does not peel off, does not lose its tightness and is not inferior in mechanical strength to the material of an asbestos-cement sheet.