Period-Correct Colour Matching
Vermont, Buckingham, Peach Bottom and Pennsylvania. Knowing which quarry the original roof came from is half of getting the match right.
The four ranges that cover most American roofs
Vermont and New York produced the unfading and semi-weathering greens, purples, reds and mottled ranges. Buckingham County, Virginia produced the dense blue-black that never fades. Peach Bottom, on the Pennsylvania–Maryland line, produced a hard blue-black now long out of production. The Pennsylvania soft-vein belt produced the grey-black slate found on a great many ordinary period houses.
Fading and semi-weathering
Unfading slate holds its quarry colour for the life of the roof. Semi-weathering slate is meant to change—greens drift to buff and tan over decades, which is exactly why a fresh semi-weathering green will not match an eighty-year-old semi-weathering green field until it has had a decade of its own.
How to identify what you have
Construction date, region, the colour of a freshly broken edge versus the weathered face, and thickness. Send us a piece and we will tell you what we think it is.
Talk it through with us
Call 225-954-8393 and describe the roof. We will tell you what is realistic.
