" The original roof on the house would have been slate?"

" It was. We found evidence of it in the rafters of the house. Yes."

" Now what was the condition of the sheathing, underneath this black paper [unk]."

" It was solid board sheathing, approximately 12 inches wide, and they were very uneven so originally, what they did was they used mortar to lay the slate in. To give it an even surface and what we've done is we put half inch plywood on top of the original sheathing to give it a nice surface."

" Yes. And then on top of that you've got 15 pound felt?"

" No actually we're using a double layer of 30-pound felt which is really nice to give it a good protection under the slate. And we're using these button-cut nails to hold the felt on."

" Okay."

" And then you're putting a slate roof on, which is absolute high quality. How do you assure that another hurricane here [unk] isn't blow the roof off?"

" Well you used a good roofer and Joe Wells[unk] is probably one of the best in the city. He's done houses such as the [unk] house. We were there last week,"

" Yes. Jo Wells[unk] nice to meet you."

" Hi Bob."

" Yes."

" Now this is not an easy roofing material to install, is it?"

" No it's not. You have to be very careful with it."

" Yes. How do you go about ensuring that you're gonna get a job that's not gonna blow off?"

" Well basically you just have to make sure you position the slate correctly and that your nails are good and tight, and the slates are nice and solid to the roof. "

" Okay, that's the main thing. That you have great nailer, and you're using copper nails, I see."

" Yes Sir. Yes."

" Tell me about the nature of the slate itself. Is it a Welsh product, or is it imported, or is it American?"

" Well this is American slate, it's a Vermont. And it's called a Vermont Graco[unk."

" Yes. So it's New England."

" Does it come pre drilled with the holes bored already there?"

" Yes. Sure does."

" How do you go about cutting it?"

" Basically just using swipe cutter. Mark your slate where you want it, and then you would, you wanna mark it on the back side so that when you cut it, you get your double head[unk] on the exposed side. So it's all uniform."

" Alright. The cutter itself is not terribly sharp, but I guess in combination with these two pieces,"

" I'm just starting to put in some more step flash[unk] and then finish up this chimney. "

" Basically we're starting with the hottest slate,"

" Yeah."

" So that we get it all set."

" And one copper nail, the beauty"

" I will get two."

" The beauty of it is that, yeah I see one on the top of the other there. There is no roofing cement, there is no [unk] cements of any sort, no [unk]. It's just relying on these natural materials, the copper and the slate."

" Yes. Also then on the [unk] on the chimney we used mortar instead of [unk]"

" Now do you add another piece of copper?"

" Yes."

" These are set just above the piece below it."

" And in all cases, you're nailing down into the roof sheathing, never into masonry?"

" Yes."

" Let's look at the other side of the chimney and you can see six rows that already has installed."

" Yes. That's really neat and trim isn't it?"

" And the top of security for the counter flashing is in?"

" So that's important too. You have put, you scored a cut into the masonry and you put a skirt over the step flash."

" And it covers all of the steps."

" Yeah, it's really a quality job. Now, Joe when you're putting all these slate down, can't you just go, kind of horizontally course by course like a typewriter?"

" No Bob. You don't wanna do that in case your [unk] get out so we basically just pyramid them in."

" Okay. You pyramid them in, 3 is that you put one there, and then the next one is wanna go right up here?"

" Yes. Right in there, like that. A little bit of space."

" Just a little bit of space?"

" Yes."