Slippery Rock Gazette

Shannon Carey

Photos Courtesy Buckingham Slate

Above: Miller Hall, William and Mary College in Virginia

Above: Buckingham Slate roofing tiles are still in place on many colonial-era buildings built over 200 years ago. “All these old Colonial homes in Virginia, I think that’s what saved them. They had a roof that just never failed,” Jones said.

Above: Slate is finding a new market in countertops. The heat-resistant properties of slate make it a perfect material for a working kitchen. It naturally repels water, but sealing is still recommended.

Above: Buckingham Blue-Black slate used as exterior cladding for the Campbell Hall, School of Architecture building at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. Buckingham slate resists fading and has a unique mica content that shimmers in sunlight, and glows at night.

There are lots of clichés that attest to the staying power of stone.

“Set it in stone.”

“Solid as a rock.”

But as anyone who works with stone will tell you, every material has its limits. With daily wear and tear or weather eating away at it over time, any stone will eventually fail.

Except, perhaps, Buckingham Slate. This blue-black stone found only in Buckingham County, Virginia, has a unique power. It can spend 200 years as a roof and still look brand new

Brad Jones Sr., co-owner of Buckingham Slate, says this is because the stone is practically impervious to moisture.

“It’s just that it will not absorb any water at all,” he said. “Freeze-thaw cycles don’t affect it because there is no water.”

Foundations in History

The stone that would come to be called Buckingham Slate was discovered by Welsh settlers more than 200 years ago. They used the material to roof their homes, just as they had done in the old country.

Over time, as word of the material’s strength spread, many quarries sprang up in the area, all selling through one entity in nearby Richmond. That company was called Buckingham-Virginia Slate and was founded in 1867. One by one, the quarries merged or were purchased, until only Buckingham Slate remained.

Buckingham Slate appears on so many historic structures in Virginia and beyond that it’s hard to keep count. The University of Virginia, College of William and Mary, and Harvard University, all have Buckingham Slate gracing the colleges’ roofs. Other structures include three Smithsonian museums, Ford’s Theater, state capitols in Colorado and Maryland, and many more.

“All these old Colonial homes in Virginia, I think that’s what saved them. They had a roof that just never failed,” Jones said.

Jones came into the picture in 2008, when he and business partners Mark Claud and the late Sam Berger saw potential in the company. Jones, a mason, had purchased material from Buckingham Slate, and so was familiar with the product.

A Solid Investment

If 2008 seems like a bad time to purchase a building materials company, Jones won’t argue with you. The company was in bad shape, and the equipment was outdated, he said.

But the product was a real marvel, unique in the entire world.

“We just really believed in the product,” Jones said. “Chinese slate may last 20 years, and Spanish slate 40 years. Vermont quarries have nice slate that will last 70 years, but Buckingham Slate just never goes away. It’s permanent.”

They set to work modernizing the business.

“Everything here, all of the equipment dated to the mid-1950s,” said Jones. “There are better, faster methods of doing things now. When we built our new roofing facility we took our time, put in a more modern system that is less labor intensive.”

The new owners added a new structural building with modern equipment to put out structural elements like bricks, wall panels, countertops and flooring. That building got all modern equipment, too.

Another new piece of the business found something to do with waste material from the quarry.

“Most of what you quarry can’t be used since it’s not good enough grade,” said Jones. “All our waste is crushed and sold for aggregate.

“Every single part of this business we built from the ground up.”

The process took eight years.

Equipment in the roofing mill includes trimmers from Steve Winn of Vermont. In structural, most equipment comes from Georgia’s Wilson Industrial Electric, including big wire saws and polishers. The biggest wire saw will cut rock that is more than seven feet tall, Jones said.

Because Buckingham Slate is a unique, high-quality material, demand has remained high even in the depths of the economic downturn.

“We could not pull it out of the ground fast enough,” said Jones. “The demand for it is so high that we never lack for work. Even in 2008, we had the sales, but we just couldn’t make it. Now we can make the product.

“The demand is really, really high, and our production grows every year. We can’t ever really satisfy what’s out there in the way of demand.”

Restoring the Old, Building the New

Buckingham Slate does repair and restoration jobs, but they’re not what you think. Rarely do they ever have to replace slate roofs. Rather, they repair the structure underneath the roof and replace the same tiles.

“I took Buckingham Slate off a farmhouse built in 1755, put new underlayment down and put the old roof back on,” said Jones. “Check it again in 200 years and see how it’s doing, and I’d say it’ll still be good.”

The company recently completed a project for the Smithsonian Museums, again redoing part of the roof and putting back the original slates. They also matched new slates for an addition to the museum. That matching process is easier that you’d think, as Buckingham Slate resists fading as well.

Virginia’s Carter’s Grove Plantation is another restoration project for Buckingham Slate, as is a new 60,000-square-foot roof for Lowell House at Harvard.

As for new construction, the company recently furnished more than 8,000 square feel of black slate wallstone for a public library in Minnesota.

Buckingham Slate roofing material is mostly sold through national distributors, but the company offers wholesale and contractor pricing. Structural products are sold direct.

The material is more expensive than other slate, but Jones said it’s worth it.

“When you think about how expensive a Buckingham Slate roof is, but over time this is the least expensive roof you can have,” said Jones. 

Above, Left: Producing a stack of even roofing tiles. Demand was at its peak in the construction boom following the end of World War II.  Archive photos from 1946-1947.  Above, Right: Selecting slate slabs showing consistent color and good cleavage lines. Demand is still high for a product that potentially lasts for centuries as a building product. “I took Buckingham Slate off a farmhouse built in 1755, put new underlayment down and put the old roof back on,” said Jones. “Check it again in 200 years and see how it’s doing, and I’d say it’ll still be good.”

“Slate tiles are still split by hand. There has never been a machine (in Europe or USA) invented to replace hand-splitting. lt’s a bit of an art, labor intensive, and the demand is unlikely to go away any time soon,” said Jones.

Building for the Future

When Mr. Berger passed away, Jones and Claud bought his share of the business. Now, Jones spends most of his time in production, developing new aggregate products and keeping things running smoothly.

His son, Brad Jones Jr., handles sales. While the partners didn’t plan to make Buckingham Slate a family business, Jones Sr. said he wouldn’t mind if things turned out that way.

“I get a lot of pleasure out of having him here,” Jones said.

“We finally after eight years have all the parts of this thing where we really want them,” he said. “All are in good shape, but we’re always adding some new twist, always developing some new aggregate product. Those kind of things we’re just doing all the time.”

And it’s that innovation, along with the strongest slate on the planet, that will keep Buckingham Slate around for another 150 years.

For more information about Buckingham Slate, visit their website at buckinghamslate.com.