Question answered
Should you sell old Horsham stone slates?
The short answer
In most cases you should not sell old Horsham stone slates that came off your own roof. The Stone Roofing Association wants a roof's own slates reused before any other option, and your roof may need them again for repairs. Selling to others also feeds a salvage trade that the association says helps destroy historic roofs. Surplus stone is a decision for after the roof is finished.
Old stone slates have a market value, and a skip is never the right place for them. Before you sell, there are good reasons to keep what came off your own roof.
Your own stone is the best repair stone
A roof of Horsham stone is built from pieces that have sat together for generations. Weathered colour, lichen, thickness and bedding all fit one another. When any of that stone leaves the property, the roof loses material that can never be matched exactly, however careful the search for a replacement.
The Stone Roofing Association is plain about the order of preference, ranking reuse of a roof's own slates above every other option. A roof being stripped for a relay usually produces a pile of slates that look too cracked to go back. Some can be cut down for the small courses near the ridge, and others make useful repair stock for later years.
That is why we sort and stack everything that comes off before anyone talks about what to do with it. The page on replacing one stone slate shows how a single spare piece gets used.
Why salvage sales worry the Stone Roofing Association
New Horsham stone is hard to come by. A 2019 report described a supply crisis for roofing slabs and quoted a conservation society for old buildings as saying that no geologically appropriate substitute exists. Owners, it added, often switch to clay tiles or hunt out used stone slates, which can mean stone ripped from other old buildings.
The association takes a firm line on that second route. Slates lifted from other buildings should be avoided if at all possible, it says, since each purchase helps pull another old roof apart. If you advertise your old slates, you may be selling into the very demand that puts another roof at risk.
We are not saying a sale is unlawful. The people who know these roofs best advise against feeding the market. The report dates from 2019, so ask whoever you deal with what the position is now.
When a sale can still be reasonable
Sometimes stone really is surplus. A roof may be changing to another covering with consent, a building may be coming down, or an old outbuilding may hold far more than any repair would use. Even then, the slates are part of a historic building's fabric, so we would ask the council's conservation team whether the stone should stay with the property.
If you do pass stone on, think about who gets it. Offer it to a neighbour or church with a Horsham roof of their own, where it goes back into the same landscape. A buyer should be able to say where their stone comes from, and the association advises checking that any reclaimed slates were obtained legitimately.
Do not mix stone types in the sale either. Limestone and sandstone slates belong on separate roofs, a point we explore in is Horsham stone limestone.
Listed roofs and the consent question
If the house is listed, stripping its stone and covering the roof with something else changes how it looks and what it is, and that is the kind of work needing listed building consent. The Adur & Worthing guide to listed buildings treats non-matching repairs as consent territory. The National Park Authority sees routine maintenance and minor repairs in situ as exempt, while wholesale replacement of historic fabric is not. Either way, check first, because carrying out works without consent is an offence.
That means the decision to sell should be taken together with the decision about the roof. An owner who sells stone first and asks questions later can end up unable to finish the roof lawfully in matching material.
Church roofs and scheduled monuments follow their own rules, which differ again. On a hipped stone roof the hips and valleys use up a lot of cut and shaped material, so spare stone goes quickly where a roof has many of them.
What to do with spare stone instead
Keep it dry and stacked on edge, sorted by size, somewhere flat and out of the frost. Label the piles if the roof is large. A garage or a barn corner works well. Stone left on a muddy lawn picks up moss and breaks more easily.
Photograph the roof before the work begins, so its original pattern of diminishing courses is on record. A record helps whoever lays it again, and it helps if you later need to show the council what the roof looked like.
On site we sort the stone, mark which pieces are sound for reuse and tell you what is left over. The service itself is described on the Horsham stone roofing page. We photograph your roof as we go, and the price follows the survey in writing. If a few slates are all you have, ask us what they are worth to the roof before you think about what they might fetch.
Spare Horsham slates: two more questions
Can I give old stone slates to a neighbour with a Horsham roof?
Yes, and it tends to end better than a sale to a stranger. The stone stays in the same area and goes back onto a roof of the same kind. Make sure you do not need the stone yourself first, and keep a note of where it went.
Do I need permission to sell stone from a listed house?
The sale itself is not the issue; the effect on the building is. If taking the stone means altering the roof so that its character changes, the council may need to consent. Ask the conservation team at Adur & Worthing Councils or the National Park Authority before you advertise.
Tell us about your roof
Describe what is happening and we will call you back to arrange a visit.
- Photographs of what we find
- A written quote with one total price
- Or call 01903 299063
10-year workmanship guarantee, in writing.