What Is a Slate Tingle?

The problem a tingle solves

A new slate roof is built from the bottom up, and each slate is nailed through two holes near its head, with the nails then covered by the slates in the course above. After that, no one can reach those nails without lifting a lot of slates. If one slate cracks, the broken pieces can be pulled out with a slate ripper, but the new slate cannot be nailed in the usual way, because the space above is already occupied by the slates above. There is no room to swing a hammer and no way to place a nail through a hole that is hidden by the next course.

The roofer therefore needs a fixing that works from below, at the visible end of the slate. That is the tingle, and for a century or more it has been the standard answer to the single-slate repair.

How a tingle is made and fitted

A tingle is cut from a strip of lead or copper, usually around 25 mm wide and long enough to reach from the batten to the tail of the slate with spare length. Copper is stiffer and holds a shape; lead is soft and moulds easily. One end is nailed to the batten directly under the gap, with the nail driven through the strip into the wood. The new slate is slid into position, pushed up under the course above until its lower edge lines up with its neighbours. The free end of the tingle is then bent up over the tail of the slate and turned back on itself, forming a small hook that pins the slate against the roof.

The result is a slate held at its lower edge by a small strip of metal rather than at its head by a nail. It is almost invisible from below, as the strip is the same colour range as weathered slate and shows only as a thin line. Our explainer on how a single slate is replaced shows the whole repair from start to finish.

Tingles compared with clips

Stainless steel slate clips do a similar job and are quicker to fit. A clip is a spring-loaded or bent piece of metal that grips the tail of the slate and is fixed to the batten below. Many roofers now use them for ease, while lead and copper tingles are valued for being soft, kind to the slate and good-looking on conservation work. Lead can crease and split with age if it is too thin or bent repeatedly, and copper can stain the slates below with green runs in some conditions, so the choice depends on the roof and the roofer's judgment. For the wider picture of fixings, see slate hooks versus nails.

Whichever type is chosen, a tingle is a repair fixing and not a way of holding up a whole roof. If dozens of slates are slipping across a slope, the original nails have failed, and adding tingles to each one is a stopgap. A re-fix or re-slate is then the sensible choice.

When a tingle is the wrong answer

A tingle does nothing if the batten beneath is rotten, because the nail will pull out. It is poor on a very steep or exposed slope, where wind loads on the slate tail are high and a stronger fixing is needed. It is also not suited to a roof that is being re-slated, where the slates can be properly nailed. Check the batten before relying on any repair fixing, and look for rusted nails in the neighbouring slates, since a tingle is only as good as what it is nailed to. Our page on slipped and cracked slates will help you decide whether you have a one-off or a wider failure.

Typical UK ranges for a single slate repair are £100 to £250 for labour plus £5 to £25 for the slate, with access adding £300 to £800. Your fixed quote follows the survey.

Spotting an old tingle repair

If your roof has been repaired before, you may already have tingles. From a ladder, or through binoculars, look for a thin dark line at the tail of a slate that doesn't match the lines of its neighbours. Check whether the strip is intact or has opened out, whether the slate is still held firm, and whether the lead has cracked at the fold. A slate that rattles in the wind or hangs slightly proud of its row has lost its hold. Replacing the tingle is simple, but the cause, such as a rotten batten or a failing nail in a neighbouring slate, is what needs finding.

We photograph the repair spot before and after, including the tingle itself, so you can see how the slate is held. Our other slate repairs are part of slate roofing in Basingstoke.