Slate and copper roofs, restored by the fourth generation.
Scott Kidney runs his family’s Salem roofing company, dating to 1919. They match old slate and fabricate copper in-house.
Fig. A. A dormer in slate and copper. Illustration.
Matching slate that is a hundred years old.
Plate I · SlateA leaking slate roof can often be repaired rather than replaced, if the broken slates can be matched. J.B. Kidney sources slate from quarries as close as Vermont and as far as Wales to get the match right.
saved and relaid on the full restoration of St. Paul’s Church in Newburyport.
One customer’s roof, more than a hundred years old, has kept its particular purple through inspections twice a year.
| Slate size | Exposure | Slates per square |
|---|---|---|
| 24 × 14 in | 10½ in | 98 |
| 24 × 12 in | 10½ in | 114 |
| 22 × 12 in | 9½ in | 126 |
| 20 × 10 in | 8½ in | 169 |
| 18 × 9 in | 7½ in | 213 |
| 16 × 8 in | 6½ in | 277 |
| 14 × 7 in | 5½ in | 374 |
| 12 × 6 in | 4½ in | 533 |
A square is 100 square feet of roof. Exposure is the part of each slate left showing: half of the length, less the headlap.
Copper, made in their own shop.
Plate II · CopperJ.B. Kidney has a full sheet-metal fabrication shop on Osborne Street. Their copper and sheet-metal work includes the list below, and the shop sells to contractors and homeowners too.
- Standing-seam roof panels
- Flat-seam copper for bays, eyebrows and door heads
- Gutters and downspouts
- Valleys and flashing
- Chimney reflashing
- Roof vents
- Soffits and fascias
- Snow guards
- Ornamental finials
Custom-made for seven restored dormers on an 1871 house in Salem’s McIntire district.
How copper weathers
New copper is bright. It browns within months and, over many years in salt air, turns the green of an old Salem roof. Nothing needs to be done to it.
Work on record.
Plate III · ProjectsThe House of the Seven Gables
Salem
Standing-seam copper panels on the dormers.
St. Paul’s Church
Newburyport
A full restoration of the slate roof, saving half of the original slate.
An 1871 house, McIntire district
Salem
Seven dormers restored, with new 16 oz. custom copper window wells.
A penthouse roof
Boston, South End
Standing-seam copper.
A slate roof with solar skylights
Harvard Square, Cambridge
Solar-powered Velux skylights set into slate.
In a historic district? They know the process.
J.B. Kidney has worked with the Salem Historical Commission for decades and helps homeowners with the preservation guidelines. One customer writes that Scott helped with their Commission application and offered to come to the hearing at City Hall.
- Look at the roofWhat can be repaired, what has to be replaced, and what the original material was.
- Match itSlate from the right quarry, copper made to the original profile.
- The CommissionHelp with the application and the guidelines your district follows.
- The workDone to the approved plan.
Every other kind of roof, too.
Plate IV · GeneralPitched roofs
Slate, architectural asphalt shingles, wood shakes, Spanish tile and metal.
Flat roofs
Rubber (EPDM), and flat-seam copper over bump-outs, bay windows, eyebrows and door heads.
Gutters
Designed, made and hung: copper, wood, aluminum and seamless.
Call about your roof.
(978) 744-2875- The town, and roughly when the house was built
- What you’re seeing: a leak, slipped slates, failing copper
- Whether the house is in a historic district
- Photos, by email, if you have them
- Shop
- 41 Osborne Street, Salem, MA 01970
- info@JBKidneyRoofing.com
- Fax
- (978) 744-2252
- Mostly
- Salem, Marblehead, Beverly and the towns around them
- Landmarks
- Historic homes and buildings from Boston to Portsmouth, New Hampshire