Mitered Hips: Do you Order Slates That are Wide Enough?

A mitered hip is when… the last field slate on either side is miter-cut to form the hip. The miter cuts create a smooth transition with no pronounced hip cap. If this detail is used on adjoining surfaces of different pitches, the courses will not line up. For this reason, mitered hips are not recommended where two roofs surfaces of different pitches meet at the hip.
When installing a mitered hip, we recommend ordering some wider slates in order to minimize the number of smaller slates (widths) coming into the mitered hip. A “slate-and-a-half” could be helpful, however their availability is limited, as they are very difficult to make. The National Slate Association, Slate Roofs: Design and Installation Manuel 2010 edition is a great resource for design details, specifically pages 142-156 for hips.
Tell us what you do when you have a mitered hip and we’ll send you a New England Slate “I’d Nail That” shirt.
Thank you for reading!