An Industry Split in Two:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Lightweight Slate Roofing industry is now well developed, and there are many companies offering a multitude of products. They all claim to be the \u201cbest alternative to traditional slate roofing\u201d. There are two main categories within this industry. You have the synthetic slate manufacturers; synthetic plastic look-alikes. Then you have lightweight natural slate application methods; natural stone installed in a way that lowers its weight. Obviously both have their pros and cons. Let’s look at the latter of the two to distinguish the high-quality roofing slates from the\u2026 not so good roofing slates. We’ll look at how the slate is graded, and tell you what you need to know about the roofing slate you’re buying.