Clay tile roofing
In short
Clay tiles are the traditional alternative to slate and they age extremely well — a good clay plain tile roof will run comfortably past sixty years and often much more. The work is in matching a weathered tile, keeping the pitch right, and dealing with the frost damage that catches out cheaper tiles.
Also called: Clay plain tiles · Clay pantiles · Clay roof tiles · Handmade tiles
Signs you need this
- Tiles flaking or delaminating on the face — frost damage
- Cracked or split tiles, particularly after a hard winter
- Tiles slipped where the nib has broken off
- Moss growth holding water on the tile surface
- A tiled roof that looks too shallow for plain tiles
- Mortar-bedded ridges or verges that have cracked
Clay has been the other traditional English roofing material for centuries, and it behaves quite differently to slate. A plain tile is small, double-lapped and hung on nibs, with only every fourth or fifth course nailed on a sheltered roof — so a clay tile roof is a great many small units, each doing a modest job.
The great virtue of clay is how it ages. It weathers to a soft, varied colour rather than fading, it does not lose surface like concrete does, and a good machine-made or handmade clay tile is genuinely durable. Roofs of eighty and a hundred years are common and many of them still have decades in them. The variation across a clay roof — the slightly different firing colours, the gentle unevenness — is why it looks right on an old building in a way a uniform modern tile does not.
Frost is the weakness, and it separates good clay from poor. A dense, well-fired tile absorbs very little water and shrugs off freeze-thaw; an underfired or porous one takes up water, freezes, and delaminates in flakes off the face. That matters more on the high ground east of this town than in it. Air frost increases sharply with altitude — the Met Office records around 20 frost days a year on the North West coast against over 75 in the higher Pennines, with roughly half a degree of cooling per hundred metres — and Kerridge, Rainow and Langley all sit high enough for the difference to be real.
Pitch is the other thing to get right. Plain tiles want a relatively steep roof — considerably steeper than an interlocking tile needs — because they rely on double lap and gravity rather than on an interlocking channel. Plain tiles laid on too shallow a pitch let driven rain past, and no amount of pointing fixes it. Where an old roof has settled and lost pitch, that has to be part of the conversation.
Matching is usually solvable. Clay plain tiles have been made in broadly similar sizes for a very long time, and reclaimed stock is widely available — often a better match than anything new, because it has already weathered. Handmade tiles have more variation still, which helps rather than hinders: a patch of reclaimed handmade tiles disappears into a handmade roof in a way that a modern machine-made tile never will.
Since 2014 the current standard applies to the detailing whatever the tile. BS 5534 requires ridges, hips and verges to be mechanically fixed rather than bedded in mortar alone, and requires the fixing specification to be worked out against the actual exposure of the site. On a clay roof in an exposed position that is not a formality.
What the job covers
- Tiles matched by size, profile and weathered colour
- Reclaimed clay tiles sourced where needed
- Pitch checked against the minimum for the tile type
- Correct nailing and clipping for the exposure
- Ridge, hip and verge mechanically fixed to current standard
- Frost-damaged tiles identified and replaced rather than left
What it costs
We don't publish a price for this yet, because a number pulled out of the air is worse than no number at all — your roofer has to honour it. On roofing it would also be close to meaningless: access is often the biggest single factor, and it varies enormously house to house. You'll get a firm price for your actual job when they ring you back, before any work starts. The quote itself is free and there's no obligation either way.
Common questions
How long do clay tiles last?
A well-made clay tile will comfortably do sixty years and frequently a great deal more — roofs of a century are not unusual. As with slate, the limiting factor is normally the battens and the fixings rather than the tiles, so a roof can be stripped and the same tiles re-laid.
Why are some of my tiles flaking?
Frost damage, and it is a sign of a more porous or underfired tile. Water gets into the body of the tile, freezes, expands and takes a flake off the face. It tends to affect particular batches within a roof rather than all of it, and it is worse on exposed, high or north-facing slopes — which in this patch means the villages up the hill more than the town.
Can clay tiles be laid on a shallow roof?
Plain tiles cannot — they need a comparatively steep pitch to work, because they rely on double lap rather than an interlocking channel. Clay pantiles and some interlocking clay tiles will go lower. If a roof is genuinely too shallow for the tile on it, that is the problem to fix, not the pointing.
Are clay tiles better than concrete?
They last considerably longer and they look better as they age, which is why they cost more. Concrete interlocking tiles are quicker to lay, cheaper, and perfectly serviceable for their design life of around sixty years. On an older or a conservation-area property, clay is usually the right answer for reasons of appearance as well as longevity.
Need this doing in Macclesfield?
Tell us the job and it goes straight to our local roofer — one call back, usually the same day. Free quote, no obligation.