Cracked, broken & slipped tile repairs
In short
Individual tiles get swapped out and refixed to match. The job is straightforward on most tiled roofs; the parts that need care are matching a discontinued profile and making sure whatever broke the tile — foot traffic, frost, a failed fixing — is not going to break the next one.
Also called: Broken roof tile · Cracked tile · Tile slipped · Replace roof tiles
Signs you need this
- A visibly cracked, split or missing tile
- Pieces of tile in the gutter or on the ground below
- A tile sitting flat where the others sit proud, or vice versa
- Daylight through the roof visible from the loft
- Surface of the tile flaking or delaminating — frost damage
- The same area breaking repeatedly
Tiles break for a small number of reasons and it is worth knowing which applies, because the fix is different. Someone walked on the roof in the wrong place, which is by far the commonest and usually means an aerial fitter, a window cleaner or a previous trade. Frost got into a porous tile and split it. A branch or a piece of debris hit it. Or the fixing failed and it moved, then cracked against its neighbour.
Replacing a plain tile is a simple job — they are hung on nibs and often only every fourth or fifth course is nailed, so the tiles above lift and the broken one slides out. Interlocking concrete tiles are slightly more involved because each one locks into its neighbours, but the principle is the same. Neither needs a scaffold for a small number of tiles if there is safe access.
Matching is the awkward part. Tile profiles get discontinued constantly, and colours weather — a new concrete tile in a fifty-year-old roof is startlingly bright for the first few years before it dulls down. Reclaimed tiles of the same pattern are usually available and are the better answer on a visible elevation. Where nothing matches, the trick is to take sound tiles from a hidden slope for the visible repair and put the new ones out of sight.
Concrete interlocking tiles deserve a note of their own, because a great many of the houses on the edges of this town have them and they are at an interesting age. They were introduced widely in the 1950s and 60s with a design life of around sixty years, which those roofs have now reached. In practice the tiles themselves often outlast the batten and the nails holding them, so a roof that looks fine from the pavement can be losing its fixings — and repeated breakages are frequently the first sign of it.
Frost damage clusters geographically, and in this patch that means uphill. Air frost increases sharply with altitude — the Met Office North West records range from around 20 frost days a year on the coast to over 75 in the higher Pennines, with about half a degree of cooling per hundred metres — and Kerridge, Rainow, Langley and the Forest villages all sit high enough for that to be a real difference. A porous tile that holds water and then freezes is exactly how a spalled, delaminating tile happens.
If tiles keep breaking in the same place, that is information rather than bad luck. It usually means somebody is repeatedly walking the same route across the roof, or that a batten has softened underneath so the tiles flex where they should be supported.
What the job covers
- Broken tiles removed and replaced with a matching profile
- Reclaimed tiles sourced where the pattern is discontinued
- Sound tiles relocated so any mismatch goes on a hidden slope
- Tiles refixed properly — clipped or nailed as the exposure requires
- Battens checked underneath for softness or rot
- An honest look at whether the roof is at the end of its fixing life
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
My tile pattern is not made any more. What now?
That is normal and it is rarely a problem. Reclaimed tiles of the same pattern are widely available through salvage suppliers. Where the exact tile genuinely cannot be found, the usual answer is to take good tiles off a slope nobody sees — a rear elevation or below a dormer — use those for the visible repair, and put the nearest modern match where it does not show.
The new tiles look too bright.
They will. Concrete tiles weather considerably over the first few years and the colour difference closes a long way, though it rarely disappears completely. It is one more reason to keep a small stock of matching tiles if you ever have a roof stripped — reclaimed matching stock from your own roof is worth more than it looks.
Can I walk on my roof to check?
Please do not. Walking on tiles is the single commonest cause of broken tiles, and standing on a slate roof will break slates almost without exception. Roofers walk on roofs using boards and by knowing where the load-bearing points are, and they still break things. Anything worth seeing can be seen from the ground with a camera.
How long do concrete tiles last?
The commonly quoted design life is around sixty years, and a great many local roofs from the 1950s and 60s are there now. The tiles frequently outlast the nails and battens holding them, so the honest measure of a roof's remaining life is the fixings and the timber, not how the tiles look from the street.
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.