You either already have a clay tile roof and want to keep it in good shape, or you’ve fallen for the look and you’re wondering if it’s a smart choice for a house in Kansas. Either way, it’s hard to get a straight answer. Clay is a premium material, few roofers here work with it often, and the advice you find online is mostly written for Spain, Arizona or Florida.
Clay tile roofing in Overland Park can be a beautiful, long-lived roof. It also comes with real trade-offs in our climate, and you should hear both sides before you spend money on it.
APC Roofing is a GAF Certified contractor, licensed and insured, in business since 2017, and we install and repair clay tile. Our nearest office is in Shawnee. Call 913-398-5020 for a free inspection.
What makes clay different from every other roof
Clay tile is shaped from natural clay and fired in a kiln until it’s hard and dense. That firing is the whole story. The color runs through the tile instead of sitting on top, so there’s no coating to fade or peel. Decades of sun barely change it. A well-made clay tile soaks up very little water, which matters a great deal in a Kansas winter.
The trade-off is that fired clay is brittle. It handles weather well and handles impact poorly. A boot in the wrong place, a dropped tool or a falling limb can crack it.
Clay tile roofing in Overland Park and Kansas City winters
Water that soaks into any tile can freeze, expand and slowly break the face apart. Clay’s low absorption gives it an edge here, but not every clay tile is made for hard freezes. Clay tile is graded for how well it resists freeze-thaw weathering, and on a house in Overland Park you want tile rated for severe weathering. If you’re buying clay, that rating is the first thing to check. If you already own a clay roof, flaking or crumbling on the tile faces can be a sign the tile wasn’t rated for our winters.
Snow and ice matter too. Snow can slide off a smooth clay roof in a sheet. Ice that builds up at the eaves can force meltwater back under the bottom rows of tile. The underlayment along the roof edge does a lot of work on a clay roof here.
Hail and clay tile
Spring hail is the other big test. Small hail usually bounces off clay with no harm. Large hail can crack tiles, and a big storm can break pieces across a whole slope. A cracked clay tile doesn’t always leak right away, because the underlayment below is still there. But once a tile is broken, sun and water reach that underlayment and it wears out much faster in that spot.
After a serious hailstorm, have a clay roof checked even if it looks fine from the yard. Broken pieces often hide on the back slopes. If there’s damage and you decide to file a claim, you file it and pay your own deductible. We document the damage with photos, provide the estimate and work with your adjuster.
Clay tile styles
The classic look is barrel tile: curved pans laid face up with curved caps over the joints. S-tile combines the pan and cap into one piece and is common on newer homes. Flat clay tile lies nearly flat and can look like slate. Curved profiles tend to catch leaves and needles in their low spots, so homes under big trees may need the valleys and pans cleared more often.
Weight and your house
Clay tile is often lighter than standard concrete tile, but it’s still several times heavier than asphalt shingles. If your house was built for clay, the framing was sized for it. If you’re switching to clay from shingles, a structural engineer should check the rafters first. Sometimes the framing needs reinforcement before clay can go on.
Keeping a clay roof in good shape
Most clay roofs need repair long before they need replacement. Cracked tiles can be replaced one at a time. Matching is easiest when your tile is still in production. If it’s been discontinued, the fix comes from salvaged tile or the closest match available, and the shade may differ a little until it weathers.
The part that ages first is usually underneath. The underlayment, the flashing at walls and chimneys and the pipe boots wear out while the clay above still looks perfect. When the underlayment fails, the tile can often be taken up, stacked, the underlayment replaced and the same tile set back down. You can read more on our tile roof repair in Overland Park page.
Still deciding between clay and concrete? Our concrete tile roofing in Overland Park page covers the other side, and our tile roofing in Overland Park page compares them.
How it works with APC Roofing
- Book your free inspection. Call 913-398-5020 or request a free online estimate.
- Get a clear, honest assessment and estimate. You’ll see photos of the tile, flashing and underlayment where it’s visible, and hear whether it’s a repair, a re-lay or a replacement.
- Your roof gets done and the site gets cleaned up. Clay tile takes longer to install than shingles, so you’ll get a realistic timeline with your estimate. The crew cleans up before leaving.
Financing is available through Aqua Finance, Fortifi, Hearth and Home Run Finance.
Clay tile questions from Overland Park homeowners
Is clay tile a good idea in Kansas?
It can be, if the tile is rated for severe freeze-thaw weathering and your house can carry the weight. The color and durability are hard to beat. Hail and foot traffic are the main things to plan around.
Why are some of my clay tiles flaking?
Flaking on the face often means water got into the tile and froze. It can point to tile that wasn’t made for hard freezes. A close look tells you whether it’s a few tiles or the whole roof.
Can I walk on my clay roof to clean the gutters?
It’s better not to. Clay breaks easily between its support points, and a crack from a footstep may only show on the underside.
Do clay tiles fade?
Kiln-fired clay keeps its color for a very long time because the color goes all the way through.
A clay roof you can count on
A clay roof that’s been checked and cared for can outlast almost anything else you could put on your house. Call 913-398-5020 or book your free inspection online, and you’ll know exactly what your clay tile needs.
