Tile Roofing
Most tile roofs outlast two underlayments. That single fact explains nearly every surprise owners have with tile, because it means the covering and the waterproofing are on completely different clocks, and it is the waterproofing that decides when work is needed. APC Roofing installs, repairs and relays tile roofs in Florida, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado — an everyday covering in the first, and an uncommon one in the other three, where it turns up on individual buildings rather than whole streets.
The tile is armor; the membrane is the roof
Clay and concrete tiles shed the great majority of the water and take the sun, the impact and the flying debris. What actually seals the building is the membrane fastened to the deck underneath them. Water that blows sideways under a tile, or runs down a hip in a heavy squall, lands on that membrane and is carried to the eave. So the working life of a tile roof is governed by the membrane, not the ceramic — which is why a leak on a roof whose tiles look brand new is completely ordinary, and why the useful question about any tile roof is how old the layer nobody can see is.
Clay or concrete
The two materials look similar from the street and behave differently in the hand. Clay is fired earth with its color running through the whole body, so it does not fade, and a chipped edge shows the same shade as the face. Concrete is cast from sand and cement, usually finished with a surface color over a gray body, and comes in a wider range of profiles including flat tiles that imitate slate. Concrete generally costs less and weighs more; clay generally costs more and holds its appearance longer.
Hail, and the number that depends on shape
Tile handles ordinary hail well, and the threshold is specific enough to be useful. Flat concrete tiles begin to fracture at around an inch and a quarter of hailstone diameter; high-profile S tiles hold out to roughly two inches, because the arch carries the impact down into the tile below. Both sit above the one-inch stone that gets a thunderstorm called severe, but neither is invulnerable, and after a major hailstorm the realistic expectation is replacing broken pieces rather than an untouched roof.
Weight, wind, and freezing
Tile is many times heavier than an equivalent area of asphalt shingles, so any conversion from shingle to tile begins with confirming the structure can carry it — before colors, not halfway through. Wind is the second engineering question: individual tiles have to be fastened against uplift to the standard the building code sets for the location, and correct fastening at hips, ridges, rakes and eaves is where a tile roof is won or lost. Freezing is the third, and it is the one that catches people who bring tile north. Water absorbed into a porous tile expands about nine percent when it freezes, so tile has to be specified for frost — Grade 1 under ASTM C1167 for clay, which is proven over fifty freeze-thaw cycles, and the freeze-thaw provisions of ASTM C1492 for concrete.
Living with one
Tile asks for little, but it does ask. Keep valleys and gutters clear so water is never held up where it should be running away. Have cracked or slipped tiles replaced promptly rather than at the next storm. And keep foot traffic off it — satellite installers and pressure-washing crews break more tiles than the weather does, and a boot set down where a tile has no support cracks it silently. Before storm season, get the flashing, ridge and edge details looked at, because those are where a tile roof actually loses water.
