Tile Roofing
Concrete and clay tile, set on a roof built to carry it.
What tile roofing involves
Tile over battens or direct, with the underlayment doing the waterproofing beneath.
Tile is a rain screen. The underlayment under it is the actual roof.
What matters on tile roofing
The load question comes first
Tile weighs several times what asphalt weighs. Before anything else we establish whether the framing was built for it or has to be reinforced. Putting tile on a roof that cannot carry it is not a roofing decision, it is a structural one.
The underlayment is the roof
Tile is a rain screen. Water gets past it routinely and the underlayment beneath is what actually keeps the building dry, which is why the specification of that layer matters more than the tile profile above it.
How the system goes together
Dry-in is the real milestone
The moment that decides whether a re-roof goes well is not when the last shingle goes down, it is when the deck is covered, taped at the penetrations and sealed at the edges. From that point the house is weather-tight and everything after it is finish work. A crew that understands this never leaves at the end of a day with bare deck showing.
Ice barrier goes down first
Eaves, valleys and every pipe before any field underlayment. Working from the bottom up means every sheet laps over the one below it the way water expects.
Then the metal, then the field
In that order, every time.
Ridge vent against box vents
A continuous ridge slot pulls air along the entire peak, which is why it outperforms a row of box vents on most houses. Box vents still win in specific situations: a hip roof with almost no ridge to cut, a roof broken into separate attic spaces that do not share air, or a low ridge where a slot would sit under drifted snow all winter.
Never mix the two on one attic
Put both on the same space and the ridge pulls its air from the nearest box vent instead of from the soffit. The attic barely moves and the roof looks correctly vented from the driveway.
What we check
- Cracked or slipped tile across the field
- Battens and underlayment beneath the tile
- Weight the framing is carrying
- Flashing at walls, valleys and penetrations
How we approach it
Look first
We get on the roof and read what is actually happening before quoting anything.
Say what we find
Photographs and a plain explanation, including when the answer is that you do not need us yet.
Built in sequence
Crews we hire and run, working the right detail in the right order.
Leave it clean
Magnet over the yard, container gone, walked with you.
Hail on the west slope
When a cell moves through here it usually comes across the valley from the west, so the stones hit the west and southwest faces hardest and at an angle. It is common to find a roof with real bruising on two slopes and a north face that is untouched.
Angle changes what you look for
A vertical drop dents flat metal. An angled hit scrapes granules off the upslope edge of a tab and leaves the tab itself looking fine from below.
Two slopes can need two answers
And an honest look says so.
The rot that follows a slow leak
The dangerous leak is not the one that stains a ceiling in a week. It is the one that puts a cup of water into a rafter bay every storm for four years. Nothing shows inside because the insulation absorbs it and the attic dries out between events, while the sheathing goes dark, then soft, then delaminates around the fasteners.
How we find it
Daylight through the deck from inside the attic, rust at the nail points, and a sheathing surface that gives under a knuckle.
Wood is the expensive part
Shingles are a material cost. Structure is not.
Where roofs go wrong
The shortcut we see most
Tile laid on a roof whose framing was never checked for the load, or over an underlayment specified for asphalt rather than for the exposure tile leaves it under.
What good looks like instead
Structure confirmed first, then an underlayment chosen on the understanding that it, not the tile, is the waterproofing layer.
Signs worth a look
- Cracked or slipped tiles visible from the ground
- Debris packed in the tile channels
- Staining on a ceiling below a valley
- Sagging visible along a ridge line
What to expect
Structural check first
Before a tile roof is specified, the framing gets assessed for the load. Concrete and clay weigh several times what asphalt weighs and that is a structural question, not a roofing preference.
Walking a tile roof
Tile breaks under foot traffic if it is walked carelessly. Maintenance and any later work needs somebody who knows where the bearing points are.
Repair stock
Keeping spare tiles from the original run is worth doing. Profiles and colours change, and an exact match years later is not always available.
Related work
Tile covers more than one job, and they are not interchangeable. These are the others in the same family, each on its own page.
Questions we get asked
Not the question you had? Call the shop and ask a person. We would rather talk it through than have you guess from a website.
(801) 382-8898Can my house carry a tile roof?
That is the first question, before anything else. Tile is heavy and the framing has to be built or reinforced for the load.
What actually keeps a tile roof dry?
The underlayment beneath it. Tile is a rain screen, so the waterproofing layer under the tile is the real roof.
Can broken tiles be replaced individually?
Yes, provided matching stock is available. Keeping a few spares from the original run is worth doing.
How do I know when a roof is getting close?
Granules collecting in the gutters, tabs lifting or curling at the edges, shingles that look bare in patches, and daylight or staining in the attic. Any of those is worth a look.
How long does a roof replacement take?
Most houses in this valley are a one to two day job once the crew is on site. Steeper pitches, multiple layers to strip and complicated roofs with a lot of valleys take longer, and we tell you which yours is before we start.
What happens if you find bad decking?
We show you. The decking is only visible during a tear-off, so that is when soft sheathing gets found and replaced. We photograph it rather than just add it to a list.
Ask about tile roofing
Call (801) 382-8898 or send a note. We will look at the roof and tell you straight what it needs.