I have a concrete tile roof on my home here in New Jersey that's now
80 years old and still working. While they are not trouble free, they
are quite durable and last a long, long time. You don't want to walk
on them at all if you can avoid it, as they crack and then eventually
leak, especially tiles as old as mine. I think they are worth it,
because the house really looks great with this roof on it. Very
distinctive.

The problems I've had, aside from finding people who truly know how to
repair them, is that the roofing felt under them has disintegrated in
spots over the years and the wooden stringers that the tiles hang from
have rotted out in some areas. I guess you have to expect that after
so many years. But when a tile cracks or even when it shifts a little,
you get leaks during driving rainstorms because there is no felt under
the tile to stop the water. This has happened twice in 25 years and
the repairs were not cheap. They have to remove all the tiles from the
area, replace felt and stringers, and put all the tiles back.

Again, thanks to the age of my roof, I've had to have four valleys
replaced. They just rotted away. My roof takes a piece of copper
flashing about four times wider than for an asphalt shingle roof, and
it has to be crimped into a little ridge in the center of the valley
to keep water from flowing down one side and up the other, under the
tiles. Again, the tiles must all be removed and replaced.

The other problem, in my case, is finding replacement tiles, as the
original company no longer exists. Fortunately, my neighbor is blowing
out his house and rebuilding his garage, so he gave me all the tiles I
could carry home. I now have a 500-tile "stash" behind my garage.

I'm also somewhat familiar with the tiles commonly used in Colorado,
as my parents and brothers all lived in Boulder, where many buildings
have tile roofs. My impression is that the low grade ones do crack
and come loose easily. I've looked at them off my mother's balcony and
they are thinner than mine are even after 80 years of erosion. My
brother said that building repair people kept walking on them.

I'd get the best tiles you can find and make sure the installer
doesn't take shortcuts.

I also have commercial-sized gutters and they catch a hell of a lot
more water. My main roof is huge and high and a whole lot of water
comes down it. They weren't much more than regular gutters. But you
still gotta clean 'em out. Hire someone is my suggestion.

Hope this is helpful. I'm not a roofer, just a homeowner, but I have
worked with the tiles myself and know how the roof is constructed and
how they are installed.




On 26 Jul 2005 12:49:02 -0700, wrote:

| I live in Colorado and we get a lot of snow and hail. The hail ruins
| the cedar shake roofs that most of the homes have in our area.
|
| After a recent hail storm that left as much as 4 inches of hail on the
| ground we are getting an insurance claim check to replace the roof.
|
| Cedar shake roofs also raise the annual homeowner's insurance as much
| as $500 a year due to the increased fire danger. The shakes also warp
| in the sun and seem to shed a lot of wood particles. And the raccoons
| and squirrels love chewing on them.
|
| A contractor / adjuster that works with our insurance company is saying
| they can replace the roof with concrete tile made by Monier at
| http://www.monierlifetile.com/ . He will also replace our gutters to
| wider gutters which we have needed due to the occasional torrential
| rains we get that end up clogging our gutters with debris and
| overflowing over two window wells that end up filling up like fish
| tanks and drain into our basement.
|
| I try to keep the gutters cleaned out but my recent effort ended up
| with me falling off the ladder, landing on the ladder, and shattering
| my L1 vertebrae - but I got lucky in that I wasn't paralyzed. I'm told
| that I should make a full recovery. Anyway I want to improve our roof
| and gutter system and avoid ladders at all costs.
|
| The builder said he liked Eagle tiles even better but they stopped
| operations in Colorado. He said they are a lot more expensive, but
| maybe it would be worth paying the difference. They have a site at
| http://www.eagleroofing.com/main/index.php .
|
| I'm also thinking about adding a couple roof fans that are solar
| powered since we have heat build up in both roof areas (one over garage
| and the other over the main second story living area).
|
| I would appreciate any advice anyone can offer. I'm also going to
| check with neighbors that have switched to tile. I know a couple are
| rumored to have had trouble - one with tile that crumbled and another
| with tile that was supposed to stain a certain way and it didn't.
|
| I did some searching on the web but many of the comments are a few
| years old now and the cement tile products may have improved since
| then.
|
| Thanks for your help, and be very careful on ladders.
|
| - Bob
|