15 year old house requires completely new roof

Woolsery

My wife has just organised the replacement of a roof like that which she remembers installing with her Dad and brother in 1974. The tiles they used were secondhand then from a barn dated 1809, though probably not originals. About 2/3 are still perfectly OK.

It's undoubtedly freeze/thaw action, such as one gets on clayware not specified for the UK climate. I'd guess they might be fine in Turkey and not seen as substandard there.

Bendy_House

Woolsery said:

My wife has just organised the replacement of a roof like that which she remembers installing with her Dad and brother in 1974. The tiles they used were secondhand then from a barn dated 1809, though probably not originals. About 2/3 are still perfectly OK.

It's undoubtedly freeze/thaw action, such as one gets on clayware not specified for the UK climate. I'd guess they might be fine in Turkey and not seen as substandard there.

Will their new roof be a similar 'hand-made' style? Can you give a ballpark for the cost - how would the OP's compare?

Thanks.

Woolsery

Bendy_House said:

Woolsery said:

My wife has just organised the replacement of a roof like that which she remembers installing with her Dad and brother in 1974. The tiles they used were secondhand then from a barn dated 1809, though probably not originals. About 2/3 are still perfectly OK.

It's undoubtedly freeze/thaw action, such as one gets on clayware not specified for the UK climate. I'd guess they might be fine in Turkey and not seen as substandard there.

Will their new roof be a similar 'hand-made' style? Can you give a ballpark for the cost - how would the OP's compare?

Thanks.

The main roof is pretty large (double with valley) and that was done in Double Romans. It was a secondary roof where smaller peg tiles were used. Hard to say therefore if OP's roof is comparable, but the cost with new battens, lead work etc was around £15k. She had quotes both higher and lower than that, but chose the roofers based on reputation. There was some complex scaffolding involved too. I'm not sure what that was ...maybe £2?  BiL got her a deal there.

Eldi_Dos

Just thinking out loud here but could the steepness of the roof pitch have shortened the lifespan of those tiles?

stuart45

Tiles should last longer with a steep pitch as they shed the water quicker.

Eldi_Dos

stuart45 said:

Tiles should last longer with a steep pitch as they shed the water quicker.

Is there a benefit for having a longer tile on a steep pitch?

stuart45

If you mean the bigger interlocking single lap tiles the benefit of them is that they are quicker to install and use less materials.
However they can be used with a lower pitch so they normally go with this.
The smaller plain tiles need a pitch of at least 30-35 whereas the others can have a much lower pitch.
A steep pitch is more expensive to build and maintain. They do look better and are more old fashioned looking.

Section62

stuart45 said:

Tiles should last longer with a steep pitch as they shed the water quicker.

I was wondering whether the tiles might be stone rather than clay/concrete?  What do you think?

I also think there might be some significance to the top row being affected much more than the others - either a different batch, different laying technique, or possibly a chemical effect from the ridge mortar?

stuart45

They could be a soft stone.  The sizes and shapes do look a bit more random. Strange how the top course is the most affected.

Jumblebumble

k3lvc said:

Is it only your house or is it an estate where others are having the same issue ?

Irrespective it's unlikely anyone is 'to blame' and even less likely that you'll get anyone else to pay for it. If there was no visible damage to tiles at the time of survey then a surveyor isn't going to check the provenance of the tiles

30yrs isn't an unreasonable expectation but plenty will be either side of that and 15yrs isn't a short period - especially at a time when profit comes before quality

The concept of 15 Years life for tiled roof being acceptable is absurd
Around us there are hundreds of houses built in the mid 30s with perfectly good original tiles