Anyone know about modern roofing tiles ?

[Toddy]

Our roof is being re-done next week. The scaffolding goes up tomorrow, so all good wishes to the weather gods to be benevolent gratefully received.

However, it occurs to me that the old tiles (covered in moss, starting to get 'dusty' where they've rattled together for just over forty years) ought to be good for something other than landfill. They're the biggish, moulded ridges ones. I don't think they'd do for fires, or paving slabs...a neighbour had her roof renovated instead of renewed and the men walked all over the roof with the pressure washers, she has since had to have forty tiles replaced, so I don't think they take walking upon....but what about as edgings around raised beds ? and would they stand up to the strimmer perchance ?

I know, I'm a magpie who hates waste

M

 

[sunndog]

Old tiles most likely wont be very strong at all. You could probably snap one in half with your hands

They should stand up to a strimmer though for sure

 

[Janne]

Should be fine as borders.

If you plan to create a path, patio or similar in concrete, you can cut the tiles in half ( side to side cut) and push down into the concrete to give a bit of interest to the othervise booring concrete surface.

I assume they are old clay tiles.

Also you can crush them, then mix together with charcoal into the soil where you grow stuff.
They did this on huge areas of what is now the Amazonas rainforest, created huge fertile fields for the millions of people that lived there.

Google ‘tera preta’

 

[Toddy]

I think they're some kind of cast concrete, tbh.
Pretty standard for their time, so less than fifty years old. Two blew down in a storm years ago, and they were big, thick and heavy, sort of granular dark grey stuff. I ought to have asked when the roofer came with replacements, but I was busy.

M

 

[sunndog]

Yep, cast concrete is most likely.

Think of them as about as strong as yer average cheapo teracotta plant pot

 

[daveO]

Concrete tiles are pretty tough and are supposed to get tougher with age. The usual problems come from the fixings, the cement used to bed ridges and verges, and from people walking on the roof without correct equipment. We get problems in this area where older houses have had their slate tiles replaced with concrete tile and the extra weight of the concrete is too much for the roof structure.

If they can be salvaged intact then they should still have some value to someone even as a cheap shed/porch/log store etc roof. They're usually not especially porous so can be used in the garden without too much worry that they'll be damaged by frost.

Builders can be a bit funny about salvaging them intact though as it's harder than just smashing them off.

 

[Janne]

What will you put up ?
Concrete again?
Clay is lighter which is better for an old roof structure, but a little bit more expensive.

Or Aluminium roofing tiles? Da Best!

 

[Toddy]

Thanks folks

The roofer is going to put up modern versions of the same tiles. Slightly redder coloured. The house is about forty five years old, something like that. The roof was built to take these tiles, but they were just lain on top of somekind of tarry membrane stuff over the rafters with purlins fastened to the rafters to hold the tiles....in Scotland it's more usual to have the membrane, then sarking boards, then the purlins and tiles. I know the simpler roof as a Roman roof but my roofer calls it an English roof and this time he's going to put sarking boards on top of the rafters before the purlins.

I'm pretty sure if I asked he'd rescue me a couple of dozen of the tiles before they go to the skip. I'm just trying to work out if they'd actually be useful or just more stuff to find a use for, or dispose of, at a later date.

Clay tiles, we call them pantiles, are traditional along the East coast of Scotland, in the West it was more usual to use slates. Ballachullish was the preferred ones, but folks also imported them from Wales. Welsh slate's very good too. Different colour. Now most slates are brought in from China and they're machine cut and look like floor tiles, very flat and even on a roof. A lot cheaper than the traditional ones that are split and shaped by hand.
The pantiles were usually brought in from Europe. The boats took out coal and, and came back with loads of tiles as ballast. Red was and is preferred on our east coast though further south they went for grey and black ones.
The pantiles don't take the beating from the weather that the slates and concrete tiles do....and they're no longer cheap balast imports either.

M

 

[Janne]

My house was hung with pantiles and on the roof too.
I had to replace most on a wall and had them made in England to match for size and colour as demanded by the local council.

 

[Janne]

Should it not be rafters ( roof structurr) , boards, membrane, rafter, purlins, tiles?
When I restored the old place in Sussex I insisted on treated purlins (and rafters) Maybe that is the standard in your parts, but I would ask.
On the previous house, in Mayfield in E. Sussex, i had to replace a huge section of the roof tiles after a storm, the purlins were not treated and were rotten. Pantiles slid down, ruined the gutter and ended up on the lawn.

 

[demographic]

Anytime I've put purlins on a roof they have supported the rafters by being under the rafters.
Then if the roof has been sarked those sarking boards went over the rafters then counterbattened to achieve airflow under the tyvek then battened and slated or tiled.

Never seen purlins over sarking boards yet.

 

[daveO]

I think Toddy means batten not purlins. Purlins are beams that support rafters.

Sarking boards are great in high exposure areas as they give a really stiff roof structure as well as an extra layer of waterproofing in case the felt isnt man enough for the job. Check your roofer is up to speed on the new British Standard for roofing though as it was updated recently. Basically the ridge tiles have to be mechanically fixed now not cemented and there are a few other technical details too. All to do with making roofs deal with climate change a bit better so Scottish regs probably have it all covered since the exposure is more extreme up there.

 

[Toddy]

I think that maybe comes under regional variation on the language.

Purlins and rones, etc., but I take your point on the conversation here. Battens they are then, and I think the way Demographic describes it is how the roof is to be done.

I've given it some thought, and I'm just not going to hang onto any of the tiles. We don't have room to stash them easily and it'll just end up as more 'stuff' in the garden.

M

 

[crosslandkelly]

You could use them as garden paths. Watch from about 9.30 minutes.

 

[Tengu]

put them on ebay?

 

[John Fenna]

Ah - that is the trouble with new builds!
Our house (something like 200years old) has local Welsh slate roofs and has not needed work since before the idea of felting was introduced.
We have had a couple of slares replaced (men walking on them...) and reattached when the nails rotted through - but the roof is generally sound as ...well better than the pound!
Our new addition (erm 40ish years old...)roofed in modern "slates" of some composite is on its second set of slates!
Any broken slates off the old roof have been reshaped and reused as decorative items such as trivets, coasters and wall hanging thingies as well as a discoidal knife and an arrowhead... and a mesolithic pot lid!
knife and arrowhead

pot lid


trivet (on hazel "feet")


hanging thingie

 

[Toddy]

I've found medieval slates that are in better shape than these modern concrete tiles.
I think on balance it's just as well that I didn't keep any. There's no direct access to get a skip right up to our walls, so the roofers laid down exterior ply and a huge great tarp over the front grass and threw the tiles down one by one into a huge smashed heap. They shattered and scattered everywhere. I'll be picking bits out of the flowerbeds for ages to come I reckon. Surprisingly brittle and absolutely filthy with debris and moss.

M