Tile Roof Relay

SAN DIEGO TILE ROOFS

Living in San Diego we see a lot of tile roofs. Because of the Spanish influence they are very popular. There are different variations of tile roofs and there is a big difference between them. Typically when someone asks for a tile roof, it can mean a few different things, so we’ll clarify that up today.

Someone says, "I want a new tile roof." That can mean a couple of different things. Often times, at my house, for example, it was built in the early 80s, so it's well over 30 years old, 35 years old or so. And the tile is fine. They say the tile can last 50 to 100 years and even at 35 years old, the tile's in great shape. But it's the underlayment, it's the paper underneath, the tar paper that they used 35 years ago. First of all, they typically used thin material, we use much thicker now and it only had a single layer. Over time, with wind and earth quakes the tile can begin to damage the underlayment. San Diego is dry and it’s made out of petroleum products so it dries out and cracks.

TILE RELAY

So what you do in that case, it's called a tile relay. We do those regularly. The process involves moving all of the tile and stacking off to the side of the roof that you’re not working on and begin to re-paper. We add 2 layers of 40 pound felt. The stuff at my house was a single layer of 15 pound felt, which was really weak and setting us up for future failure. After the new underlayment is on we reinstall all of the titles. This type of project is mostly labor. There's very little in the way of costs for materials. We button everything up and you’re ready to go. Some tiles may break in the process, we’ll try to find areas to place these so they are not visible or try to match as close as possible.

NEW TILE ROOF

Another option is a new tile roof. The two types of tile that we have to work with are a concrete and a lightweight tile. You can get into the clay tile, but that's a lot more fragile and much more expensive so we really do try to steer away from that. But a concrete tile replaces another concrete tile. That means your roof structure, the actual framing of the roof itself, needs to be able to handle that weight because it's really heavy.

Concrete tiles were made in replacement of the clay top because they were so brittle. Say if you have an asphalt shingle roof now and you want to switch, you want to upgrade to a tile roof so that it lasts longer. Typically, your current roof structure is not capable of holding that new, heavier concrete tile. So we go to a lightweight concrete tile. Eagle Lite is our preferred manufacturer of choice for these. Typically a lightweight concrete tile can go on an old asphalt shingle roof. We’ll tear the old asphalt shingles off and verify that the weight is close and acquire permits Part of the process is checking with the city and the engineer to make sure it can hold it.

Naturally tiles will changes the look of the house. It gives it a whole different aesthetic value and appeal from the outside and lasts quite a bit longer. Again, it's all down to the paper. The tile's going to last a long time, but it's coming down to that underlayment. That paper, that's the actual waterproofing, it's the last stop for the water before it gets into the house. So we put 2 layers of 40 pound felt. It's the biggest stuff.

We only use synthetic for asphalt shingles. However, we don't for tile. I'll explain why. As I was mentioning earlier, with wind and earthquakes, the house moves and shifts, the nails that go through the tile, go through that paper before it hits the roof deck. And just from moving around, that synthetic is not really set up for a nail moving around. Whereas the asphalt underlayment, the tar paper, 40 pound felt, that grabs around the nail. So even if it does move, it still seals itself. You're not stuck with a bunch of holes around where the nail holes were on a synthetic underlayment. So we don't use synthetic under a tile, whether it's a relay or brand new. Hope that helped clarify some different tile options that are out there.