Roof tile replacement

A cracked, slipped or missing tile rarely looks urgent from the ground, but it is one of the most common entry points for water into a roof, since even a small gap lets rain track sideways underneath the surrounding tiles and onto the membrane below. Roof tile replacement, done quickly and matched correctly, is a small job that prevents a much larger one.

Why tiles crack or slip

• Frost getting into a hairline crack and expanding it further over winter
• Impact damage from a fallen branch, ladder contact, or debris in high wind
• Corroded fixing nails on older roofs, letting an otherwise sound tile work loose and slip
• General age, particularly on concrete tiles laid several decades ago

Matching the tile

Getting a replacement tile that matches your existing roof in colour and profile matters more than people expect, an obviously mismatched tile is not just unsightly, it can also sit slightly differently and fail to shed water the way the surrounding tiles do. We match colour and profile as closely as possible, sourcing reclaimed tiles when a range has been discontinued, which is common on roofs more than fifteen or twenty years old.

Concrete tiles also weather and fade over time, so even a brand new tile of the correct profile can look slightly different for the first season or two before it settles into the same tone as the rest of the roof, this is normal and not a sign of a poor match.

How the replacement is done

Surrounding tiles are lifted carefully to access the fixing point, the damaged tile is removed, and the new one is fitted and fixed correctly, either nailed or clipped depending on its position on the roof, particularly at eaves, verges and around penetrations where wind uplift is highest. It is a quick job for a single tile, but rushing the fixing detail is exactly how the same tile ends up loose again within a season.

When it is more than one tile

If multiple tiles across a wider area are cracked or slipping, particularly if it is happening in the same spot repeatedly, that is often a sign of an underlying issue, corroded fixings across a whole batch, or wind uplift in an exposed area, worth investigating properly rather than replacing tiles one at a time indefinitely. See our roof repairs page for wider repair work.

We check whether the pattern of damage points to a wider cause before quoting for tile replacement alone, since fixing the same spot repeatedly without addressing why it keeps happening wastes money over time.

Replacement tiles are fixed using the same method as the original, nailed, clipped or a combination depending on the roof's exposure and pitch, so the finished repair performs exactly as the surrounding roof does rather than as a weaker point within it.

Checking the felt and battens underneath

Where a tile has been missing for some time before we are called, we check the membrane and batten immediately underneath it for any water damage, since a gap left open for weeks in wet weather can let enough water through to affect the layer below even before it shows up as an internal leak. Any damage found there is repaired as part of the same visit. If your roof is natural slate rather than concrete or clay tile, see our slate roof repair page instead, since the fixing method is different.

What you get

Tile replacement carries our 10 year written workmanship guarantee like every other job we do.

Areas we cover

Tile replacement across Wisbech, March, Downham Market and the rest of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, west Suffolk and south Lincolnshire.