Tile Roof Repairs
When the rain gets in, we get to work.
A tiled roof is only as watertight as its worst tile and its ridge and valley joints. One cracked or slipped tile is enough to let water into a ceiling, and hail turns a sound tile roof porous without cracking a single tile.
Why tiled roofs leak
Tiles are designed to shed water, not to be waterproof in themselves. Water that gets past a tile is normally caught by the underlay and drained away. A tiled roof starts leaking when there is too much water getting past the tiles for the underlay to handle, or when the underlay itself has perished.
The most common single cause is the ridge. Ridge caps are bedded in mortar, and mortar cracks with age and thermal movement. Once a ridge cap is loose, water goes straight into the top of the roof where it does the most damage. Hips, valleys and the mortar around them fail the same way.
After that comes the tiles themselves. Cracked and broken tiles are obvious, but porous tiles are not: hail strips the protective surface off concrete tiles, and a tile that has gone porous looks perfectly intact while absorbing water.
Then there are the details — flashings at chimneys, wall junctions and penetrations — which fail on tiled roofs exactly as they do on any other covering.
What tile roof repair involves
Damaged tiles are replaced with matching ones, matching both the profile and the colour reasonably closely. Slipped tiles are refixed. Where ridge or hip mortar has failed, the old mortar is raked out and the ridge is rebedded and repointed, which is a more thorough job than smearing new mortar over the top of the old.
Valleys and flashings are rebuilt where they have failed, because a tiled roof has more junctions than most and they are where the water gets in.
- Cracked, broken and missing tiles replaced
- Slipped and displaced tiles refixed
- Ridge and hip mortar raked out and renewed rather than patched over
- Valley linings and valley mortar repaired
- Flashings at chimneys, walls and penetrations renewed where failed
- The roof space checked for water that has already got in
- Replacement recommended when the covering has gone porous across the roof
When a tiled roof is past repair
Individual tiles and ridge joints are always worth repairing. The decision changes when a large proportion of the tiles have gone porous, when the ridge has been repointed repeatedly and keeps failing, or when the underlay has perished underneath the tiles.
At that point a full strip and re-roof is the cheaper answer over a few years than continued patching, and it is an opportunity to renew the battens and underlay at the same time.
When a repair is not enough: full re-roofing
Not every roof can be saved with a repair, and pretending otherwise wastes your money. If the covering has gone porous, the sheeting has rusted through, the battens have rotted, or the same area has been repaired repeatedly, the roof has reached the end of its service life.
We arrange the whole job when that happens: strip and dispose of the old covering, replace damaged timber, battens and underlay, and install the new roof in tile, slate, IBR or corrugated sheeting, with new flashings and gutters where they are needed. If a repair will genuinely hold, we would rather do that and say so.
Tile roof work we handle
Cracked Tile Repair
Cracked and broken tiles replaced so water is not going straight through the covering.
Slipped And Displaced Tiles
Tiles that have moved out of place, which leaves gaps and exposes the underlay.
Porous Tile Replacement
Tiles that have lost their surface and are absorbing water rather than shedding it.
Ridge Cap Repair
Loose, cracked and missing ridge caps, which is where the majority of tiled roof leaks start.
Rebedding And Repointing
Failed ridge and hip mortar raked out and renewed so the joints hold again.
Valley Repairs
Valley mortar and valley linings repaired where water is getting into the junction between roof planes.
Concrete And Clay Tile Roofs
Repair and replacement on both concrete and clay tile coverings, which fail in different ways.
Slate Roof Repairs
Cracked and slipped slates, and the fixings and details slate roofs depend on.
Tile Roof Replacement
Full strip and re-roof when the covering has gone porous across the roof rather than at one tile.
Other roof repair services
Every service below is handled by the same team, so a leak that turns out to be a different problem is not a second appointment.
- Roof Leak Repair
- Emergency Roof Repair
- Roof Waterproofing
- Roof Leak Detection & Roof Inspections
- Roof Replacement & Re-Roofing
- Storm Damage Roof Repair
- Thatch Roof Repairs
- Metal Roof Repair & IBR Sheeting
- Roof Flashing Repair & Valley Leaks
- Flat Roof Repairs
- Gutter Repair & Downpipe Repairs
- Ceiling Leak Repair & Water Damage
- Roof Repair Cost & Quotes
- Commercial Roof Repair & Industrial Roofs
- Roofers & Roof Installers
How urgent is your roof problem?
Choose the rating that best describes the problem. Ratings 7–10 enter the genuine emergency queue. For urgent jobs rated 1–6, Priority Booking can move you ahead by one standard booking when the next non-emergency slot is available.
Areas we cover
Tile and slate roof repair dispatch across South Africa’s major cities.
Tile roof problems and search terms we help with
The tile, slate and ridge problems property owners search for when a tiled roof leaks.
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Need help with a leaking roof?
Call Pete on 081 554 9231 or send a WhatsApp message with your location and photos of the problem.