What under your tile is due, even when the tile looks new

A tile roof hides its own age. The tile can look untouched for decades while the membrane beneath it, the clips holding it, and the metal around it reach the end on their own clocks. Tell it when the house was built and what has been done, and it will show where each part sits.

This is not an inspection and not a prediction. It compares ages to the service lives roofers generally expect. Barrel tile can outlast the range by decades; the membrane under it usually does not, and ocean air shortens every piece of metal. Salt and the attic matter more than the calendar.

This runs on your own screen and nowhere else. Nothing is sent or kept.

Check the roof, part by part

When was the house built? What is on the roof now?

What has already been replaced?

Leave a row as Original if that part has never been replaced, or if a previous owner may have done it before listing the house and left no receipts behind. On a house that changes hands every few years, unknown is the usual answer.

The covering itself Vent boots and penetration seals Flashings at walls, chimneys and transitions Fasteners, drip edge and valley metal Underlayment The decking Gutters and the roof edge Skylights and other openings (if applicable)

The roof is one decision, and it is not always the owner's to make. What fails is physical; what happens next is usually procedural. Which is why the boots, the flashings and the hardware are worth knowing the age of, not just the shingles.

Tap to enlarge

1 The ridge. The highest, hottest course, and where a shared roof usually begins and ends.
2 The field. What is on top is the wear layer. What is under it does the waterproofing.
3 The valley. One channel carrying what two slopes shed, and where debris settles between rains.
4 Wall flashing. Where an addition or an enclosure meets the house, and where neither trade owns the seam.
5 Penetrations. Collars, curbs and skylights: holes cut on purpose, then sealed. They open first.
6 Eaves and metal. Drip edge and fasteners. Near the water they end the roof; twelve miles west they do not.

Why perfect tile can sit on a roof that is finished

A re-roof under tile usually swaps the membrane and keeps what surrounds it, or worse, swaps the tile and keeps the membrane. Either way the visible part resets and the working part may not. That is why this page asks about the membrane, the boots and the hardware separately, and why the honest answer for many houses here is that nobody knows, because the record went with a previous owner.

The same applies in reverse. A house can carry new tile over corroding clips and cracked boots, and the first ceiling stain will read as tile failure to everyone who does not lift one. If a report blames the tile without mentioning the membrane or the metal, ask what those looked like.

Use this page

This tool may be reproduced or linked to freely, crediting loxahatcheeroofing.com. If it helps a seasonal owner in Palm Beach County understand what the tile is hiding before the next rainy season, it has done its job.

Already have quotes? The comparison checklist lines up three of them, row against row.