Question answered
What is a hip iron?
The short answer
A hip iron, sometimes called a hip hook, is a metal bracket fixed to the hip timber at the eaves end of a hip. It supports the lowest hip tile and stops the whole row sliding down the slope. It works alongside the fixings on the tiles themselves, and a missing or loose iron lets the hip creep.
Look at the bottom of a hip on a hipped roof and you may see a small metal strap holding the last tile. That strap is a hip iron, and it does a job the mortar cannot.
Where a hip is and why it wants holding
A hip is the sloping ridge that runs from the main ridge down to the eaves, where two slopes come together at a projecting corner of the building. Bungalows and many Victorian and 1930s houses on this coast have them, because a hipped roof sheds wind better than a gable end.
Hip tiles are laid along that diagonal, usually bedded on mortar or fixed with clips. Because the line slopes, gravity pulls every tile down towards the eaves. The lowest tile carries the load of all those above it, along with the push of the wind, and it is the one most likely to move first.
That is the problem a hip iron solves. It gives the bottom tile something to rest against that is fixed to the structure rather than trusting bedding alone, so the weight of the whole run is passed into the timber.
How a hip iron is fitted
The iron is a strap of metal, bent so that one end hooks under or over the bottom hip tile. The other end is screwed to the timber that forms the hip, known as the hip rafter or hip board. It sits at the foot of the run, at the eaves, where the tile would otherwise slide off the end.
Fitting means the lowest tile is placed first, resting on the iron, and the remaining tiles are laid up the hip from there. The iron is then covered by the tile it supports, so it is easy to forget it exists until it fails. Screws must go into solid timber, not a decayed board, or the bracket holds nothing.
Hips are finished with bedding or dry-fix parts. The page on replacing ridge tiles yourself explains why that work is better done from a proper platform.
How the iron fits with the other fixings
A hip iron is not the whole fixing. The 2014 revision of BS 5534 treats mortar as bedding rather than the whole grip, so every hip tile also gets a fixing of its own. The iron holds the lowest tile, and the tiles above are secured with clips, screws or nails, depending on the system.
Look at a hip from the garden after a gale and the line should still run straight from top to bottom, with no tile tilted out of it.
Dry-fix hip systems tested to BS 8612:2018 have their own parts, and the manufacturer's instructions say whether a hip iron or a similar bracket is part of the kit. Ignoring that detail is a common reason for a hip that slips.
Gable edges rely on similar thinking. See what a verge undercloak is for the layer that supports the tiles along the sloping side of a gable roof.
Signs that a hip iron has failed
The usual sign is the lowest hip tile sitting out of line or tilted at the eaves. Mortar may crack along the joints above it, and a gap can open between the bottom tile and the tiles on the slope beside it. In bad cases the whole hip has crept a few centimetres down the roof.
An iron can fail because the screws have rusted or pulled out of old timber, because the bracket was never fitted, or because it was bent when the tile was laid. Gales then find the weak point easily, and a tile can drop from the foot of the run into the garden.
If your house is listed, the hip details may be part of its character, so read ridge tiles on a listed roof before any work is planned. Repairs there respect the existing materials wherever they can.
Repair and replacement
Putting a failed hip right usually means lifting the lower tiles, checking the hip timber, fitting a new iron on sound wood and relaying the run so it is held both by the bracket and by the fixings above. If the timber has rotted, that has to be dealt with first.
Where hip tiles are being renewed anyway, it is sensible to fit new irons rather than reuse old ones. A hip iron costs little against the work of lifting a hip again later, and an old bracket may already be weakened by years of load. Both the bracket and the timber it sits on are checked before the hip is closed up again.
The survey shows the foot of the hip close up, and the price comes in writing as one figure, alongside photographs of your own hip. The wider service, including the tile shapes that sit on hips and ridges, is described under ridge tile repairs.
Hip irons: two points people raise
Do all hipped roofs have hip irons?
Not necessarily. Older roofs may have relied on mortar alone, and some modern dry-fix hip systems use a different bracket or clip at the foot. A roofer can tell from the lowest tile whether an iron is present, and whether the roof would hold better with one.
Can a hip iron be fitted without lifting the tiles?
Rarely. The bracket sits under the lowest tile, and it must be screwed into sound timber, so the bottom of the run needs to come up. Trying to slide one in under a fixed tile risks cracking it and leaves the screws in the wrong place.
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