Can old roof tiles be reused on a new roof?

1What decides whether a tile is worth keeping

Each tile is judged on its own. A tile that is cracked, delaminating in layers, soft enough to crumble under a thumbnail or worn thin around the nail hole should not go back on a roof. Frost can flake a tile's surface, and a salt-laden coastal atmosphere does not help a porous one. Tapping a tile and listening for a clear ring is an old trade test for hidden cracks.

Material matters. Clay tiles and natural slate can last for generations and are the usual candidates for salvage. Concrete tiles lose their surface coating over time and are seldom worth lifting for a second life. The tile's age counts too: the Building Conservation Directory notes that the 60-year figure used for modern clay tiles is clearly not a reliable guide to old peg-tile roofs.

A sorted pile is better than a mixed one. Good tiles are graded, the broken ones are discarded, and the sound stock is stacked ready for laying.

2Breakage means you will need extra tiles

Even a careful strip loses some tiles. Old nails seize in the battens, and a tile that has hung in place for decades does not always lift cleanly. A pitched roof being reused should be stripped by hand, tile by tile, and passed down rather than thrown, since dropped tiles split.

Plan on a shortfall. The remaining tiles are used on the most visible slopes first, with the replacement stock, ideally a close match in size, colour and camber, placed on the less visible rear. Salvage yards stock reclaimed tiles, though the batch quality varies and their size may not match yours. For clay plain tiles, a small difference in size can leave uneven courses.

Reuse does not remove the need to renew the underlay and battens beneath. Those hidden layers are usually past their best on a roof old enough to be reclaimed, and fixing good tiles onto tired battens defeats the purpose of the exercise.

3Fixing old tiles to today's standard

Fixing rules have tightened since many old roofs were laid. BS 5534 was revised in 2014, and ridge and hip tiles have since needed mechanical fixings beyond bedding mortar. Marley's guide to the standard adds that single-lap tiles are fixed mechanically too, with perimeter tiles secured twice, and wienerberger wants fixings chosen to suit the exact location and exposure.

Old tiles can complicate that. A plain tile hung on two nibs and pegged may need extra nail holes, which must be formed without cracking it. Reclaimed tiles with worn or oversized holes do not take a clip well. We look at this during the survey, because a roof that cannot be fixed safely to current practice is a poor candidate for reuse, however good the tiles appear. Marley also points out that following BS 5534 is not a legal requirement and that heritage roofs may not suit every recommendation, so planning and conservation advice comes first in those cases.

4Why heritage roofs favour keeping the original covering

On a historic building the covering is part of its character. For Horsham stone, the Stone Roofing Association ranks salvaging the existing slates first and advises against importing stone from other buildings where it can be avoided. Conservation thinking on clay peg-tile roofs follows the same instinct: keep what is there, make good what has failed, and match what you must add.

A listed building is a separate case. Adur & Worthing's listed building guide counts repairs made with different materials as work needing consent, and the South Downs National Park Authority says replacing historic fabric wholesale, so as to alter the building's character, needs consent whereas minor like-for-like repair does not. Some local conservation areas also have an Article 4 direction taking away the right to change a roof covering without permission. Our page on re-roofing a listed or conservation-area home goes through those rules.

If your house is protected, speak to the council's conservation officers before the roof is stripped, not after. The tiles you save now may be exactly what the consent expects.

5Terraces, timbers and the rest of the roof

Reuse suits some house types more than others. A terrace with a uniform roof of old clay tiles looks best when the repaired section matches its neighbours, which is the case made in re-roofing a terraced house. Reuse can also pair well with a one-slope job, as replacing one side of a roof explains, when a hidden slope lends tiles to a visible one.

While the covering is off, the roof structure comes into view. The timbers are checked first, and the fascias and gutters are looked at before anything goes back, since salvaged tiles should not be laid over a rotten eaves board. Where fascias are renewed, the eaves line may change slightly, and that affects how the first course sits.

The written quote we give after the survey is one total price. It tells you roughly how many tiles we expect to salvage and whether matching ones will be needed. Our wider work on re-covering and renewing roofs is described on the roof replacement page.