Tile Roofing in George — Concrete, Clay & Slate Tile Installation
Full tile roof installation and replacement across George and the Southern Cape — concrete, clay and slate — fixed correctly for coastal wind loading and installed to SANS 10400.
✓ NHBRC enrolled ✓ SANS 10400 compliant ✓ Workmanship guarantee ✓ Fully insured
What We Do
The three tile systems we install most, each engineered for local conditions.
Concrete Tile Roofs
Mid-range cost, 30–50 year lifespan, strong wind resistance when fixed correctly. We use engineered trusses and mechanical fixing on all windward slopes to meet coastal wind-loading requirements. Wide range of profiles and colours available.
Clay Tile Roofs
Traditional, colourfast, and particularly well-suited to Mediterranean-style homes across the Garden Route. Heavier than concrete — the truss design has to account for the dead load. We work with the structural engineer to confirm the design before we order.
Slate Tile Roofs
Natural and fibre-cement slate for heritage, high-end residential, and character homes. Long lifespan, distinctive appearance. Significant dead load, so only installed where the structure is designed for it. Correct fixing and underlay are everything.
How It Works
- Design consultation. We walk through tile options with you — profile, colour, cost, lifespan, weight — and match them to your home’s structure and aesthetic.
- Structural confirmation. For new builds or re-roofs with a different tile weight, we confirm truss loading with the engineer before you commit. No assumptions.
- Line-item quote. Materials (tiles, underlay, battens, fixings, flashings), labour, scaffolding, waste, VAT — every cost itemised. Fixed price on acceptance.
- Installation to SANS 10400. Underlay laid with correct lap, battens set to the tile gauge, tiles mechanically fixed on windward slopes, ridges bedded or mechanically fixed per spec, valleys and flashings formed to spec.
- Handover and warranty. Final walkthrough, sign-off, and handover of the written workmanship guarantee plus the manufacturer warranty on the tiles.
Concrete or Clay
Almost every tiled roof in this country is one of two materials, and they behave differently enough that the choice is worth making deliberately.
Concrete tiles are the volume product. Cheaper, available in a wide range of profiles and colours, and heavier than clay. Their colour is pigment through or on the surface, and it fades over time — a concrete tile roof that looks tired at twenty years is usually structurally fine and cosmetically worn. They also become more porous as the surface erodes, which is where coating has a legitimate role.
Clay tiles are fired, and their colour is the fired body rather than a coating, so they hold appearance for a very long time. They are lighter than concrete, they have low porosity, and a good clay tile has an extremely long life. They cost more, and they are more brittle underfoot.
Either way, the tile is rarely what limits the roof. The underlay, the flashings, the ridge bedding and the metal fixings all reach the end of their life while the tiles are still perfectly sound — which is why a roof can need substantial work with not a single broken tile on it.
There is a fuller comparison in our concrete vs clay roof tiles guide.
| Concrete tile | Clay tile | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Lower | Higher |
| Weight | Heavier | Lighter |
| Colour over time | Fades; can be recoated | Fired through; holds |
| Porosity | Increases as the surface erodes | Low from the start |
| Underfoot | Tougher | More brittle |
The Underlay Is the Waterproofing
A pitched tiled roof is drained, not waterproofed, and that single distinction explains almost everything about how these roofs fail.
The tiles shed the great majority of the water by throwing it downslope. They are not watertight and were never meant to be — they overlap, they do not seal. The underlay sitting on the battens beneath them is what catches wind-driven rain pushed sideways under a lap, water backing up behind a blocked valley, and the run-off from a cracked or slipped tile, and drains it out at the eaves.
So the underlay is the actual waterproofing layer, and its condition is the single most important thing about an older tiled roof. Bituminous felt underlays perish: they go brittle, tear at the fixings, sag into troughs between rafters and eventually disintegrate. Modern breathable synthetic membranes last considerably longer.
The uncomfortable part is that replacing an underlay means removing the covering. There is no way to install a new secondary layer from above, and no coating substitutes for it. A tile roof can usually be stripped and re-laid with the same tiles where they are sound, so the cost is largely labour, battens and membrane rather than new tiles — but it is a re-roof, and it should be described as one.
This is where we sometimes disagree with what a homeowner has been told. A roof with a failed underlay and sound tiles gets proposed for a coating far more often than it should.
Structure, Pitch and Coastal Detail
Three things decide whether a tiled roof is the right choice for a particular building, and they are worth settling before the aesthetics.
Weight. A tiled roof is heavy, and the truss design has to carry it. This matters most on a re-roof: trusses designed for sheeting will not automatically take tile, and the change needs an engineer’s check. Going the other way — tile to metal — reduces the load and is normally the easier direction.
Pitch. Every tile profile has a minimum pitch below which it will admit wind-driven rain, and no amount of sealing corrects a geometry problem. Laying a tile below its minimum is one of the more common causes of a roof that only leaks in a driving southeaster.
Metal components. On the coast, the nails, clips, valley linings, flashings and brackets corrode long before the tiles do. Specifying the right metal for the exposure is one of the cheapest decisions on the roof and one of the most consequential — and it is the reason a coastal tiled roof needs periodic inspection rather than being left alone.
Ridge and hip bedding is the fourth item. Mortar bedding cracks and lifts over time; mechanically fixed dry ridge systems avoid that failure mode entirely and are worth considering on exposed roofs.
Common Questions
How long does a tile roof last in George?
Concrete tiles are rated 30–50 years, clay tiles 50+ years, slate 75–100 years — all assuming correct installation and normal coastal maintenance. The coating on concrete tiles fades first, but the tile itself keeps performing.
Do concrete tiles blow off in Southern Cape wind?
Only if they aren’t fixed correctly. SANS 10400 and the manufacturer spec both require mechanical fixing on windward slopes and ridges in high-wind zones like the Garden Route. We fix to spec — properly mechanically fixed tiles do not blow off in normal coastal conditions.
Can I replace my existing tile roof with a different tile type?
Yes, as long as the trusses are designed for the new weight. Switching from concrete to slate, for example, typically requires truss reinforcement or a new roof structure. We confirm the structural change with the engineer before you commit.
Which tile is best for my home?
It depends on the house style, your budget, the truss design, and how long you intend to stay. We don’t push a brand — after the site visit we’ll give you an honest recommendation with the trade-offs written down.
Is a concrete or clay tile roof better?
Clay holds colour and has lower porosity, so it ages better and typically lasts longer, but it costs more and is more brittle underfoot. Concrete is cheaper, comes in more profiles, and is tougher to walk on, but it fades and becomes more porous over time. On most Garden Route houses the practical difference over the first twenty years is appearance rather than performance — and on both, the underlay and the metal components will need attention long before the tiles do.
How long does a tile roof last?
The tiles themselves routinely outlast several underlays. What limits the roof in practice is the underlay, the flashings, the ridge bedding and the metal fixings — and on the coast the metal is usually first to go. That is why a roof’s real service life is set by its detailing and its maintenance rather than by the tile, and why a roof can need significant work while every tile on it is sound.
Can you walk on a tile roof?
With care and in the right places. Concrete tiles take foot traffic better than clay, and both are walked on the lower third of the tile where it is supported by the one below rather than in the middle of the span. Clay in particular breaks under a careless step. If a roof needs regular access — for solar, a geyser or an aerial — that should be designed in rather than improvised.
Should you seal or coat a tile roof?
On concrete tiles that have faded and gone porous, a properly prepared coating restores appearance, reduces surface porosity and slows erosion. That is a reasonable maintenance decision on a roof that is otherwise sound. It is the wrong answer when the reason for considering it is leaks, because a coating does not repair an underlay, a flashing or a pitch problem. Clay tiles generally should not be coated at all — they do not need it, and it creates a maintenance liability that did not previously exist.
Can you replace a tile roof with metal?
Yes, and it usually reduces the dead load on the trusses substantially, which is why it is the easier of the two conversions. The trusses still need to be checked by an engineer because the load pattern changes, and the pitch has to suit the sheet profile. We handle the strip, the structural check and the re-roof under one contract.
How do I know if my tile roof needs replacing?
The tell is usually the underlay rather than the tiles. Look in the roof space with a torch: daylight through the covering, tears at the batten fixings, sagging into troughs, a membrane that crumbles when touched, or staining on the timbers all point the same way. Repeated leaks appearing in different places is the other signal — that is not a roof with several problems, it is a roof at the end of a service life.
We Serve George and the Surrounding Towns
Based in George, installing, re-laying and repairing tiled roofs the length of the Garden Route.
George · Wilderness · Mossel Bay · Great Brak River · Glentana · Herolds Bay · Sedgefield · Knysna · Plettenberg Bay · Hartenbos · Oudtshoorn · Riversdale
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