Tiled Roofing Across
North Wales
Repaired Or Fully Replaced

Concrete interlocking tiles dominate housing built from the 1950s onward: quick to lay, economical, and typically good for several decades before the surface breaks down. Clay pantiles and plain tiles appear on older and higher-specification property, hold their colour far better, and can be individually replaced provided a matching profile is available.

Plain tiling is double-lap work, closer in method to slating than to interlocking tiles: every course covered twice, gauge set to give the correct lap, and tile-and-a-half units at verges and abutments. It costs more to lay and it is the right choice where the building's character requires it.

Mortar-bedded ridges and hips are traditional and look right on most properties, but mortar has a finite life and eventually cracks out. Dry-fix systems clamp each ridge tile mechanically with a ventilated union: no mortar to fail, and ventilation to the roof space at the same time. Both are available; we advise per property.

Verges are the edge most often left in poor condition. Cement-pointed verges crack and drop out; dry-verge units clip on and stay put. Where the barge board or the verge timber below has rotted, that goes back first: pointing over rot only hides it.

A tiled roof over a well-insulated loft needs air movement or moisture condenses on the underside of the membrane and drips onto insulation. We add eaves ventilation, ridge or tile vents as the construction requires, and we look for the tell-tale signs, damp insulation, black spotting on the membrane, damp rafter feet, at survey.

This matters more after a loft has been upgraded. Adding 300mm of insulation makes the roof space colder, which makes condensation more likely, which is why some houses develop damp lofts shortly after an insulation upgrade.

Domestic re-tiling is the bulk of this work: houses, bungalows and extensions across Bangor, Llangefni, Anglesey, Caernarfon, Conwy, Llandudno, Colwyn Bay, Denbigh and Betws-y-Coed. Commercial and retail buildings with pitched tiled roofs are handled the same way, sequenced so the premises can keep trading.

Outbuildings, garages and annexes are often the neglected part of a property, and they are usually where the cheapest and biggest improvement can be made: a small tiled roof re-covered properly costs a fraction of the main roof and stops damp reaching stored contents.

Traditionally ridge tiles, verges and valleys were bedded in sand and cement mortar. Mortar is rigid, the roof is not, and after ten to fifteen winters of movement, frost and rain it cracks, loses its bond and lets go: cracked mortar fillets on the ridge, gappy verges the wind gets under, and washed-out valley cement are three of the most common causes of leaks and slipped tiles we are called to.

Dry fix systems replace that mortar with mechanically fixed components. A dry ridge system uses a ventilated roll under the ridge with each ridge tile screwed to a batten, so the ridge is fixed, ventilated and free to move. Dry verge units clip over the tile ends and are screwed down, closing the gable against wind, birds and rodents without a strip of mortar to fall out.

Dry valley systems use a preformed GRP or aluminium valley trough with the tiles cut and supported to it, so the valley drains cleanly rather than relying on cement wedges that crack and wash away. All three carry manufacturer guarantees, need no maintenance, and are what current best practice and BS 5534 expect on new and re-roofed work.

We fit dry ridge, dry verge and dry valley on full re-roofs as standard, and we also retro-fit them on their own where the tiles are otherwise sound and it is only the mortar work that has failed: a considerably cheaper job than a re-roof and one that stops the most likely source of the next leak.