I am about to build a Mediterranean style house and really like the appearance of tile roofs. However, I am concerned about the extra costs of not just the roof/installation itself but also the additional costs related to the extra reinforcement of the fountain and framing required to accommodate their weight.

Does anybody know about or have experience with a product that gives the same appearance (without looking cheap) with significantly less cost and does not require additional structural reinforcement?

Thanks.

Love those roofs too, but I can't answer your question.

I've seen some that are shaped like the spanish tiles, but they look like coated metal shingles. I thought they looked about the same as the spanish.

Didn't know about the synthetic but I have the real thing on my house and it was expensive but worth it in my opinion. It added about an additional 50k to the cost of our house. We looked at the metal ones and they good from a distance but up close there is no substitute for the real thing.

As far as I know, you only have three choices: Fired clay; concrete tile; and stamped metal.

All have similar lifespans.

The metal tiles require the fewest changes to the roof for carrying more weight. But, they are (slightly) more difficult to fit around plumbing vents; fan exhausts and the like. largest drawback of the metal tiles would be in the color ranges.

The clay & concrete tiles are the most traditional. And can be built in in any of the styles used in tile roofs. But, those are all heavy installs; you need more roof structure. The flashing details need more attention, too.

Concrete tiles have less breakage getting them to the job site and on the roof. But, you lose some to cleaning out the ole the nail goes through. They also are a bit harder the "break" to shape. Some of the concrete tiles are not colored all the way through, too.

Now, these roofs are pretty special. They have mass, and they last lifetimes. And, they present some excellent design opportunities. Given that they are nearly impossible to "vent" in the traditional manner, they are an excellent motivation to bring the wall insulation up and continue it along the roof plane, rather than atop the ceiling.

$50K more? Wow.

Thanks for the info. I guess I will just have to see how the bids shake out.

I know nothing is as good as the real thing, but do y'all think something like this would look cheap?

http://www.decra.com/all-products/decra-villa-tile

Looks pretty good in the pictures. And it is going on a 2 story roof so the only place low to see it would be the porch cover over the front door.

EN: It was 50K more but my house is also 4500 Sq feet and I had a two vehicle carport done as well. Smaller house may be much less.

50k more than what? There is no way that is possible on a 4500 sq ft home. If your slab is 4500 sq ft, then you should have been able to get a concrete tile roof turnkey for $25-$30,000.

If your building a new home it will still be cheaper to use concrete tile even with the increased framing costs, versus using decra or any other metal tile product. Those products are more useful for retrofits or reroofs, where the existing structure is not framed so support the tile weight. Decra and stuff like that are extremely expensive when compared to concrete tile. IMOP they also look very commercial, so I would opt for the real thing.

contact me with any questions

brentg at qualityroofingtx dot com

Sponsor Message: Quality Roofing – serving the Boerne, San Antonio, Austin, Round Rock, Dallas – Forth Worth areas since 1991 | Mention TexAgs for a free GAF System plus 50 yr warranty on any shingle roof | 830.816.8230 x109 | http://www.qualityroofingtx.com/

It is obviously possible, because that is what the estimate was, jackass. My slab is more than 4500 sq ft. As I stated, I had an additional carport built as well. My roof is not concrete. It is clay.

Clay tile (3 basic forms: 2-piece cap & pan (the original), 1-piece "S" tile and 2-piece cap & flat Roman pan) are the "Mediterrean" looks.

The 1-piece "S" tile will be the least expensive of the three.

Stick with a stateside manufacturer (Boral (US Tile, Corona, CA) or MCA (Corona, CA) or Redland (Tecate, Mexico but adept at US style business practices with great quality control). Some of the South American stuff (Santa Ana, Santa Fe,...) is great tile but in general those companies are a pain to deal with. El Aguila (Guanojato, MX) is a real pain to deal with poor color quality control.

Claymex (Piedras Negras,MX) is "OK" but not great.

Copper flashings will drive up the price and must be custom made by someone that knows what they are doing.

Boral (MonierLifetile CONCRETE tile) makes their own accessory flashing pieces in 26-ga. galvanized and can be easily used in conjuction with the clay tile products to keep costs down.

Any of the clay tile from CA or Mexico will have more freight charges than Claxmex's product which comes from Piedgras Negras.

The best extruded concrete tile option in Texas is definitely Boral (MonierLifetile) and is manufactured in Brookshire.

BIG NOTE: ANY clay or concrete tile roof installation will ONLY be as good as the flashing details.

Also, ventilating a clay or concrete tile roof is not difficult. O'Hagin's cloaked roof vents or a decent contractor can fashion his own ridge vents.

Good luck.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

Our composite roof tile looks stunningly similar to traditional clay Spanish tile: http://www.bravarooftile.com/roof-tiles/barrel-tile/

To answer your question, there are absolutely additional costs required for structural reinforcement when installing Spanish clay tiles. Clay tiles are notorious for being heavy and fragile. You will also have up to 20% waste at the end of every installation and incur additional shipping expenses.

Brava Roof Tile manufactures the most durable and realistic composite Spanish roof tile available. Our product does not require any additional structural reinforcement. Our product reduces the installation labor, and decreases your roof maintenance tremendously. Brava synthetic Spanish barrel tile is truly a revolutionary roofing product, unrivaled in the composite roofing industry.

Available in Class A or C fire rating. Class 4 impact rating. Hail warrantied. 50 year ltd warranty.

Please take the time to visit: www.bravarooftile.com

http://www.bravarooftile.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/brava-barrel-tile-roofing.jpg http://www.bravarooftile.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/brava-composite-spanish-tiles.jpg http://www.bravarooftile.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/brava-composite-barrel-roof-tile.jpg
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I bought a house with concrete tile roof. Had some cracked tiles replaced soon after buying. Roofer who did repairs told me not to walk around on the roof. Spooked me so I don't. I sure would like to get up there and sweep the pine straw.

I just bought one with clay tiles and was told the same thing. But the guys who came out to fix it were walking around on it with no worries. I'm tempted to get up there, but I keep seeing different points of view on how to do it (never walk on the peaks, always walk on peaks with your heel and toe on the peaks of separate tiles, only walk in the valleys, never walk in the valleys, etc.). I did see some videos where someone took two pieces of plywood 2 feet x 2 feet and put cushioning on the bottom and used those to walk around on. Seems like that might be a good option.

We have land in the hill country and I'm crossing my fingers that the hubs says we can start talking to builders this year as we're making good headway on paying off the land loan.

We plan on a Spanish tile roof but we also want to do rainwater collection. I'm fine going with synthetic even if it looks synthetic if that facilitates better water collection. I know we'll get these questions answered by experts when the time comes but does anyone know if synthetic would help collect more rainwater? I'm afraid the clay would absorb water and also cause a lot of material to flow into the tanks and require extra filtering.

Decra is a good product. It won't look cheap.

I just got a bunch of samples from Brava Tile in the office this week. I hope to put it on something soon to see how it goes. But I have heard from other colleagues that they really like it and that the quality is great. The samples look great!!

Here are the bids for different types of roofs when I built my house. This is about 9,000 sq. ft. under roof:


I went with Hanson tile. The tile has held up well and I don't have any leaks, but I wish I could find someone to mortar pack the ridges and work on a few of the end caps. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone with copper standing seam.

Man you out your roofer through some work with all those quotes. Lol

Funny to see OC in that list.

I'm looking at Decra and Brava. I have samples on the way from Brava. Did you end up using either of these on your house?

We went with Boral that covered 8400 sq. feet (garages and porches included) and it was $77k more that composition, buy hey we saved a few bucks on homeowners insurance.