The short answer
Often, in part. Sound tiles and slates can be lifted, sorted and relaid on new battens and underlay, which keeps the look of the roof. Some will break coming off, so the number that survive is only known once stripping starts. Cracked, flaking or badly worn ones are swapped for a close match, with the survey judging how much can go back.
Reusing your own tiles keeps the character of the roof and saves buying the covering twice. It works best when they are sound and the strip is done carefully.
What reusing really involves
Reusing does not mean leaving the roof alone. The tiles come off, the old underlay and battens are stripped out, and the sound tiles go back onto a fresh frame. Battens are the timber laths the tiles hang from, and the underlay is the membrane beneath them. Those two are often what has failed, not the covering.
Can slates be put back as well as tiles?
Often yes. According to CORC, well-maintained slate can last 100+ years, so the stone is rarely the weak point. The fixing is. Old nails corrode, and slates that slipped did so because the nail hole had worn through. A slater can drill new holes or change the fixing, but a slate that has split along its length goes in the reject pile. Reused slates also have to suit the slope, since BS 5534 indicates a minimum roof pitch of 20 degrees for natural slate.
We sort what comes off into sound and unsound before anything goes back, and the sorting is shown to you, so you know how much of your own covering is returning to the roof.
Breakage and how many come back
Nobody can promise a salvage figure from the ground. What survives depends on how brittle the tiles are, how hard they were fixed and how carefully they are lifted. A tile nailed tight sometimes splits as the nail is freed, and a frost-damaged face may flake away in the hand.
Why do some tiles break coming off the roof?
Age, moisture and fixings. A tile that has soaked up water for decades is more fragile, and a rusted nail bonded to its batten can crack the tile as it is prised free. We lift tile by tile, stack them by condition, and count the sound ones before anything is ordered.
The shortfall is made up with new or reclaimed tiles. Our answer on matching old roof tiles covers choosing them, and spalling roof tiles shows how to spot a face that is failing. Planning for a small gap in the count is wiser than hoping for none. Tiles taken from a rear slope or a demolished outbuilding can fill it, once each batch has been checked for cracks and softness.
Clay or concrete: does it change the answer?
It changes what you can expect of the tile. Clay and concrete age differently, and the published lives claim different things.
How much life is left in a reused tile?
Marley puts concrete tile life at around 60 years and takes care to add that no guarantee or warranty is implied. The BRE minimum life expectancy of 60 years applies to clay tiles only. Hand-made peg tiles are a special case, because a conservation source calls the 60-year figure a poor guide for them. A tile with decades behind it still has a future, but the odds shorten with age, and a survey is the only way to judge a particular roof. Slate and tile also hang differently. A slate is nailed through its own body, so reuse hinges on the nail holes, while a tile hangs by its lugs, so reuse hinges on the lugs and the face staying whole.
Our page on the tiled roof lifespan takes this further. Where clay is the original character of the house, putting clay back on the slope respects the character of the house. A listed home also needs the right consent route from the council before the covering changes, and we help you find it before work starts.
Mixing old and new, and the weight check
New tiles can sit among old ones only if profile, size and gauge agree. Gauge is the spacing between battens up the slope. A tile that looks close but sits differently on the batten leaves gaps at the joints and lets wind in.
Is it fine to blend reclaimed and new tiles?
With care, yes. We put reclaimed tiles on the slopes visible from the road and the matched new ones on a rear slope. Colour is the hard part, since new tiles look brighter until they weather, and the contrast is plainest in low winter sun. Where a mix is unavoidable, a few years of weather usually softens the line between the two batches.
Swapping to a different, heavier covering is another matter. Planning Portal guidance is that a covering adding 15 per cent or more to the roof's weight needs Building Regulations approval, and an engineer's or surveyor's view is recommended before work starts. Our pitched roofing page covers the other repairs. Send us a photo of the roof. The written price arrives after the survey and says what goes back and what is new.
More on reusing a covering
Will reused tiles need new battens as well?
Usually the timber is checked and renewed where it is rotten or split, and fresh underlay goes in at the same time. Laying old tiles back on old battens saves little and invites a repeat leak. Once the covering is off we show you the state of the timber before we decide.
Can I use tiles from a neighbouring extension?
If the profile, size and gauge match, yes. Tiles from a rear slope or a taken-down outbuilding make useful spares. Each batch is checked for cracks and flaking before it goes on, because a tile can look sound from the garden and still be soft.
The full picture: Pitched roofing in Taunton ยท More short answers