Clay vs Concrete Roof Tiles: What to Choose

Weight is the constraint that decides this more often than price or appearance.

Clay tiles are fired earth. They hold their colour essentially permanently because the colour is the material, they weigh roughly 40 to 45 kilograms per square metre, and they carry a higher price. Concrete tiles are moulded from sand and cement with a pigmented surface layer, weigh around 45 to 55 kilograms per square metre, and cost meaningfully less. Both routinely last fifty years or more when correctly laid.

Check the Structure Before the Showroom

The difference of ten kilograms per square metre sounds trivial until it is multiplied across a roof. On 150 square metres that is 1.5 tonnes of additional dead load. If you are replacing an existing covering with a heavier one, the roof structure has to be assessed rather than assumed, particularly on older buildings originally built for slate or lightweight tiles. This assessment usually costs a fraction of the tiles and is not a step to skip.

How They Age

Concrete tiles fade. The pigment sits in a surface layer, and after fifteen to twenty years the colour softens noticeably, especially on south-facing slopes. Concrete also tends to accumulate moss more readily, because its surface is slightly more porous and holds moisture. Clay weathers rather than fades, and many people consider that it improves with age. Neither behaviour is a defect; the question is which one you want to be looking at in two decades, and whether a partial repair will ever have to match the original.

Individual tiles are replaceable in both materials, but matching a faded concrete tile is difficult, whereas matching clay is usually straightforward.

Summary

Concrete costs less and weighs more; clay costs more and keeps its appearance. Confirm the structure can carry your choice before ordering anything. Use our Roofing Calculator to convert roof pitch and footprint into an actual covered area, which is always larger than the plan area suggests.