Tile Roofing

Concrete and clay tile roofing for Tampa Bay — installation, re-roofs, and repair. The classic Florida roof, installed and serviced to GAF Master Elite standards.

Why tile works in Florida

Tile has been the signature Florida roof for a century for good reason: concrete and clay shrug off sun, salt air, and heat that age asphalt shingles prematurely. A properly installed tile roof is rated for Florida Building Code wind requirements and can outlast two or three shingle roofs.

Lifespan — the tile outlives the underlayment

Here is what most Tampa homeowners with tile roofs are never told: the tiles themselves can last 50 years or more, but the underlayment beneath them — the actual waterproofing layer — typically lasts 20 to 25 in our climate. When a tile roof starts leaking, the tile usually is not the problem. In many cases we can carefully lift the existing tile, replace the underlayment with a modern self-adhered system, and re-lay the original tile — restoring decades of life without the cost of all-new tile.

Tile services we provide

• Tile re-roofs — full replacement with new concrete or clay tile
• Underlayment replacement (lift & re-lay) — keep your tile, renew the waterproofing
• Tile repair — cracked, slipped, or storm-damaged tiles, matched and blended
• Ridge and hip re-bedding — re-securing mortar or foam-set ridge lines
• New tile installation — full systems on new construction and on shingle-to-tile conversions

Tile roof repair in Tampa Bay

On a tile roof, the broken or slipped tile is the part you can see from the driveway. It is rarely the part that is leaking. Tile is a shedding layer, not a waterproof one. The water that gets under a cracked tile is supposed to land on the underlayment and run off, so when a tile roof leaks, the question is almost always what the underlayment is doing beneath it.

The repairs we run most on Tampa Bay tile roofs:

• Cracked and slipped tiles, usually from foot traffic. Someone cleaning gutters, servicing an AC unit or installing a satellite dish walked across the field and broke tiles that were otherwise fine. We replace or re-secure them and, where the profile is discontinued, source a match or borrow from a hidden slope.
• Ridge and hip lines where the mortar or foam has let go and the caps are loose. These go first in a storm.
• Flashing and penetrations. Valleys, wall flashing, chimneys, pipe boots. Same failure points as any other roof, just harder to reach under tile.
• Underlayment failure in one area, often at a valley or an eave that has stayed wet. We lift the tile in that section, replace the underlayment, and re-lay the same tile.

A tile repair done right includes photographs of what was under the tile, so you know whether you fixed the leak or postponed it. If water is coming in now, start with emergency roof services and we will get it covered first.

Re-tile, re-lay, or something else: the decision at year 20

Most Tampa Bay tile roofs from the 1990s and 2000s are reaching the point where the underlayment is done and the tile is not. There are three honest answers, and which one fits depends on what we find under the tile, not on what the roof looks like from the street.

Lift and re-lay. If the tile is sound and the profile is still available for the handful you will break lifting it, we pull the tile, replace the underlayment with a modern self-adhered system, and re-lay your original tile. You get a new waterproofing layer under a roof that still looks the same. This is the least disruptive option and often the right one.

Full re-tile. When too much of the tile is cracked, the profile is gone, or the deck underneath needs work, new tile over a new system is the clean answer. It is also the most expensive one, and it is heavy, so the structure gets checked first.

A tile-profile stone-coated steel roof. This is the one most tile homeowners have never been shown. Stone-coated metal in a barrel-tile profile keeps the look of the neighborhood at a fraction of the weight of concrete tile, and DECRA rates metal roofing at 40 to 70 years, so the underlayment conversation does not come back in another 20. If you are facing a re-tile anyway, it is worth pricing both. We will tell you plainly which of the three your roof actually needs.

Tile roof installation

On new construction, or a shingle roof converting to tile, the tile is the last thing that goes on and the least of what decides how long the roof lasts. What matters is underneath: a deck fastened to current Florida Building Code, a self-adhered underlayment system rated for tile, metal flashing at every wall, valley and penetration, and tile attached to the method the product approval calls for on your roof’s slope and wind zone. We handle the permit, the inspections, and the manufacturer registration, and on a conversion the engineering check on your structure comes before anything is ordered.

Styles and profiles

Barrel (Spanish S), flat, and shake-profile tile in concrete or clay, in the full range of Florida color blends. We help you match existing tile on repairs — including sourcing discontinued profiles where possible.

A note on weight and structure

Tile is heavy — roughly two to four times the weight of shingles. Moving from shingles to tile requires an engineering check of your roof structure. We handle that evaluation as part of any tile conversion estimate, so there are no surprises.

What backs the work

Every tile system we install carries a five-year Allstar labor warranty on our workmanship, alongside the manufacturer system warranty on the materials. Licensed in Florida (CCC1337558) and insured.

Tile roofing across Tampa Bay

We repair, re-lay, and replace tile roofs across Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and Polk counties, with most of the tile work in the 1990s and 2000s communities of Carrollwood, Lutz, New Tampa, Wesley Chapel, Valrico, Temple Terrace, Wimauma and Sun City Center, and along the coast in Clearwater and St. Petersburg, where salt air works on the flashing and fasteners before it touches the tile. The inspection is free: we pull a full aerial imagery report of your roof, a crew member photographs it in person, and you get a written, itemized estimate, usually the same day. Request your free roof inspection.

Below: recent tile roofing projects our crews have completed across Tampa Bay.