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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Our crew handled a tile roofing job for this Lutz home, stripping the old roof down to the deck and checking the substrate before setting new underlayment and tile. We work section by section to keep lines straight and flashing tight around penetrations. The homeowner ends up with a tile roof built to handle Florida sun and storms for years to come.
Lutz, FL · January 2022
This Hillsborough County property needed a full tile roof replacement, and our crew worked through it plane by plane. Underlayment went down first, then tile courses, with ridge caps and flashing points getting our closest attention since those are where leaks tend to start. By the end the roof was squared up, courses aligned, and the property ready for the next round of Florida weather.
Hillsborough County, FL · August 2021
Our crew handled this tile roofing job in St. Petersburg from tear-off through final cleanup. Tile work like this means careful staging so underlayment and battens go down square before the first course is set, then working row by row to keep lines straight and flashing tight around penetrations. We took our time on the ridge and ended with a roof that sheds water the way it's supposed to.
St. Petersburg, FL · July 2021
Our crew took on a tile roofing job for a homeowner in Hillsborough County. Work like this means stripping old tile off the deck, laying fresh underlayment, then setting new tile row by row across each plane. We take our time around valleys and penetrations where leaks tend to start. Once the ridge caps are set, the roof is square, tight, and ready for Florida weather.
Hillsborough County, FL · October 2020
Our crew handled this tile roofing job in Clearwater, working through each course to set the tile correctly and keep the underlayment tight against the weather. Tile roofs take a particular rhythm to install right, and we take our time with the flashing and ridge work so the whole system holds up over the years. The homeowner is left with a clean, solid roof overhead.
Clearwater, FL · September 2018
We finished a tile roofing job for a homeowner in Hillsborough County. Our crew worked plane by plane, pulling old material, checking the deck underneath, and rolling out fresh underlayment before setting new tile. Valleys, ridges, and flashing points got the closest attention since that's where tile roofs tend to leak first. The homeowner is left with a roof that's square, tight, and ready for Florida weather.
Hillsborough County, FL · December 2017
We put a new tile roof on a home in Hillsborough County. Our crew pulled the old tile, went over the decking, rolled out fresh underlayment, and set tile across each section of the roof. Valleys and penetrations get sealed up tight before we move to ridge caps. When we're done, the roof lines are straight and the tile sits flat and secure.
Hillsborough County, FL · July 2017
What “hurricane-rated” actually means in Florida, real cost expectations, and the questions to ask before you sign anything. Read it at home. Nobody calls, nobody comes to the house.
