Concrete vs Clay Roof Tile: Which Is Right for a Florida Home?

The basics

What is the difference between concrete and clay roof tile?

Concrete tile is made from sand, cement, water and pigment. Clay tile is made from natural clay that is shaped and fired. They look alike from the street, and both are installed with the same Florida manual.

Most homeowners meet this question when a roof is aging, a few tiles cracked after a storm, or a quote lists one material and a neighbor has the other. It helps to know that the two materials are made differently but are held to the same kind of rules once they are on your roof.

Eagle Roofing, a concrete tile maker, says its tile is made from sand, cement, water and oxide pigment, shaped in molds under heavy pressure. Ludowici, a clay tile maker, describes clay tile as a roofing material that has been in use for more than a thousand years. Concrete roof tile has to meet ASTM C1492. Clay roof tile has to meet ASTM C1167. ASTM is a standards group, so those are simply the quality tests each material must pass.

The part that matters for Florida is what happens next. The Florida High Wind Concrete and Clay Tile Installation Manual, written by the Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (FRSA) and the Tile Roofing Industry Alliance (TRI Alliance), covers both. It uses the same underlayment rules, the same attachment choices and the same flashing rules for concrete and clay. So the material is only part of the story.

Who does the work matters too. A tile roof is a system: the deck, the underlayment (the waterproof layer under the tile), the metal flashings and the tile on top. Tile roofing contractors in Florida install both materials. If you are also weighing tile against other materials, our guides on metal versus tile roofs in Florida and tile versus shingle roofs cover that choice.

What breaks first

Does concrete or clay tile fail first?

Usually neither. The underlayment, the flashings and the way tile was attached tend to give out before the tile itself.

A roof with good tile can still leak. Ludowici says water moves through the joints between tiles by capillary action (water creeping into tight gaps), by wind driven rain and by runoff, and the underlayment is what stops it. After the 2004 hurricanes, a Professional Roofing review by Thomas Smith found that where large areas of tile blew off, the underlayment typically stayed in place. That is the underlayment doing its job.

The FRSA-TRI manual treats underlayment as a main part of the system. It sets minimum thicknesses and laps, and it says damaged underlayment, flashings or battens must be repaired with like materials before tile goes over them. For a deeper look, read tile roof underlayment replacement.

Attachment is the other weak spot. The Florida Division of Emergency Management says hip and ridge tiles and the first row at the eaves lift first in strong wind, and that older roofs often used mortar there. Our guide to foam set versus mortar set tile roofs explains the difference. You can also read about wind lifted roof tiles and cracked tile.