Slate or Tile: Which Roof Is Better?

Looks and character

Slate is thin, fine-grained and generally grey, blue-grey, green or purple, with a smooth, slightly textured face that reads as a quiet, even surface. It suits Georgian and Victorian houses and gives modern ones a crisp, tailored roofline. Tiles are thicker and bolder. Clay plain tiles give a warm, varied texture in reds and browns that suits cottages and older vernacular homes, while concrete tiles in plain or profiled forms are a mainstream choice for post-war and modern estates. Neither is wrong, but a roof should look as if it belongs to its street and to the age of its walls. In many conservation areas the local pattern decides the answer for you.

Cost and lifespan

Slate costs more to buy and more to lay. One published guide puts natural slate at £120 to £180 per square metre and man-made slate at £90 to £130, and the same guide family reports a typical re-roof of a three-bed semi in concrete tile at £6,500 to £10,500. All of these are typical UK ranges from third-party guides. Your fixed quote follows the survey. Labour is a big part of slate pricing because each slate is holed and set by hand, while large tiles cover more area per piece and interlock.

Life expectancy favours slate, which can run for generations if the fixings are sound. Clay tiles can also last a very long time, while concrete tiles tend to lose surface and colour sooner. The coverings usually outlast their fixings, battens and underlay, which is why a tired-looking roof often needs refixing and not replacing. See how long a slate roof lasts for more.

Weight, pitch and structure

Natural slate is often lighter than concrete tile, and man-made slate is lighter still. Swapping a heavy concrete tile for slate can ease the load on an old roof, while going the other way adds weight. If the new covering would weigh 15% more than the old, building control approval is required and the structure may need strengthening, so the existing weight is the starting point. Our page on how heavy a slate roof is gives the detail.

Pitch is where tile has the edge. Large interlocking tiles generally work on lower pitches than slate, which needs steeper slopes or more overlap to stay watertight. A shallow roof that suits tile may not suit slate. See the guide to the minimum pitch for a slate roof before you pick.

Repair, maintenance and planning

Both coverings can be repaired in small pieces. Slate needs more care underfoot because it breaks easily, and repairs use tingles or clips to hold a replacement. Tiles are more forgiving to walk on but can slip, crack or lose their glaze or surface. Moss grows on both, and slate sheds it more readily. In terms of planning, like-for-like repair is usually fine, but changing slate to tile, or the reverse, changes the appearance of the house. For a listed house, or one inside a conservation area, consent may be needed, so ask the council before you decide. Our broader guide, whether slate is a good roofing material, sets out the strengths and limits.

If you are weighing a change of covering, the cost of the switch includes new battens, possibly new underlay, and altered lead work at abutments, since slate and tile need different fixings and flashings. For tile roofs the broader service is on our pitched roofing page.

How to decide

If your house has slate, keep it, repair what you can and re-slate when you must. If it has tile and you like slate, check the pitch, the structure and the budget. If you are building new, look at what the street does and what the planning authority will accept. When the decision is close, the cost over thirty or forty years often narrows the gap.

Insulation, noise and everyday living

The covering itself does little for insulation; that comes from what sits in the loft or between the rafters. Slate and tile behave much alike for heat and sound once a ceiling, insulation and underlay are in place. Where they differ is in how they age visibly. Slate stays crisp and mostly keeps its colour, while concrete tiles fade and gather algae, and clay develops a patina many people like. Gutters see the difference too: concrete tile roofs shed grit that clogs gutters as the surface erodes, and slate sheds very little. Over the life of a house these small differences add up in cleaning and upkeep.

When we survey a roof, we photograph its present covering and structure and say whether a change is practical or whether repair will do. You receive a fixed written price, and the slate side of our work sits under slate roofing in Basingstoke.