If you were, to ask most British roofing companies, which type of roof tiles to the most commonly used, undoubtedly, the resounding answer will be that the company most often uses fibre cement roof tiles.
You might be reading this article, simply because you have a quote, from a local roofing contractor, that has stated on the quotation, that they are going to use fibre cement roof tiles, yes you might not know the benefits of picking this type of roof tile.
As we are roofing contractors, with a huge amount of experience, building flat roofs as well as pitched roofs, we are in a brilliant position to explain to you exactly what fibre cement roof tiles exactly are.
Why should we pick fibre cement roof tiles for our pitched roof?
Often, the reason why fibre cement tiles are chosen, is because of the price. Often there is a stark contrast in price between fibre cement tiles and say natural slate. Therefore, if you were to ask the roofing company, for a quote for say Spanish slate, Welsh slate and also fibre cement tiles, often fibre cement is substantially cheaper, often a fraction of the price of other tiles.
So often, this type of roof tile is often chosen, simply because it’s much cheaper than some of the other options.
What are the benefits of picking a fibre cement roof tile?
These roof tiles are often referred to as man-made tiles, they are manufactured using fibre cement, they do come in a range of colours, but we would have to say that the most commonly selected colour is black fibre cement tiles.
They are also very lay, this is another reason why they are often selected, by so many roofing companies, because they are a consistent thickness, and they are very lightweight, so a bundle of fibre cement roof tiles can be carried out say ladder relatively easy, where if you were to carry say Welsh slate, then this type of tile is normally much heavier.
Smooth vs textured
So, we would say, that the vast majority of roofing companies, use smooth fibre cement roof tiles. However many builders merchants, will also offer a textured finish, the purpose of this is to try and make the tile look a bit more like natural slate, however when you talk to any good roofer, they will tell you that natural slate has a totally different appearance to fibre cement, simply because fibre cement is manufactured, and natural slate is a natural product.
Why do people pay more for natural slate?
Natural slate, such as Welsh slate, we think is the Rolls Royce of roof tiles, simply meaning top quality. Plus, as any good roofing contractor will tell you, Welsh slate normally last much longer when compared to fibre cement roof tiles.
So, if you were to ask is which is better quality, we would have to say every single time, Welsh slate, so you might be scratching your head, wondering why on earth would so many homeowners, as well as roofing contractors, why do they, the vast majority of the time opt to use fibre cement?
Well it all comes down to the cost, the single Welsh slate can sometimes cost say 5 to 7 pounds each.
If a roofing company, like ours was to buy fibre cement tiles in bulk, we can often get each tile to cost below 1 pound per tile, now you can see the huge difference in price.
So let’s say that you have a huge roof, you have a large roof on a Victorian house, that needs to be replaced, it might need let’s say 3000 tiles when you buy this amount of tiles, there will be a huge difference in the cost for a roofing company, to build a Welsh slate roof, when compared to the cost of building the same roof using fibre cement.
