Introduction

It goes without doubt, that If you were to ask most roofing contractors, “what type of roof tile to you use the most when building a roof?”

It without doubt that the majority use what’s called a man-made roof tile, and the main reason for this, is they can be purchased at a low cost, and when you imagine that the roofing company will need to often buy thousands, just to build one single roof, they need to buy a roof tile at the cheapest price possible.

It does go without saying, that most customers would prefer to have a roof made of Welsh slate, because this, we think the best that money can buy. However, a lot of homeowners don’t want to fork out all that expense for a roof to be made out of Welsh slate, so they want the roof to be built at lower cost, so they may opt for man-made roof tiles, which are a fraction of the cost.

So, lets have look at the advantages and the disadvantages of having a new roof made using man-made roof tiles.

The advantages

Cost

As mentioned earlier, cost is the main reason why man-made roof tiles are chosen, because they can be bought relatively cheaply.

Widely available

The next reason why would say that man-made roof tiles are so popular, is because they are widely available. They can be purchased from any builders’ merchants all across the United Kingdom. When you compare this with a different type of roof tile, let’s say, a certain type of roof tile, like a double roman roof tile.

Now, when you visit a builder’s merchants, and you say we need 5,000 double roman roof tiles, often they will need to order that from the supplier. It could even take sometimes, depending on the builders’ merchants, weeks before they get the roof tile you want.

So one of the main reason that roofers, often choose man-made roof tiles, is because you can simply drive your van, or your truck to most builders merchants, any good builders merchants, should have thousands of man made roof tiles, in stock ready for a roofing company to buy.

So a main advantage of man-made roof tiles, is that they are widely available.

Quite light

Another reason why man made roof tiles are chosen, is because they are very light, and this is important, because some houses in Cardiff, let’s say a Victorian house, or even a relatively new house, lets say built in the 1980s in St Mellons, Cardiff, the timbers which hold up the roof, sometimes they won’t be able to support a very heavy type of roof tile, so for example, sometimes the roof wouldn’t be able to hold up a roof made of concrete roof tiles. So sometimes the roofing company will recommend man made roof tiles, because they are relatively light, and so often most roofs can just have new wooden baton, felt, and then the new roof tiles added. So the homeowner can obtain a new roof at a relatively low cost.

However the homeowner wanted a heavier roof tile, say a roof tile made of concrete or clay, well this is going to much heavier roof, so the roofing company might recommend that the timbers are replaced. Replacing the roof timbers, will significantly increase the cost of the roof, the roof will more expensive to build, and the reason for that is, often many carpenters will need to build the roof timbers, and it could take at least an extra week to complete the roof, and this would significantly increase the cost for us to build the roof.

This is why so many homeowners, instead opt for a roof made using man made roof tiles, because they are light, which often means, that the same roof timbers can used, and its just a matter of our roofers, laying new wooden baton, new felt, and they laying new tiles.

The structural  timbers,  they often be reused, and therefore we can build a new roof on your house in Cardiff, for a low cost.

What are the main disadvantages of opting for a man made roof tile?

The main disadvantage of a man-made roof tile, is it could be argued that they don’t last as long as some other roof tiles. For example, in our opinion they don’t last as long as Welsh slate, however, man made roof tiles are a fraction of the price.

But if you want a really long-lasting roof tile, then would recommend slate, however, if you don’t want to spend a lot, then we would recommend man made roof tiles.

The other disadvantage is, it does very much depend on the brand of man-made roof tile, however some lower quality man made roof tiles, can sometimes fade very quickly.

So this means when the roofer builds the new roof, using man made roof tiles, they can look great, and they have a shiny black finish, however, if the roof tiles are low quality, then sometimes they fade in colour very quickly.

Do you need a new roof built in Cardiff?

Do you need a roofer?

And you want to hire a highly experienced roofing contractor?

Well we have the solution.

We can build any type of roof, whether its pitched roof made using Welsh slate, or a new rubber roof to go onto your summerhouse. Our roofers can build any type of roof, we can offer very competitive prices.

So if you looking a roofing company in Cardiff, then why not call us? We have highly experienced roofers working for us, so why not give us a ring?