Hanging Tiles vs Weatherboard

Hi, On one side of our house, which faces the garden, 2/3rds of the walls are covered in hanging tiles. The remaining 1/3 is just bare brick from when the house was extended in the 1970s.

The hanging tiles are old and several have fallen off, despite our best efforts to shore them up using silicone etc. The problem is they used nails to fix them to the battens and the nails are rusted.

We need to remove all the tiles, because we have kids and I don't want risk the tiles falling on them. So I was thinking of getting a builder in to have all the tiles removed and replaced with weatherboard but a few people have mentioned the amount of maintenance required. Does anyone have any idea on the cost difference between replacing all the tiles or just going for weatherboard across the whole side of the house. The wall is about 20m in length over two stories.

The other alternative I've looked at is some type of fibre cement weatherboard like Marley Eternit, but I've no idea how much more this would be.

Does anyone have views or experience to help guide me with this. I've already phoned a couple of builders for quotes, but I'm still waiting for them to turn up to quote!

Thanks for taking the time to help.

it is also worth looking for a really good local roofer as the materials and techniques are much the same

I am a householder not a pro. I live in a coastal area and have slates on battens on felt on the weather side. mine have bronze nails and washers, with a centre nail as well as the head nails to prevent the wind pulling them off. these days stainless nails might be used. the correct nails will not rust. Galvanised nails and clips are useless down here.

mine has lasted 30 years and not needed any repairs (though the roof has been damaged a couple of times in severe storms.)

as it does not absorb any water, the wall is perfectly dry, though the amount of water falling off the bottom row of slates is quite spectacular in driving rain. I have shiplap cladding on the bottom two metres since it will not be damaged by people bumping into it. this does not last as long.

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If you were in Sussex, I`d say definitely tiles . Maybe rough sawn pressure treated board in Kent. needs to look right either way. + any salvage value in the existing tiles Anywhere near Ashford I know someone there who might be up for a job like that. Good Luck.

Depending on the quality of the tile, and the battens holding the tiles on, you could quite possibly get away with simply stripping off all the tiles and relaying them with new nails.

The cost would only be that of labour and nails. Of course thats if the tiles and laths are in sound condintion. I`m guessing it would be a fair bit cheaper than replacing with weather board.

Get a couple of decent roofers to have a look at it and give you a price.