Rosemary roof tiles

[Swingjive]

It's me again with another issue. The house I am hopefully buying has rosemary roof tiles. They look really attractive but my survey says new roof needed. It's the original roof and I suspect not had any work on it since put on in 1920's. It's not felted either! I had a rough quote for re roofing. The roofer said it was not possible to re use the rosemary tiles and that if I wanted rosemary tiles on the roof it would be very expensive. I have seen them on eBay today though at seemingly quite a reasonable price. I don't understand why the existing tiles that are ok can't be re used?

I was quoted about 6.5 k . . .to include fascias and soffits etc.

Again, any advice welcome.

 

[tony1851]

Rosemary tiles are geneally good quality and last far longer than some of the other machine-made tiles.
Probably your roofer doesn't want the hassle of stripping them, cleaning and stacking them, and covering your roof with battens at only 4" centres.
If you can afford it, I'd go with it; they are far more attractive than the large concrete interlocking tiles

 

[Swingjive]

I agree they do look much nicer than other tiles. I will see if I can source any new ones at a reasonable cost. Just worried about cost of this if need money to repair sulphate attack on kitchen floor

 

[Peter1919]

The real question is does your roof really actually need renewing? I suspect surveyors just see no felt and immediately recommend a new roof but so long as the rosemary roof is not actually leaking and therefore there are no rotten battens or joists etc I would leave it well alone and just keep an eye out for it starting to leak

 

[Swingjive]

Hmmm . . Lots of the tiles are cracked which you can see from the ground. Also all the fascias and soffits are rotten . . .damp coming in. I know it has leaked in the past. Generally the house hasn't been maintained for several years . . .the windows are falling out too ! If it wasn't in the exact location I want to be i would probably go for something mor done up. it's the top of my price and prob needs 30 grand to sort it!

 

[suescott1963]

We stripped all 6,000 rosemary tiles from the front elevation ourselves last year and took the decision to replace with modern, larger tiles, largely because of cost and time. I was sorry to see them go because they were very beautiful, but it wasn't until we were ripping them off that we realised how many of them were badly shaled - well, they had been up there for 70 odd years! So, he's probably right in saying you need a new roof. The additional cost is not just in the price of the extraordinary number of tiles you'll need compared to newer alternatives, but the labour time and slatting. If you're still keen to go with rosies, though, there are 3,000 handsomely weathered tiles in good condition that we sorted from the rest, sitting in pallets on our drive.