Hi,
Thanks for your youtube videos, I think I have watched most of them and learnt a lot.
My house was built in the 1950s and has Wunderlich glazed terra cotta tiles, which I think are Modern French or Marselle shape. The tiles still seem to be good and I can walk on the roof without cracking tiles (it takes a lot of time on the roof to clear leaves as there are lots of trees around).
Earlier on this year a tree landed on the house, smashing the tiles across about 1/5th of the roof area. Insurance will cover the repairs thankfully. The insurer's builder wants to replace all of the tiles, but I wonder if the new tiles will be as good as the ones already on the roof. The old tiles seem to be thicker and with heavier glaze. The old tiles are slightly warped by the firing, which can leave gaps between the tiles which block up with leaves, whereas I presume the new tiles would be straighter.
Do you think new tiles would be better or should I ask toe keep the old tiles?
There will be trade offs...
The advantage of new roof tiles is that the life of the roof gets a new extension. Also, it provides the opportunity to put in new sarking. Obviously, you will pay for this.
BTW, the new roof tiles should be 'as good' - if not better than the existing ones.
The other option is only to replace part of the roof. This is quite a standard procedure when roofs are extended in size. Just pick one or two 'faces' of the roof to have new roof tiles. The old roof tiles that are removed from these 'faces' will be used to replace any tiles on the 'faces' that are retained. Also, it is a source of spare tiles for the retained sections of the roof.
If you do this on the rear 'faces' of the roof, the difference in the appearance of the roof will not be noticeable.
The roof will still look the same from the street.
So, it really depends on how much money you want to spend on your roof.