In short
Repair it if the leak is in one place, the tiles are sound and the underlay is intact; replace it if tiles are failing across the roof, the underlay has perished or you are paying for a repair every winter. Marley puts a correctly laid tile roof's expected life at around 60 years, so age alone is not the trigger. We inspect from on top and inside the loft before we say which.
This is a job for our Roof Inspections service.
What we check before answering
The question cannot be answered from the ground. Our roof inspection, which one customer called a roof MOT, covers four things, and the answer follows from them:
| What we look at | Points to a repair | Points to a re-roof |
|---|---|---|
| Tiles or slates | A few cracked, slipped or missing; the rest sound | Surface crumbling, laminating or nail-sick slates across whole slopes |
| Underlay | Intact; the leak is at a detail | Torn, brittle or missing, so every tile gap is a leak |
| Ridge, verges and leadwork | Mortar gone at the ridge or a flashing lifted | Everything failing at once on a roof that is also tired |
| Timber and battens | Dry, sound | Rotten battens or rafter feet showing in the loft |
Age is not the deciding factor
Marley says the BRE determined a minimum life expectancy of 60 years for clay tiles and that roof tiles in general are expected to last around 60 years when correctly installed, while warning that walking on tiles, pressure washing and poor installation shorten it. Checkatrade's guide suggests getting a roof checked once it is over 20 years old. Both are right: a 1970s concrete tile roof in Spalding that has never been jet-washed is often perfectly repairable, and a 1990s roof that has been walked on by every aerial fitter and satellite installer in South Holland may not be.
The cost logic
Checkatrade's 2026 guides put pitched roof repairs at roughly £90 to £160 per square metre for concrete and clay tile, and a full replacement at £7,000 to £16,250 for a gable roof, before VAT and before scaffold. A single repair is always cheaper than a re-roof. The trap is the third and fourth repair: once you are paying for a scaffold to patch a different slope each winter, and each patch is on a roof whose underlay has gone, the money is being spent without ever fixing the thing that leaks. When we can see that coming, we say so at the first visit.
What we recommend, in order
- One leak, sound roof: repair it. Our repairs are guaranteed for five or ten years depending on the work, which tells you we expect them to last.
- Failing ridge, verges or roofline on an otherwise sound roof: do those properly, as dry ridge, dry verge and new fascias, and leave the tiles.
- Underlay gone or tiles failing across the roof: re-roof. It goes through Building Control, and the new roof is guaranteed for 25 years.
- Buying the house: get it inspected before exchange. A roof that needs replacing is a negotiating figure, not a surprise.