by Keith Hamburger

Created on: February 10, 2009

Tile roofs are beautiful and durable but tiles can break. If you have a cracked or broken tile you will need to replace it.

When working on a roof you always need to be aware of safety. If the roof is particularly steep or difficult to access you will want to leave these repairs to professionals. They have the equipment and tools necessary to do this work safely, which may be prohibitive to buy or rent for a one-time repair.

You also need to be careful not to damage any more tiles while doing the repairs. When walking and working on tile roofs you can easily crack more tiles so be certain not to apply too much force and step carefully and softly.

To do this repair, along with a replacement tile, you will need just one or two pry bars and some blocks or other spacers to lift and hold surrounding tiles. Unless your roof is particularly steep it is unlikely that the tiles will be nailed to the roof. Most likely they are simply hooked over the small board running underneath the roof with small nubs underneath the tiles.

To begin the repair you will want to carefully lift the tile above and to the right of the damaged tile. Since alternating rows of tiles have the spaces of the tiles offset this will release the upper right corner of the damaged tile. If you only have a single pry bar place a block of wood underneath the tile to hold it up.

Next you will lift the tile immediately to the left of the broken tile. This will raise the tile above it and make room to lift the damaged tile out. With these tiles lifted and enough space to remove the tile, lift it and slide it down to remove it.

Next slide the replacement tile into place. You will have to lift the back slightly to get the nubs over the boards that hold it in place. With the new tile in place you can lower the surrounding tiles. First slowly remove the bar from the tile to the left. Next remove the bar from the upper tile or use your bar to carefully remove the block you used to hold up the tile. With the surrounding tiles laying on the replacement the tile is locked into place.

If your tiles are nailed into place this repair becomes quite a bit more difficult. Most of the steps are the same but you will need to be very careful when removing the nails and hammering new nails in place to hold the replacement tile.

That's all there is to replacing a broken roof tile. In a matter of less than an hour you have saved yourself the considerable cost of hiring a handyman to complete a simple task.

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