What roof tiles are suitable for my oak building?

There are several options when it comes to tiling, broken into a few categories:

• Clay tiles, machine or hand made
• Slate tiles, natural or man-made
• Concrete tiles
• Thatch
• Cedar shingles

Clay Tiles:

The most traditional tile often seen on older houses. The choice of clay tiles is immense and will often be demanded by planning or heritage officers in certain areas. The machine-made type are the most cost-effective solutions with costs starting from £30 per m². Roof pitch will be important though as most don’t suit roofs below 35° and some traditional, hand-made tiles do not go lower than 40°.

Slate Tiles:

These have grown in popularity in the last twenty years, partly by lower cost imports. The most common imported slates are Spanish and the quality is good. Most slates will be suitable for roof pitches down to 22.5° and with costs of around £20 – £25 per square metre.

Welsh slate is rather most costly at as much as £85 per m², but they are worth it!

Man-made slates can be a more cost-effective solution but more importantly, they can often work at much lower roof pitches, down to 15°. This is really useful if you are trying to squeeze an oak-framed extension below an existing first floor window!

Concrete Tiles:

Often underrated these tiles are certainly worth investigating. Available in so many shapes and sizes they can make your timer-framed garage really stand out. Prices will vary depending on the style and size but won’t be dissimilar to the slate or clays.

Guide Prices:

Although we have mentioned some prices above, it is not the end of the story. You will still need roofing felt, battens, nails, ridge tiles and of course, scaffolding. It all adds up and so for approximate calculations you should start somewhere around £100 to £120 per square metre for an “installed” price.

We don’t offer tiling for our self-assembly kits but if you want us to install your barn, we can certainly quote for tiling too. Just drop us a line or add it to the notes when using our 3d design tool.

Contact us now to discuss – 0845 066 7847