Given their history, clay tile roofs may seem an awkward fit with modern architecture, but Frank Lloyd Wright used clay tile roofs to great success on many of his now iconic house designs, including the Robie House, Wingspread, and the Coonley Estate (pictured). As with indoor tiles, almost any color is possible, though historically, color preferences leaned toward greens, blues, and occasionally purples. But the most expensive way to color roof tile is with glazes. They also can be colored using slip (thin, runny clay). Tiles were sometimes treated with a manganese solution before firing to produce a black, brown, or bluish scorch mark on the surface. Unglazed clay tiles range in color from terra cotta to buff, brown, even pale pink. Some roof shapes, particularly conical towers or turrets, require tiles in graduated sizes. Specialty tiles are required for ridge caps, starter tiles (sometimes called bird stops), and odd spaces at roof hips, rakes, or dormers. S-tiles, often called Spanish, combine the pan and cap into a single tile. With pan tiles, the convex “cap” tiles overlap the concave “pan” or “trough” tiles on both sides. Overlapping tiles, if flat, are applied with staggered joints in overlapping courses like shingles or slates. Interlocking tiles have an extrusion or lip on one tile that hooks over an edge or channel on an adjacent tile. Both pan and flat tiles can overlap or interlock when applied, depending on how they are designed. Flat tiles are referred to as slab, shingle, book, or French. Pan tiles include the familiar barrel (or Mission) tiles, and Spanish tiles they also encompass designs where two flat tile pieces are overlapped by a single curved tile, like Roman and Greek varieties. The two basic tile types are rounded pan tiles and flat tiles. Historically, clay roofing tiles were categorized by their general shapes. Clay tiles were molded by hand until about 1870, when they began being manufactured by machine extrusion.Įven Colonial Revival houses could be protected by traditional Spanish-style barrel roofs, as this stately building in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, demonstrates. through European settlers-via the Dutch on the East Coast around 1650 and through Spanish missionaries on the West Coast in the 1700s. Tile roofing traditions arrived to the U.S. have been found, and they appeared in the Middle East a short time later. In China, tiles dating back to 10,000 B.C. Tile Through TimeĬlay tiles have deep historical roots. But, when spread out over a roof’s long lifespan, tile is actually economical. The main downside of tile roofing, in fact, is its steep upfront costs. Why humans? Because people are the culprits behind bad tile installations and faulty maintenance they also often don’t know how to properly walk across tile roofs without breaking them. The two biggest enemies of tile roofs are falling tree branches and humans. Is it any wonder, then, that clay tile roofs can last anywhere from 50 to several hundred years? Tile is also among roofing’s most durable materials-it doesn’t burn or rot, deteriorate from salt spray in coastal areas, or heat in the desert, and rodents and bugs don’t chew on it. Tile is one of the most decorative forms of roofing, offering endless ornamental possibilities, thanks to the variety of available shapes, colors, patterns, and textures. Tiles could often enhance other architectural details, as on this green-accented Mission Revival with curvy roof parapets and coping.
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