Neither is better in the abstract. What matters is the pitch of your roof, what the structure was built to carry, what the street looks like, and whether the choice is yours to make at all.
Ask three people in Altrincham this question and you will get three answers, usually based on what they last had done. The useful version of the question is narrower: given this roof, on this house, in this part of Altrincham, which coverings are actually available, and which of those is the best fit?
Often the choice narrows considerably once you apply the constraints. Sometimes it disappears entirely.
Slate performs at lower pitches than most tiles. If your roof sits at the shallow end, slate or a low-pitch interlocking tile may be the only options and plain tiles will be out. Every tile has a manufacturer's minimum pitch, and going below it voids the warranty for good reason: at too shallow an angle, wind-driven rain is pushed back up under the lap.
Natural slate is lighter per square metre than concrete tile. A Victorian roof framed for slate was not designed with concrete tile loading in mind. That is a structural question, and on the older Altrincham stock it is a live one rather than a formality.
Altrincham has a large amount of Victorian and Edwardian housing, much of it originally slated. On a terrace or a pair of semis where every other roof is slate, a concrete tile roof announces itself from the far end of the street. That is a matter of taste until it becomes a matter of value, and on period property it usually does.
Altrincham has designated conservation areas, and Trafford operates Article 4 directions covering development affecting areas and buildings of historic interest. Where those apply, the covering may not be a free choice. A like-for-like renewal is not development at all under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990; a visible change of material can be.
| Natural slate | Clay tile | Concrete tile | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical material cost | Highest | Middle to high | Lowest |
| Speed of laying | Slow | Slow (plain) to moderate | Fastest (interlocking) |
| Weight per m² | Light | Moderate to heavy | Heaviest |
| Minimum pitch | Lowest | Higher | Varies; interlocking ranges go low |
| Colour over time | Stable | Stable | Surface pigment weathers |
| Period appearance | Excellent | Very good | Depends entirely on range |
| Conservation acceptability | Usually accepted | Often accepted | Often resisted |
It is tempting to choose on stated lifespan. In practice, roofs almost never fail because the covering itself wore out. They fail at everything around it.
On a Victorian or Edwardian property that is already slated, particularly in or near a conservation area, slate is normally the right answer and often the only one. Where the budget will not stretch to natural slate and the property is not subject to heritage control, fibre cement slate is a reasonable middle path — lighter than natural slate, faster to lay, and visually much closer to it than concrete tile.
On post-war and modern housing that was tiled from the outset, a like-for-like tiled re-roof is straightforward, raises no planning question, and is generally the sensible choice. The decision there is between concrete and clay, and that is a question of budget and how much the colour holding up over twenty years matters to you.
Where a roof is marginal on structure or pitch, the covering gets chosen for you by physics. We would rather tell you that at the survey than have you set your heart on something the roof will not take.
We will look at the roof and tell you which coverings are genuinely available to you, and which are ruled out by pitch, structure or planning.
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Good natural slate has a very long service life, generally longer than concrete tile. But roofs rarely fail because the slate or tile wore out. They fail at the fixings, the battens, the underlay, the lead and the mortar. A well-detailed tiled roof will outlast a badly detailed slate one.
Natural slate is usually the higher material cost, and it is slower to lay than interlocking tile. Concrete interlocking tile is generally the lower-cost route. Clay sits between the two and varies widely by range.
It is sometimes done where an extension has a different covering from the original house, but on the main roof it rarely looks right and in a conservation area it is unlikely to be acceptable. Where the roof reads as one continuous plane, use one covering.
Fibre cement slates are lighter than natural slate, lower in cost, and lay quickly. They are a reasonable option on a plain roof where the structure is marginal. On a prominent period elevation in a conservation area, they may not be accepted as a match for natural slate.
Apex Roofing covers Cheshire and the surrounding area for complete roof replacement, new slate and tiled roofs and re-roofing.
Apex Roofing Cheshire · 105 Fence House, Fence Avenue, Macclesfield SK10 1LM
Tell us about the property and the roof in Altrincham, and we will come back to you — usually the same day.
Prefer to talk? Call 07377 461095 · WhatsApp +44 7465 861265 · Email apexroofing14@gmail.com
