The AC tech left on a Tuesday. By Friday, a homeowner in Clearwater spotted it from the driveway: two clay tiles near the ridge, one cracked clean through, one sitting a little crooked.

Easy to Miss

Broken roof tiles rarely look urgent from the ground. That’s the trouble, because on a Florida tile roof, the tile sheds most of the rain, but the underlayment below does the real waterproofing. Once a tile cracks or slides, sun and water start working on that layer. Eventually the leak shows up on a ceiling inside the house.

How Tiles Break

Foot traffic causes a lot of it, since people who service AC units, satellite dishes or solar panels sometimes step where they shouldn’t. Storms throw branches and flying debris onto the roof, and older tiles get brittle after years of sun.

What to Look For

From the yard, look for cracked, chipped or missing tiles. Tiles that sit out of line or have slid down may have broken fasteners. Inside, a water stain on the ceiling, a musty attic or damp insulation tells you water is already getting in.

Skip the ladder, because tile can break under a person’s weight and it gets slippery. Binoculars or a few zoomed photos from the ground work fine. Some roofers bring a drone for a closer look.

The Fix

A roofer pulls the broken roof tiles, checks the underlayment, and sets new tiles. Older styles can be hard to match. One trick is to borrow matching tiles from a hidden spot on the roof and put new ones there.

When lots of tiles are broken, or the underlayment has failed across wide areas, a full tile roof replacement can make more sense than patching.

Coastal Brothers Roofing is a family-owned Tampa Bay roofer with three generations in the trade, and we repair and replace tile roofs. Call (727) 931-7663 for a free inspection.