Your tile is fine. The felt isn't. That's the call we get most often out here: a leak inside, and not one cracked or missing tile anywhere on the roof.
The tile isn't what keeps water out. It's a shell that takes the sun and the wind. The actual waterproofing is the underlayment fastened to the wood deck underneath, and that paper has a much shorter life than the tile sitting on top of it. Concrete tile can go fifty years. The felt under it starts giving out somewhere around twenty-five to thirty-five.
Water shows up on a ceiling or down a wall, but every tile looks fine from the driveway. That combination points at the underlayment almost every time.
Scoop a handful out. Black granules and crumbling bits of paper mean the felt is breaking down and washing off the deck.
Look up under the bottom row of tile from a ladder. Healthy paper lies flat. Failed paper is brittle, split, or curling back off the wood.
If you're in an Inland Empire tract home of that era and nobody has been up there since it was built, you're inside the window whether it's leaking yet or not.
We lift the tile off in sections and stack it on the roof. Your tile stays your tile. The old felt comes off down to bare wood, and that's the point where we can finally see what's really going on. Any sheathing that's gone soft, any rafter tail rotted at the eave, gets cut out and replaced with new wood. New underlayment goes down over the clean deck, flashings get addressed at the valleys, walls and penetrations, and the same tile goes back on. We only replace pieces that are broken. Some breakage is normal on any tile roof, and we account for it.
This is not a full new roof, and you shouldn't pay for one. The most expensive material up there is already yours and it has decades of service left. You're buying the waterproofing layer, the wood repairs, the flashing work, and the labor to move a lot of heavy tile twice. That's why a house can look untouched from the street when we're done and still have a roof that's effectively starting over.
No. The whole point of a lift and relay is that your existing tile goes back on. We replace only the pieces that break during handling or were already cracked.
Waiting doesn't save the felt, and it can turn a paper problem into a wood problem. Once water is getting through, it sits on the sheathing and the rafter tails, and rotted wood is the part that adds cost.
We can lift tile in a few spots and look directly at the underlayment and the deck. The eaves and the valleys usually tell the story. You'll get photos of what's under there so you're deciding based on your own roof.
We'll come out, get on the roof, and put it in writing. Free inspection across LA and the Inland Empire.
