Tile is the Palm Beach County roof. From Jupiter to Boca Raton, most of the homes built since the seventies carry concrete or clay tile, and most of the estates carry barrel clay. It is the longest-lasting roof we install and the one that decides more of our replacement conversations than any other, because almost every tile job comes down to one question: concrete or clay? The honest answer is that the tile is not the part that fails. The underlayment beneath it is, cooked by decades of attic heat, and that is why a tile roof that looks perfect from the street can be leaking into the ceiling. We are Molsbee Roofing, a family-run company since 1975, based in Lake Worth Beach and working across Palm Beach County, Jupiter to Boca Raton. We replace tile roofs the same way every time: tear off, check the wood, new self-adhered underlayment, new tile, permitted and inspected by the county. Free roof inspections. Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 561-318-8624.
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Tile is the top end of what a full roof costs in Palm Beach County: heavy material, slower work, and the underlayment beneath it carries much of the price. Clay costs more than concrete.
Concrete tile costs less than clay, weighs more, and comes in the flat and S-profile shapes that most Palm Beach County subdivisions carry. Its color is a surface coating, so it fades and can grow algae over the years, and it will need a wash or a recoat to look new again. Structurally it is the workhorse: it passes the wind code, it takes foot traffic better than clay, and it is the tile we install most.
Clay is fired, so the color runs all the way through and stays for the life of the roof. It weighs less than concrete, which matters on an older structure, and it is the true barrel look on the older estates and the island. It costs more, it is more brittle underfoot, and a walk on it by the wrong trade can crack tiles. On the right house it is the roof that outlives the owner.
When a tile roof fails here it is almost never the tile. It is the underlayment, the waterproof layer under the tile that carries the water off the roof. Old roofs have felt paper that dries out and cracks. A proper re-roof strips to the wood, replaces any rot, and lays a self-adhered underlayment before a single tile goes back. We photograph that layer before we cover it and it is a separate line on your price.
Tile sits at the top end of a full roof in Palm Beach County. Clay costs more than concrete. The rest of the price is the size and pitch of the roof, how many layers come off, the condition of the wood underneath, and how cut up the roof is with valleys, skylights and chimneys. Every line goes in writing before we start, and the inspection that produces it is free.
