The tile itself is rated at 40 to 60 years. So a tile roof does not fail from the top down; it fails from underneath, quietly, and the first evidence is usually a rain-driven leak in a room that has been dry for thirty years. Tile roof underlayment is the part that actually wears out. The original felt on a 1970s or 1980s Southern California tile roof is now forty-odd years old, and replacing it — lifting the tile, re-felting, relaying the same tile — runs about $694 – $1,306 a square. Not all of the tile survives the lift. Breakage of a few per cent is normal, matching discontinued profiles is the hard part, and a quote that does not say what happens to unusable tile is a quote with a hole in it.
Underlayment, and the real replacement clock
A fifty-year tile roof needs work at twenty, and this is why. A tile roof does not fail from the top down. The tile outlives the felt beneath it by decades, so what wears out on a tile roof in Westminster is the underlayment — and the first evidence is usually a rain-driven leak into a room that has been dry for thirty years. Tile lift-and-relay, per square in Westminster: $694 – $1,306. Existing tile comes off, new underlayment goes down, the same tile goes back.
Lift and relay, which is usually the right job
Two quotes described as "a new tile roof" can be two entirely different jobs, and this is the one people are not offered. Not all of the tile survives being lifted. A few per cent breakage is normal, matching a discontinued profile is the hard part, and a quote that does not say what happens to unusable tile has a hole in it.
What a good quote here says in writing
The point of these questions is not to catch anybody out. It is to make three quotes comparable. It also means a roofer knocking on doors in Westminster offering a free hail inspection is not responding to anything the radar saw, and that when a roof here fails early the cause is almost always something other than impact. Every licensed contractor is required to put the licence number in all advertising, and in contracts, subcontracts and bids. An advertisement without one is itself a signal. The board's own register will confirm a number in under a minute, and it is worth the minute. A contractor who answers all of these without hesitating has done this here before.
- Is the permit included in the price, and is it shown as its own line rather than folded into a total?
- What is the rate for replacing rotten decking, per sheet, agreed before anybody starts?
- Who is actually on the roof — your own people or a subcontracted crew?
- What is the licence number, and is the licence current today rather than on the day the van was painted?
About coverage in Westminster
Everything on this page is about Westminster specifically. The service itself is simple and worth stating plainly: it arranges quotes from up to three independent local roofing contractors and does not carry out roofing work.