The roofer asks what kind of tile you want and you say “Spanish.” He nods, writes something down, and the sample he brings back is a flat gray slab. You meant the curvy red one. He heard the flat one, because in his world “Spanish” is a profile, a material, a brand, and a color, depending on who is talking.
This is a guide to the types of roof tiles by the names the trade actually uses, so the next conversation goes better. There are two things to settle: the shape of the tile, and what it is made of. They are separate decisions and people tangle them constantly.
The shapes
The standard that clay tile is tested to in the United States, ASTM C1167, sorts tiles into three profiles by how much they rise off the roof: high, medium, and flat. The Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association uses the same three groups for concrete. Everything you will be shown fits one of them.
High profile is the barrel. The original version is two pieces, a pan that lays concave and a cover that lays convex over the joint, so the roof reads as a row of half-pipes. That is the mission tile you see on old Florida churches and on most of the houses in the Mediterranean, and it is what our company started making by hand in 1927. The two-piece system is heavy and slow to lay, so most of what gets installed today is the one-piece version: a single tile pressed into an S shape that does the job of a pan and a cover together. The NIST’s roofing life-cycle study puts the one-piece S at about 60 percent of the U.S. clay tile market, with 75 to 100 tiles to a square against 150 pieces for two-piece mission.
Tecno is a one-piece S tile. Its Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance lists it as an ASTM C1167 Type I, which is the high-profile designation, at 18 by 10 inches and 3 inches tall. The Portuguese trade calls this shape a Portuguese tile and it is the profile CS Clay Tile has built its range of fittings around: ridge, hip starter, gable rake, double tile, three-way and four-way apex pieces, and a set of curved eave pieces that recreate the look of the old two-piece barrel at the edge of the roof without the weight or the labor of laying it across the whole slope.
If you want the curvy red one, you want a high-profile S tile, and you can say so.
Medium profile is a lower roll, sometimes called a roll tile or a medium barrel. The wave is there but flatter. It is a concrete-heavy category in Florida, and a good choice when the house wants texture on the roof without the full Mediterranean silhouette.
Flat profile is a plank. No curve. In clay this is the tile that stands in for slate and, with the right surface, for wood shake. Plasma is CS Clay Tile’s flat tile, listed on its NOA as a C1167 Type III at 19 by 9.9 inches with a 1.3-inch rise, which is the interlock, not a wave. Plasma TX5 is the same tile with an irregular surface texture modeled on the schist roofs of central Portugal, for a house that wants the look of stone.
Flat tile is what you want if the architecture is modern, coastal contemporary, or anything where the roof is meant to read as a surface rather than a pattern.
Interlocking is not a shape, it is a feature
You will hear “interlocking tile” as if it were a fourth type. It is not. Interlock describes the channels molded into the sides and head of a tile so each one hooks into its neighbors, which stops wind-driven water from getting between them and holds the course in line. Tecno and Plasma are both interlocking. So is nearly every modern concrete tile. What is not interlocking is the old two-piece barrel, which relies on overlap alone, and some traditional flat tiles that are laid double-lapped like slate.
For Florida this matters more than the shape does. The FRSA/TRI installation manual that the Florida Building Code references, and the Miami-Dade NOA that Tecno and Plasma carry, both express a tile’s wind resistance as a moment: how hard the tile resists being pried up, given its weight, its shape, and how it is fastened. The interlock is part of that number. When a roofer tells you a tile is “rated for Florida,” this is what he means, and you can ask to see the NOA.
Shingle-style is a look, not a tile type
Shingle-style or slate-style tile is a flat profile tile with a surface finish, and depending on the material it can be clay, concrete with a molded texture, stone-coated steel, or a polymer composite. Same silhouette, four different roofs. That brings you to the second decision.
What the tile is made of
Clay is shaped and fired. The color is the result of the clay and the kiln, or of a mineral coating fired on at the same time, and there is no surface layer to wear off later. Clay tile is tested to ASTM C1167 and, in Florida, installs to the FRSA/TRI manual on slopes of 2.5 in 12 and up. Tecno’s own minimum is 21 degrees, about 4.5 in 12, because a steeper roof drains and dries faster.
Concrete is Portland cement, sand, and water, extruded and cured. Color is either mixed through the body or applied as a slurry over a gray tile. It is tested to ASTM C1492 and installs to the same FRSA/TRI manual. It comes in all three profiles, and it is usually what a contractor means if he says “tile” without a qualifier. Our clay versus concrete comparison covers how the two age.
Metal tile is a steel or aluminum panel stamped into a tile pattern, often with a stone granule coating. It is light. It is a tile-look, not a tile, and it is not tested to either tile standard.
Composite tile is a molded polymer, also light, also a tile-look. Same note.
The way to keep this straight when you are being shown samples: ask “what profile is this” and “what is it made of” as two questions. A roofer who answers “Spanish” to both has not answered either.
Pieces you did not know you were buying
A tile roof is not just field tile. The edges, hips, ridges, and penetrations are finished with fittings, and the fittings are where a roof looks finished or looks patched. Our installation guide is explicit that the durability and appearance of the roof are compromised when clay fittings are replaced with mortar, metal, or other materials, and it lists the ones that exist for Tecno: eave tiles, double tiles for the left-hand gable, half and three-quarter gauge tiles to end a slope without cutting, ventilation tiles with a metal mesh, glass tiles for a little daylight into an attic, chimney sets, mansard pieces made to measure, and a junior range of small tiles scaled for covering a chimney in the same pattern as the roof.
When you are comparing two tile quotes, ask what the fittings are. A quote that finishes the ridge with a bead of mortar and the rake with a strip of metal is not the same roof as one that finishes both in clay, and it will not look the same in ten years.
What to tell the roofer
Profile: high (S or barrel), medium, or flat. Material: clay or concrete, and if clay, natural color or engobed. Fittings: clay or not. Then the number on the product approval. That is a complete order. If you want to hold the pieces before you decide, we will send them.
You can request a Tecno or Plasma sample from us, or find a contractor who has installed them.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between Spanish tile and mission tile?
Mission tile is the two-piece barrel, a separate pan and cover. What most people call Spanish tile today is the one-piece S tile that replaced it. Both are high profile. If you are ordering, say “S tile” or “two-piece barrel” and skip “Spanish.”
Are flat roof tiles as strong as barrel tiles in wind?
Wind resistance on a tile roof is set by the tile’s weight, its interlock, and how it is fastened, and it is published in the product approval as a moment value for each slope. Compare the numbers on the two approvals rather than the shapes. Tecno and Plasma each have a current Miami-Dade NOA with those tables in it.
What are Portuguese roof tiles?
A one-piece S-profile clay tile in the shape traditional to Portugal, where CS Clay Tile has made them since 1927. In U.S. terms it is a high-profile interlocking clay tile.