On a hipped roof the corner where two slopes meet, pointing outwards, is the hip, and it falls from the ridge to the eaves. It is capped with hip tiles, which are bedded in mortar much as a ridge is, and the lowest of them usually rests on a metal bracket called a hip iron. Unlike a ridge, a hip is itself a slope, so every tile on it is pulled downhill by its own weight.
That one difference explains most hip faults. Below: how slipped tiles, cracked bedding and missing irons look from the ground and up close, the repair options, re-bedding against a dry hip, and the extra precautions on steep pitches. The wider ridge, verge and dry-fix page sets this in context. The hip iron as a single fitting has its own hip iron answer; this page is about the repairs around it.
Reading the faults on a hip from the ground and the ladder
Hip faults show up in a handful of ways, and from the pavement you can often tell which. Look along the diagonal line of the hip with binoculars. A straight, even line of tiles is a good sign. A line that kinks, with one tile sitting proud or tilted, points to a slip. Dark streaks down the slopes below the hip suggest water is running out of failed joints.
Slipped hip tiles
A slipped tile has crept downhill from where it was bedded, so the gap above it has opened and the one below is overlapped or pushed against the iron. Once one tile has moved, it pushes on the next, and a run of tiles can ease down together over a winter or two. The gap that opens at the top is a path for water.
Failed bedding
Where mortar has cracked and fallen out, the tiles rock when touched. We test by hand, tile by tile, and look at what is under the loose ones. Crumbled mortar, voids and a bed that has gone to sand all point to re-bedding, not a surface repair.
Missing or rusted hip irons
The hip iron is a bracket, usually galvanised steel, fixed to the roof timber at the foot of the hip to stop the bottom tile sliding off. If it has rusted through, been bent by a fall of snow or ice from above, or was never fitted, the whole hip has nothing to hold it against the slope. We check for this on every hipped roof, because a missing iron is easy to miss from below.
Why hips slide when ridges do not
A ridge is level, so a ridge tile that loses its mortar tends to stay put until wind or frost moves it. A hip tile on a failed bed has a steady force acting on it. On a steep hip that force is large, and the bedding is the only thing resisting it in an unfixed system.
Pitch and weight
The steeper the hip, the more each tile wants to travel downhill. A concrete hip tile is heavy, and a hip on a two-storey house with a steep slope puts the tiles several metres above a path or garden. If one lets go, it falls a long way. That is why we treat a visibly loose hip tile as a safety matter first and a cosmetic one second.
The three-way joint at the top
At the top of the hip, the hip tiles meet the ridge, and on a typical hipped roof two hips and the ridge come together in one place. Three lines of tile, three beds of mortar and a gap beneath. This junction takes more movement than any other point on the roof, and a failed bed here often lets rain straight into the roof void. It is the first place we look when a ceiling stains below a hip.
Frost and moisture
Mortar that has absorbed water and then frozen breaks apart from within. On a hip, the loosened mortar tracks down with the tiles. Moss and lichen holding damp against the joints speed the process. The mechanism is the same on any exposed corner of any roof.
Re-bedding a hip: lifting, fixing and bedding downhill to uphill
Re-bedding a hip follows the same logic as a ridge, with changes that come from the slope. Our ridge re-bedding guide gives the base method; the hip-specific points follow.
Working from the top down
The old tiles are taken off from the ridge end downwards, so the weight above is never left leaning on something already removed. Rubble is bagged on the roof. Each tile is checked, cleaned and set aside in order, with cracked or frost-damaged ones replaced by the nearest profile.
The iron and the starter
With the hip bare, the iron is inspected. A sound, well-fixed galvanised one stays. A corroded or loose one is replaced and fixed into solid timber, never into mortar or a slate. The first tile at the bottom, which carries the whole hip, is set in a full bed and tied down. If the roof never had an iron, adding one is the single most useful change we can make to prevent the hip creeping again.
Bedding uphill and fixing as you go
The new run is laid from the eaves up, so each tile is wedged against the one below and cannot ease down while the mortar is soft. Every tile is mechanically fixed, which is the position of BS 5534 since its 2014 revision. Marley's published view is that mortar alone can no longer be relied upon and bedded tiles should be fixed too. On a hip, the fixing also fights the slide, not just uplift. At the ridge end, the junction is built up with care: the hip tiles are cut to meet the ridge so there is no open gap, and the bed is filled right through.
What it costs
MyBuilder (updated August 2026) gives £200 to £400 for repointing a ridge or hip and £300 to £600 for lifting and re-laying ridge tiles, and a full re-bed of the hips is nearer the second. These are national figures. Our written quote, after the survey, covers access, labour, fixings, new tiles and waste.
Repointing, partial repairs and when they are not enough
There is a place for the lighter repair. If the bed under the tiles is sound, with the tiles tight when tested, and only the pointing has weathered, raking out and repointing the joints is a fair job and costs less. We will say so when the roof allows it.
The test we apply
A hip that has begun to slip is different. Repointing seals the joints, but it does not stop a tile creeping, and it cannot replace a missing iron. If any tile on the hip has moved, the run needs to come off. A patched hip that slips again within a few winters costs more than doing it properly once.
Replacing single tiles
Where one tile is cracked and everything else is firm, we can swap that tile alone. We bed the new one into the gap, fix it, and point around it. A single replacement is sensible on a short, shallow hip with firm neighbours and a sound iron. It is a poor choice on a long, steep one where the neighbours are already loose.
The photographs from your survey show the bed under any tile we lift, so you can see whether it was sound, crumbled or hollow before agreeing to the extent of the work.
Dry hip or re-bedded hip: how the two compare
A dry hip replaces the mortar bed with a mechanical system. A hip tray or batten runs the length of the hip, the tiles clip or screw to it, and a hip starter at the foot, with a fixing at the iron, locks the bottom of the run. The kits are tested under BS 8612, and Marley points out that only products which have passed that testing count towards compliance.
Dry hip against bedded hip on price
Checkatrade's roof repair cost guide gives dry hip at £70 to £100 per metre, excluding VAT, and dry ridge at £50 to £70 per metre. Mortar re-bedding is priced differently, so the two do not compare directly. The right comparison is the quote for your roof, both ways.
Where dry hip suits
It works well where hips are long and steep, where regular repointing is difficult because the access is poor, and where work may have to go ahead outside the frost-free season. Dry systems are factory-made, so the finished hip looks different from a bedded one: the joints are closed by plastic or metal parts, not pointed mortar. On a plain modern house that is rarely an issue.
Where it does not
On older roofs with traditional or hand-made hip tiles, a dry system may not match the profile, and where a building is protected, appearance and materials may become a planning matter. Our guide to lime-bedded ridges covers protected roofs. Whichever method is chosen, we keep like for like, and where a dry system might not be acceptable, we tell you before pricing.
Extra care on a steep hip
Pitch changes how a roof is worked on as well as how it fails. A steep hip is hard to stand beside, and a tile or bucket of mortar that slips on it travels a long way.
Access and edge protection
Scaffold is the usual answer on a steep roof. Checkatrade's roof replacement guide gives scaffold of about £700 to £1,300 for a full job and MyBuilder about £1,125 for a re-roof; a hip repair on a smaller scaffold costs less, and that is allowed for in your quote. On a terraced hillside plot the scaffold itself may be awkward, and any extra it needs is built into the quote, not left to the day.
Handling the load
Tiles and mortar go up and down in controlled loads, never loose. Hip tiles are stacked on the scaffold boards, not left on the slope. Mortar is mixed in small batches so that no more is in the bucket than can be laid before it stiffens.
Temporary support
While the old tiles are off and the new ones not yet fixed, nothing may be left to slide. Sections are completed in turn, each tile fixed before moving up to the next. If rain is forecast mid-job, the open hip is covered with a temporary sheet before we leave, because an open hip lets water straight onto the underlay.
When we will not rush it
Wet slates, ice and wind all make a steep hip unsafe. A repair delayed by a day is better than a tile dropped from height. Leaks and storm damage are prioritised, and the roof is made watertight first.
How a hip repair is scoped, priced and finished
The survey looks at the full length of every hip. Photographs of your own roof record the tiles, the irons, the condition of the beds and the junction with the ridge. A single hip, or several, may need work, and the photographs show which.
The written quote
The quote that follows covers scaffold or access, stripping the old hip, new hip iron if needed, replacement tiles, fixings, bedding or dry-hip components, labour and waste. If the work is a repair to the same material, it is not normally notifiable under the Building Regulations; where a whole slope is affected too, we explain the position and handle any notification.
After the work
We check the finished hip carefully, take the waste with us and put our 10-year workmanship guarantee on paper. Where a hip sits next to a gable, ask us to look at the mortar verge at the same visit, since scaffold already in place makes it cheaper to deal with both.