Most people asking about the best material for a new roof are really asking three smaller questions. What was on the house before? What will the walls and timbers carry? And what will the street, or the planners, accept? Those three answers narrow the field faster than any brochure.
Four families of covering cover nearly every pitched roof around Stroud: concrete tiles, clay tiles, slate (natural or fibre-cement) and Cotswold stone slates. This guide sets them side by side using published life spans, national price guides and manufacturer pitch data, and flags where the sources disagree. It is about the choice itself. If the new covering is heavier than the old one, that raises a separate structural question, covered in our guide to changing to a heavier roof covering. The wider job sits under roof replacement.
Start with what is on the roof now
On an older house, the existing covering is the first answer, not just the first option. Our habit is to restore the material that was there, so a roof of stone gets stone again and one of slate gets slate. The reasons go beyond looks. The rafters, the pitch and the construction of the eaves and verges were all designed around one covering, and swapping it can leave those details working against the new material.
Planning law helps here. The 1990 planning statute (section 55(2)(a)) leaves out of its definition of development any work with no material effect on a building's outward look, so replacing a covering with an identical one rarely needs a planning application. A change from slate to concrete tile, or from clay to a flat interlocking tile, alters the appearance and is a different conversation. Protected homes are the exception: for a listing, or a conservation area carrying an Article 4 direction, speak to the planning team before settling on anything.
When a change is sensible
There are good reasons to change. A 1960s semi with a worn concrete roof has no historic fabric to protect, and a modern tile may suit it well. A porch or an extension roof may be better matched to the main roof. In each case we look at pitch first, because each covering can only be laid down to a minimum pitch, and below that it should not be used, and that rules some options out before price comes into it.
Where the house is old and the roof original, the case for staying with the same material is strong. The survey notes record that view in writing, so you are not left to discover it later.
Concrete and clay tiles compared
Tiles are the widest family. Concrete tiles are moulded and interlocking, and each one covers a large area, which keeps labour down. Clay tiles are fired. They come as small plain tiles, laid in many overlapping rows, or as larger pantiles with a pronounced curve.
Sourced lives differ between publishers. MyBuilder puts concrete at 30 to 50 years. Marley quotes around 60 years and is careful to say that is no warranty. The CORC roofing guide says 50 years or more. For clay, MyBuilder gives 40 to 60 years, Marley points to a BRE minimum expectancy of 60 years, and CORC says well-kept clay can pass 100 years. Building Conservation Directory argues that the oft-repeated 60-year ceiling is a poor yardstick when so many clay roofs are centuries old. Treat each figure as typical for sound workmanship and upkeep, never as a promise.
Pitch limits
Manufacturer data gives different minimum pitches. Marley's concrete plain tile needs 35 degrees, while its Mendip concrete tile runs down to 15 degrees. Marley's clay plain tiles range from 30 to 40 degrees depending on the range, and its Lincoln clay pantile starts at 15 degrees. Sandtoft's Old English clay pantile lists 30 degrees. The data sheet for the exact product is what counts.
Look and feel
Concrete is uniform and even in colour. Clay weathers and varies from tile to tile, which many owners prefer against brick or render. Neither approaches the weight of stone. Either kind is also the easiest to patch in small areas later, since a single broken tile can be lifted and swapped.
Natural slate and the fibre-cement alternatives
Slate is thin, dense and long-lived. MyBuilder, in a guide updated on 21 August 2026, puts natural slate at 80 to 100 years or more, saying Welsh often outlasts a century and Spanish runs 75 to 100 years. CORC gives 100 years or more with good maintenance. Fibre-cement or synthetic slate comes in far lower, at 30 to 50 years in that MyBuilder guide.
On price, the same guide gives £100 to £180 per m² installed for slate, split as £140 to £180 for Welsh and £100 to £130 for Spanish, and £7,000 to £10,000 for a semi-detached house in Spanish slate. These are guide ranges for the whole country and not a Supreme price list. Your own figure arrives after the survey, as a written quote covering access, stripping, the slate itself, labour and clearance.
Pitch and fixing
Cupa Pizarras, summarising BS 5534, puts the lowest pitch for natural slate at 20 degrees, for a 500 mm slate with a 115 mm headlap in moderate exposure (the depth by which each course overlaps the one two rows below). Hook fixings should not be used on any pitch under 25 degrees. Cupa adds that any area within 30 miles of a west-facing coastline counts as severe exposure, which changes the headlap needed.
Real slate or substitute
Where the roof is natural slate now, replacing it with fibre-cement shortens the life you buy and changes the look. It is a legitimate choice on a recent house that never had the real thing. On an older slate roof we usually advise keeping slate, and our page on slate roofing covers sizes, gauges and repairs.
Cotswold stone: the heaviest and longest-lived option
Cotswold stone slates are oolitic limestone, laid in diminishing courses from long slates at the eaves to short ones at the ridge. Cotswold District Council's 2000 technical guidance says that with regular maintenance such a roof can easily last 100 years, and perhaps 200 or 300. Checkatrade puts it more modestly: a century or more, if the roof is looked after. That guidance dates from 2000, so read it as a description of old methods, not a report on today's supply.
Cost is the other side. Checkatrade's slate cost guide, last updated September 2026, puts stone slate at about £160 to £210 per m², with the spread driven by the source of the slate, new or second-hand stone, and your location. The figure is national rather than Cotswold-specific, so a stone quote always waits for the survey, once the access and where the stone comes from are settled.
Weight and pitch
The council guidance gives about 1,000 kg for every 10 m² of roof. That is very heavy, and the timbers underneath must have been built to carry it. Traditional stone roofs are straight-pitched, usually between 47 and 55 degrees. This is a traditional range, not a published minimum.
Sourcing
Policy from English Heritage, reproduced in that same document, prefers newly cut slates to salvaged ones and asks that thickness, size, texture, colour and geology all follow the original. Sandstone and limestone are never interchangeable. It also calls concrete tiles and reconstituted stone unsuitable on historic buildings. Our page on Cotswold stone roofing goes deeper.
Weight, cost and life side by side
This table gathers the figures quoted above so you can read them in one place. Lives are typical ranges that vary with exposure, workmanship and upkeep. Prices are guide ranges from the sources named.
| Covering | Typical life (sources vary) | Guide price | Weight note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concrete tile | 30 to 50 years (MyBuilder); around 60 (Marley) | Priced on survey | Lighter than stone |
| Clay tile | 40 to 60 years (MyBuilder); 100 or more if maintained (CORC) | Priced on survey | Lighter than stone |
| Natural slate | 80 to 100 years or more (MyBuilder) | £100 to £180 per m² (MyBuilder) | Thin and dense |
| Fibre-cement slate | 30 to 50 years (MyBuilder) | Priced on survey | Lighter than natural stone |
| Cotswold stone | 100 years or more with upkeep (CDC 2000) | About £160 to £210 per m² (Checkatrade) | About 1,000 kg per 10 m² |
Reading the priced-on-survey cells
Where a cell says priced on survey, the figure depends on the product chosen, the access to the roof and the labour involved, and the written quote fixes it once we have seen the roof. For a whole-house sense of scale, MyBuilder's full re-roof guide gives £5,000 to £8,000 for a gable roof and £8,000 to £12,000 for a hipped one, with scaffold around £1,125. Those totals blend different coverings, so use them for orientation only.
A covering that costs more per square metre can still cost less per year of service. Ask for the sourced life beside every price.
Fitting the covering to a Stroud house
Stroud District has 41 conservation areas, and over half of the district lies inside the Cotswolds National Landscape. In either, the roof covering shapes how the place looks. We do not assume what a given street is roofed in; we look at your roof and the ones either side, and photograph them.
Listed buildings
Stroud District Council says listed buildings carry full legal protection at every grade, inside and out. Changing the covering can affect the character that listing protects, which is the test for listed building consent, so raise it with the council early. Matching material is the usual expectation. The separate guide on re-roofing a listed or conservation-area home sets the process out.
A practical way to decide
Work through it in this order. What is the roof now? What is its pitch? What will the structure carry? Is the building protected? What is your budget over the life you expect? If the answers point to one covering, stay with it. If they conflict, the survey is where we resolve it, with photographs of your own roof so you can follow the reasoning.
The written quote covers the whole job, and the 10-year workmanship guarantee is set out on paper. The sequence of work that follows is in the guide to the roof replacement process, and if you are still deciding whether to replace at all, read the signs your roof needs replacing.