Mangalore Roof Tiles: What to Check Before Buying

You're looking for something that is aesthetic, cheap and durable.

Mangalore Roof Tiles: Check, Check, Check!

Mangalore tiles have been insanely popular in Indian residences. You're not alone in the pursuit of searching for the right Mangalore tiles.

I will mention some of the important things you'll need to check before buying it. Before that, I'll give a glimpse of what Mangalore Roof Tiles are. You could skip to the checklist if you already know much about them.

Introduction to Mangalore Tiles

Mangalore tiles were first manufactured by a Germany missionary back in 1860. Since good quality clay was found in Nethravathi river, the raw materials were abundant.

Mangalore Roof Tiles are famous for its aesthetic appeal and price. At a time when clay tiles weren't that popular, having Mangalorean roof tiles was a token of pride. Also, it cost only about one-third of concrete tiles.

Why are Mangalore Roof Tiles preferred?

It is lightweight. This can be both a positive and a negative. Lighter tiles are prone to upliftment during heavy winds, however heavier tiles are slightly difficult to carry around while laying

How are Mangalore Tiles manufactured?

Good quality clay is selected and screened. Then it is placed in a mould for cutting to exact dimensions. Then these standard pieces are placed on another machine to imprint the company logo and the designs. This is later manually adjusted and then sent for firing and glazing.

Most of the manufacturing procedures involve manual labour.

Laying Process

Clay tiles and concrete tiles have similar laying processes. This is the easiest of all roofing solutions.

Roof Trusswork including the rafters and purlins are laid. These can be either steel or wood. Historically, Mangalore roof tiles were laid with wooden purlins. Now since the cost of wood has increased, steel frameworks have been utilised more and more.

Once the purlins are laid, roof tiles are laid from bottom up. Tiles have batten lugs on the bottom that lock in with the purlin. There is no need of nailing them down. This reduces labour costs tremendously.

On the areas where ridges and hip starters are laid, mortar mix is poured to seal the joints.

Mangalore Roof Tiles in 2017

While concrete roof tiles, Shingles and several other aesthetically appealing roofing solutions have come up, there is still a market for Mangalore roof tiles. This is attributed to the historical popularity of the same.

Since 2007, several factories in the region have closed down due to lack of good quality raw materials and a shortage of cheap labour.

It will be a bit insane to expect the same high-quality tiles that were available decades back to be available now. The durability of such tiles has gone down tremendously. Thorough research has to be put in to identify the right suppliers.

For that reason, we have developed a checklist you can make use of.

Things to Note Before Buying Mangalore Roof Tiles in 2018

This is not a complete checklist, but this is sure enough to get you started with researching smart about building materials.

Conclusion

IN short, Mangalore Roof Tiles are one of the most aesthetic roofing solutions for your home if you're looking for a bit of traditional look.

Plenty of Architects and designers still prefer Mangalore tiles to most other alternatives.

While the aesthetics still remain intact, quality of the available clay has largely degraded.

Keep in mind that the durability and the physical properties of clay tiles are as important as the aesthetics.

Disclaimer: At Sirex, we manufacture concrete roof tiles at one of our 7 manufacturing facilities in South India. I have tried to keep the article as objective as possible and free of any bias.