What are roof tile clips, and does my roof need them?

Nothing but weight keeps a loose tile down, by the way it overlaps its neighbours, and by whatever fixes it to the timber. In a gale, wind blowing across the roof creates suction that tries to lift a tile and let it slide. A clip is the small component that stops it. Some hook the lower edge of a tile onto the batten. Others link a tile to the one beside it, and some are made for the exposed edge at a verge.

Clips are separate from nails. Nails go through the tile or its holes into the batten, and clips grip the tile without a hole. Roofers also use special fittings at the ridge and hips, where tiles take the most wind, but those belong with dry-fix ridge systems, which are a different subject. The clips in this answer are the ones for the field of the roof, where most tiles lie.

For fixing, the document roofers work to is BS 5534. Marley says that installing to it is not required by law, but its guidance on tile fixing treats mechanical fixing as the expected approach, and Wienerberger puts it simply: a single-lap tile gets one mechanical fixing at the very least. A single-lap tile is a larger interlocking tile that overlaps its neighbours once, rather than the small plain tiles which lap twice.

What counts as enough depends on the place. Wienerberger lists where the house stands, how high it is and how the wind reaches it as inputs to a fixing specification. Marley adds that a roof under 30 degrees can suffer strong suction on its windward side. A rule for one house will not suit the next. The tile maker's own data sheet is the document to follow, and our guide to fixing roof tiles to BS 5534 goes through it step by step.

Round Bognor Regis the land is flat and the Channel is never far away, so roofs meet gales and driving rain whenever the weather turns. A tile that is only resting in place can lift in a gust, drop back crooked and then work loose over several storms. The first sign is often a tile on the lawn. By then its neighbours have lost their cover and the felt below is exposed.

We do not rate any town for exposure, because that needs measured data and a designer's judgement. A roof with a clip or nail holding every tile is much harder for wind to disturb than one relying on weight alone, and that is the point of the standard. Slipped tiles often point to the fixings, not just the tile itself, and our answer on slipped roof tiles shows how we trace the cause before replacing anything.

Many older roofs were laid before today's rules and carry few or no clips. That does not mean they are unsafe. A tile with a good nib, sound battens and a tight overlap can ride out many winters. The question is whether the roof is behaving: loose tiles that rattle, courses that have crept downhill, or tiles that blew off during a past storm all suggest the fixings need attention.

When we open a roof for repair, we check how the surrounding tiles are fixed and compare that with the maker's data. Adding clips to a slope that is already uncovered costs little extra, since the access is in place. Doing it on a roof with nothing else wrong means lifting tiles one course at a time, which takes longer and costs more. BSI notes that BS 5534 may not suit every old roof, particularly where reclaimed materials are used, so we judge each roof by its own evidence.

Clips themselves are inexpensive. The cost lies in getting to the tiles and relaying them neatly, with scaffold or a tower often needed for safe access. Checkatrade's roof repair guide, updated in October 2026, gives ridge tile repairs at £50 to £70 per metre, exclusive of VAT, as one pointer on how access-driven small jobs are priced. Our survey comes first, then the written quote at one total, and the photographs from it show you what needs doing and why.

Whoever you ask, put three questions. Which tile is on the roof and what does the maker's data sheet require? Will the fixings follow BS 5534? And will any tile you pay for be fixed, not just laid? A roofer who answers plainly and shows the work in photographs deserves a second look. Our pitched roofing page lists the tiled-roof work we do, and our guide to roof tile types helps you identify what you have.