18th Century Roof Tiles

Slate Tile

• In the United Kingdom, slate tiles were used for roofing in areas where slate deposits were present, ranging in color from blue, blue-grey, and green to red plum. In the United States, slate tiles were imported from Wales and used on the homes of select colonists. Slate was desirable because of its durable, fireproof quality, but the cost of mining, importing and working with the material meant only a the wealthiest of eighteenth century home owners could afford slate roofs.

Wood Shingle Tile

• Throughout history, wood shingles have been used on dwellings all over the world. Various woods were used, from cypress and oak to redwood and cedar, depending on the region. Occasionally, a coating of fish oil and brick dust or linseed oil and iron oxide was added to increase a shingle's life. Because wood is prone to decay, heartwood is preferred to sapwood and the shingle should be split with the grain perpendicular to the surface.

Clay Tile

• American clay roofing tiles were flat and rectangular in shape and ranged in size from about the size of a trade paperback book to a legal sized sheet of paper. Each tile had two nail holes at one end for anchoring to the roof beams. S-shaped tiles called "pantiles," "Flemish tiles," or "crooked tiles" were made by draping wet clay over logs to incur a curved or circular shape.

Metal Tile

• While metal roofing materials did not become popular in America until the nineteenth century, the more common metal roofing supplies during the eighteenth century were lead or copper. A roof's pitch or overall shape dictated the type of material used, as metal was often used where shingles, clay and slate were inappropriate. The technology to sheet iron was developed during the Revolutionary War in America and this material was used when it became difficult to import copper from England due to the war. Unfortunately, there was little that engineers could do to manage rust until the early nineteenth century when zinc galvanization was developed. Tin roofing---or tin-plated iron---was a common metal roofing material used in Canada throughout the eighteenth century, and Thomas Jefferson became a huge advocate of tin-roofing materials in the newly-born United States in the latter half of the century.