Is my tiled roof ready for solar panels?

A solar array is installed for the long term, and the roof under it has to outlast the payback you are hoping for. If the covering is close to wearing out, the sensible moment to renew it is before the panels go on, while the whole slope is clear and nobody has to disconnect any wiring. The same applies to a roof whose last repair was patchy: sort it out while access is easy.

The reverse is awkward. Once panels are fixed, any roof repair beneath them means an installer removing and refitting part of the array, which costs time and money, and the electrical side has to be isolated and tested again. A leak under a panel can also be harder to trace.

So the useful question is not whether panels can go on a tiled roof, because they can, but whether this particular roof is ready for a second tenant. Our page on how long a pitched roof lasts sets out the sourced lifespans for clay and concrete tiles, and a survey tells you where yours sits.

Start with the covering. Slipped, cracked and missing tiles need sorting, because panel fixings go through or between the tiles and a weak tile cannot take the load. Moss and lichen are best lifted off with a scraper or a soft brush, because forceful jetting can chip the surface of delicate tiles. A clean slope also lets the installer see what they are fixing to.

Under the tiles, the battens and rafters matter most. Panel brackets are normally screwed into the rafters, so the rafters need to be sound where the brackets will land. Soft or darkened battens, sagging between rafters, or signs of old leaks in the loft all count against the roof. Our page on rotten roof battens explains how to spot them.

Look at the underlay and flashings too. Torn or perished underlay is easier to deal with before a hundred holes are made in the roof, and lead flashings round chimneys and abutments should be tight and sound. Whatever the survey says will probably need attention within a few years is best done first, while the roof is bare.

An array adds load to the rafters, and in a gale it acts like a sail, so the fixings and timber must cope with uplift as well as downward weight. Installers normally assess this as part of their design, and an older roof with sagging rafters or a history of movement deserves a closer look before anything is bolted to it.

Our guide to roof spread explains how rafters can push the walls outward when ties are missing or removed. Spread is rare, but a roof that is already moving is a poor base for added weight.

Rafter feet that have rotted at the wall plate, and woodworm holes that are still active, belong on the same list. A short loft inspection finds most of these in a few minutes.

On a tiled roof the usual method uses metal roof hooks or brackets. Each bracket is fixed to a rafter, then sits up through the covering, with a tile lifted or cut so the arm can pass through. Rails clip onto the brackets and the panels bolt onto the rails. Every bracket is a hole in the roof's defences, so the tile above has to be dressed back correctly and the underlay has to be treated with care.

This is why good fixings and sound timber matter together. If the tile is cut badly, rain gets in at that point. If the rafter is weak, the bracket loosens. In wind, an array catches lift, and the load goes down through each bracket into the timber.

Walking on the roof also breaks tiles. Our page on whether you can walk on roof tiles shows how load is spread with boards and ladders, and why installers and roofers use them.

The angle of the slope affects both how the panels sit and which covering is allowed on it. Our page on how to measure roof pitch shows the simplest way to take a reading from the loft. Your installer will want that number, along with the direction each slope faces.

Shading from chimneys, dormers, trees and neighbouring buildings also matters, as does the amount of clear roof between the ridge, the verge and the eaves. A small or awkwardly shaped slope can limit how many panels fit.

Planning and building control are separate questions. Check them with Swindon Borough Council's planning team and with your building control body, since listed homes and conservation areas carry extra controls, and your installer should confirm the electrical side.

If the survey says repairs or a re-roof are needed, they come first, and then the panels follow. Scaffold is one of the larger costs of roof work; MyBuilder's scaffolding guide, updated in August 2026, lists £850 to £1,200 for a standard two-storey set-up. If panels will need access equipment as well, arranging the two jobs close together can mean sharing a scaffold. Ask both companies whether their quote includes VAT and scaffolding.

What we send after a survey is a set of photographs taken up on your slopes, plus our quote on paper, and workmanship is guaranteed for 10 years in writing. If you already have a panel design, send it with the age of the roof and a few loft photographs; that lets us say what we would check first. Other tiled roof questions are gathered under pitched roofing.