How can I reuse or recycle … blown down roofing tiles?

A red tiled roofIt’s been *slightly* windy in the UK over the past few days and there are lots of shattered slate tiles on the pavements around here.

My mum and dad, who live on the battered west coast, have spotted similar blown off tiles around them but the debris tends to be red roofing tiles rather than slate ones.

These tiles tend to be ridged or curved and around an inch thick – so not useful for all the flat things slate tiles can do, like be coasters. They’re also a rougher texture so can’t be used as mini-blackboards or anything like that.

So, presuming this is quite a common issue around the country at the moment, what can you do with blown down roofing tiles? Whole ones might be able to go back on the roof but what about broken ones?

(Photo by tome213)

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8 Responses to “How can I reuse or recycle … blown down roofing tiles?”


  1. john b says:

    Break any big bits into smaller ones and use as crocks in the bottom of plant pots to improve drainage.

  2. Make some kind of sculpture out of them, or a mosaic?

  3. GirlGenius says:

    Edging for garden beds – poke them into the ground on edge.

    Set them in concrete to make a patio or a path?

    Also, this is a bit left field, but… friends of mine often have hangis (food cooked on hot coals in an earth pit, pacific island style) and roof tiles or bricks are really good for lining the pit to retain the heat. I expect if you wanted to improvise a tandoor oven they would work similarly.

  4. Olia says:

    Make water canals for your garden.

  5. Tony D says:

    Hi
    Our bungalow in North Wales is going to be re-roofed with slate tiles. Wondered if there was anywhere that wanted to buy the umpteen old concrete orange curved roof tiles .. seems a shame to dump them and would be great to make a small amount of money from them ! Thanks. Keep smiling. Tony

  6. Valeria says:

    Brake them into small pieces and mix with cement to make concrete stepping stones.

  7. Hannan Ahmad says:

    Since getting new roofing tiles is quite a costly expense, it would be nice to have a way of reusing the old tiles. You can probably find a recycling company that recycles these tiles. Or you can hand them over to the kids so that they can make something artsy out of it.

  8. Olechka says:

    Place them vertically around flower bed.



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