Roof tiles are designed mainly to keep out rain, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as clay or slate.
Modern materials such as concrete and plastic are also used and some clay tiles have a waterproof glaze.
A large number of shapes (or "profiles") of roof tiles have evolved.
Roof tiles are 'hung' from the framework of a roof by fixing them with nails. The tiles are usually hung in parallel rows
, with each row overlapping the row below it to exclude rainwater and to cover the nails that hold the row below.
There are also roof tiles for special positions, particularly where the planes of the several pitches meet. They include ridge, hip and valley tiles
.
Similarly to roof tiling, tiling has been used to provide a protective weather envelope to the sides of timber frame buildings.
These are hung on laths nailed to wall timbers, with tiles specially moulded to cover corners and jambs. Often these tiles are shaped at the exposed
end to give a decorative effect. Another form of this is the so-called Mathematical tile, which was hung on laths, nailed and then grouted. This form of
tiling gives an imitation of brickwork and was developed to give the appearance of brick, but avoided the Brick Taxes of the 18th century.