When we had our house built, I felt very secure because we had these heavy roofing tiles.  Last forever.  Not like the problems we had in Ontario with asphalt shingle or the horror of Cedar shingle that only last 10 years.

But today I have doubts.  We had another of the horrendous wind storms that has been recurring this spring.  In some cases near hurricane wind bursts.  In the weeks past we have not had an issue although neighbours had tiles blown off.  I thought we were secure but at noon today in pouring rain there was an almighty wind burst that made the house shake and then the sound like thunder.  I went outside and found that a tile had blown free at near the top of the house, slid down and smashed some other tiles.

Pouring rain as I said.  I tried to phone the contractor that installed the roof, but his phone was disconnected.  I found another contractor who came over and will work on the repairs.  He went up on the roof briefly (in very high wind with me holding his ladder) and determined that we have a good water tight membrane covering the roof under the tiles so we should not have leaks, but he pointed out to me that the tile that blew off, and many tiles around, were never nailed to the roof.

Each tile weighs about 10 lbs and there are holes at the top edge that have to be drilled out before putting in screws or nails.  Apparently our original roofer skipped the nails on many of the tiles and depended on their weight.  The guy that came told me that this was common as they cannot use automatic nailers for tiles, and we normally do not get the winds that we have experienced this spring.

It will take a week until they can source the replacement tiles and finish the repairs.

I feel a bit like the little pig that thought his house of sticks would be OK only to have the big bad wolf blow it down.