Can You Match Replacement Ridge Tiles?

Ridge tiles cap the crest where two slopes meet, and the profile is their cross-section. Common shapes are half round, a simple curve, and angled, which has two flat faces meeting in a point. Others include a ridge with a decorative top or one made for a particular tile range. The first job is to look at yours closely, from a scaffold or by photo, and measure its width and length.

A maker's mark on the underside often names the range, and the tile on your roof may belong to the same family. A roofer who knows the common ranges can usually say what you have from a photo. Concrete and clay ridge tiles are still made in many profiles, so a new one is often available from a merchant.

Fit matters as much as shape. A ridge tile has to sit over the top row of tiles at the right angle for your pitch, and each range states the lowest pitch it can be laid at. A tile that is the right shape but made for a different slope will gap or rock, so the pitch of your roof matters as well, and the maker's data sheet gives its lowest working angle. Our guide to half round and angled ridge tiles sets the two apart.

Colour is the harder part. A roof that has taken years of weather carries moss stains, fading and a film of dirt, and a new tile from the same range will look brighter beside it. Concrete tiles lose some surface colour over time, while clay changes more slowly, and the gap narrows over a season or two.

You have a few options. Choose the closest shade the maker sells and accept a short period of contrast. Use reclaimed ridge tiles of a similar age, which already carry the weathering. Or take sound tiles from a rear slope for the front and put the closest new ones where they will not be seen. On a semi or terrace, remember that the ridge continues next door, so a sudden change of shade may show at the party wall.

Photograph a tile in daylight rather than under cloud, and hold a sample against the roof if the merchant lets you. Our answer on dry verge colours covers how the caps at the gable edge can be chosen to blend with the ridge.

Reclaimed tiles come from roofs that have been taken down, and they suit older houses with discontinued or handmade tiles. They are worth looking for where the original ridge is a clay type that is no longer produced or has a particular finish, such as a crested ridge with a decorative top.

Reclaimed stock has limits. Each tile needs to be checked for cracks and frost damage, and the supply may be short, with pieces from several sources and slight differences between them. A reputable supplier will tell you where the tiles came from and sort them by size. Ask your roofer whether the reclaimed tiles can take a dry-fix clip, since some old shapes need a special fitting.

BSI cautions that BS 5534 may sit awkwardly with an old roof dressed in traditional or second-hand tiles. That is another reason to ask a roofer to judge the roof in person. If you have any spare ridge tiles from past work, keep them: they are often the best match that exists for your roof.

If no tile on the market matches, you have a choice. You can replace the whole ridge with a new, consistent run, which looks tidy but changes the top of the roof. You can keep the old ridge and use a close match for only the broken tiles. Or you can use a different profile for the whole ridge, if the house allows it. A listed building or a conservation area may need the council's view first, so see our answer on planning permission for dry ridge.

As a national guide, Checkatrade's June 2026 table lists £50 to £70 per metre to repair dry ridge and £70 to £100 per metre for a dry hip, the angled run down a roof corner. The price for your roof turns on how long the run is, how it is reached and what we find at the survey, and the written total comes after that. Check whether the quote covers VAT and scaffolding.

Email a photo of the ridge along with any maker's mark you can read, and we will tell you which tile we would look for first. The dry ridge and dry verge page explains the wider options.