ᐅ Reuse old Roman tiles or buy new ones?

I am the proud owner of a nearly 100-year-old house with a mansard roof. The roof covering consists of old but well-preserved interlocking clay tiles (Biberschwanzziegel). These now need to be removed as part of extensive roof insulation work. An experienced roofer advised me to reuse the old interlocking tiles, even though they are several decades old. He said that modern tiles would not come close to the lifespan of the old "quality" material.

Can any of the experts here confirm this? 😕 My current roofer advises against it, citing the higher costs for the "careful removal" of the old tiles. Simply throwing them off and installing new tiles would be significantly cheaper, and there would be hardly any difference in quality.

I agree with the opinion of the current roofer.
From professional experience, I know that carefully removing, storing, and sorting (some tiles have cracks or small chips that are not immediately visible when taking them off) is labor-intensive and accordingly costly.
I also don’t believe that new beaver tail tiles are worse than old ones. I think quality standards are generally higher nowadays.

Hello,

We went through this last year at my brother-in-law’s place. He also inherited an old house. The roof is covered with clay tile shingles, specifically interlocking flat tiles. The roofer also advised reusing the old tiles. However, we decided to buy new interlocking clay tiles and used those for the roof.

But it wasn’t easy to find them. The price was around 16 CHF per square meter (approximately 1.5 sq ft).

I would also always recommend buying new materials. Removing the old beaver tail tiles takes quite some time and causes some damage in the process. Stripping and re-roofing the roof is also more enjoyable.

No, I wouldn't put those on my roof anymore. Those old beaver tail tiles need to be properly disposed of. It’s always better to buy new ones in this case.

Old materials don't necessarily have to be bad. But with these beaver tail tiles, I rather believe the opposite. Removing them and re-roofing not only saves time but also money.

Don’t agree to anything else.