Cracked roof tiles

Our house is 4 years old, and nobody has been on the roof in that time. I can remember two short hailstorms since we’ve been here, with small hailstones, around 5mm diameter. We got solar panels installed recently and the installer found many roof tiles with hairline cracks, and one that had completely cracked (photos below). There were maybe 10 or 12 tiles that were cracked in the area where panels were installed; I assume there are more on the rest of the roof. It was suggested we should contact the builder or Boral as it would be unusual to have this many cracked tiles after only 4 years. Would it be reasonable to think this is a faulty batch of tiles, and how would we prove it?

You have no proof and the builder would probably blame the solar guys anyway.

Save the hassle and just buy replacements and change them yourself.

Yes, I have to agree. It is not worth the aggro.
If you don't have any roof tiles left over from when they built the house then go and buy what you need to replace the cracked tiles plus another 10 - 15. Just with expansion and contraction as well as some hairline cracks that may get worse as time goes by let alone having any tradies up there servicing anything on the roof, you will get more cracking.
I used to tell clients of mine to do the same with any ceramic tiles when we did bathroom renos.

Stewie

Thanks SaveH2O and Stewie. We had a lot of spare tiles and the cracked/broken ones have been replaced. The photos were taken by the head of the team when he went up on the roof to inspect it, before the rest of the team went up to put the panels on. He showed us the photos before anyone else went on the roof and I have no reason to doubt him. My concern is that the rest of the roof where no panels were installed will have similarly cracked tiles, and the number of cracked tiles will increase over the next few years.

We will get Boral to inspect the rest of the roof, but I guess my concerns are: will the inspector be honest if he finds many cracked tiles? And if there are cracked tiles there too, I would assume there is a fault in the batch of tiles - who would be liable for replacing them, and would the tiles under the solar panels also need replacing? We are also in contact with the builder who suggested we contact Boral in the first instance.

I think with any house there is a level of maintenance that homeowners should be aware of - drains, paint, roof tiles etc. Your roof tiles just might need more than usual. Maybe you need someone to get up on the roof once a year for a quick visual inspection. Whether the batch that is on your roof is faulty or the guys who installed it did a less than stellar job I'm unsure. Maybe as you say, get the Boral rep out for a look. They may say there are a few more than usual but not up to replacing the entire roof. See if they can give you a few sqm for free.

Stewie

Thanks Stewie, we’ll see what Boral and the home builder say.

Did you get a response?

Our builder advised us to contact Boral for an inspection, which we did. Someone came out and replaced a number of tiles in addition to the ones replaced by the solar installer. He said the way the tiles were cracked suggested a problem with the installation - something about the way the nail was hammered into the tile, from memory? Normally the inspection and tile replacement incurs a charge, but we never got a bill for it so I assume they sorted it out with our builder.

This is a major reason why I hate tiles,it becomes a tradee broke them,or installation was *******,or tiles are faulty and or mortar mix was wrong or faulty.
Is so common and just way to much room for errors.

Good result and good on Boral for coming to the party for nix.

Stewie