Solar Panels on Tile Roofs

No, the tiles are not drilled. Our method is to lift that tile out, screw a hook into the rafter or timber batten underneath, and put the tile back, with the hook coming out through the gap between tiles. All the weight goes onto the roof structure, none onto the tiles. Drilling straight through a tile and screwing it down can cause leaks.

There is always a chance, especially with tiles that have become brittle after years of sun and rain. We reduce the risk by laying load-spreading boards as walkways instead of stepping on the tiles directly, and by walking only along lines supported by rafters. But we don't promise that nothing will crack. What we do promise is to have spare tiles ready and replace any tile our work breaks at no extra charge.

We need to talk it through before taking on the job. If identical tiles can't be found, the risk is much higher than usual, because any broken tile has to be replaced with a different model that will visibly stand out. We recommend finding spare tiles locally before work starts. If that really isn't possible, consider putting the panels on a ground-mounted frame on your property instead — in some cases that's better value and carries no roof risk at all.

The roof frame carries the weight, not the tiles. Panels plus mounting weigh around 12 to 15 kg per square meter, which a typical house roof frame can take. But houses with old timber rafters or signs of termites need checking first, because the hooks are fixed directly into the rafters — if the wood has lost its strength, they won't hold. We always inspect from under the roof too, not just from above.

Yes. Even though the hooks come out through the gaps between tiles without any drilling, the point where each hook passes through is still a gap that wind-driven rain can get into — and that happens often in Southern Thailand. So we fit waterproof flashing under the tiles around each fixing point, and check that every tile we put back overlaps in the original order, not against the direction of water flow.

The south-facing side gets the most sun, followed by west and east, with north getting the least. In practice we often use both sides of the gable if the better side doesn't have enough space. The east side generates in the morning and the west side in the afternoon, which together give a wider generation curve that suits household use better than packing all the panels onto one side.

Our installation work carries a 2-year warranty, which covers leaks at the fixing points we make and tiles broken by our work. It doesn't cover leaks from tiles that were already cracked, or from gutters that have deteriorated. That's why we photograph the condition of the roof before every job starts, so both sides have the same record of what was there beforehand.