Tile Roof Leaking but Tiles Look Fine? Where Water Gets In
Clay and concrete tile sheds water; it doesn't seal. Rain that gets past sound tile is stopped by what lies under it: the underlayment over the deck, and the metal flashing at walls, chimneys, skylights, valleys, pipes, vents and solar mounts. When the tile looks fine and the house still leaks, one of those has usually given out, or leaves and debris have dammed the water and pushed it sideways under the tile, and sometimes it isn't the roof at all. When it leaks, where the stain is and what the attic looks like narrow the search to one stretch of roof; the entry point itself turns up only when a roofer lifts tiles near the leak and uphill of it.
This page is about finding where the water is getting in. Whether the underlayment is worn out across the whole roof is covered in when to replace tile underlayment, and picking the job, from a spot repair to relaying part or all of the roof, in repair, relay or new tile. Prices and insurance are left out. And stay off the tile: it cracks underfoot, and every cracked piece is one more way in. Everything here you can do yourself is done from inside the house, the attic and the ground.
When and where it leaks, and what that points to
Two things narrow the search more than anything else: when it leaks, and where it shows inside. Neither proves the entry point, which takes tiles lifted, but together they tell a roofer where to start.
| When and where it leaks | Where the water is most likely getting in | What the roofer checks |
|---|---|---|
| In any rain, even light, in the same spot | An opening any rain reaches: a gap or tear in the underlayment, a rusted or open flashing, or a cracked or slipped tile over a spot where the sheet has worn through | The attic above the stain, then tiles lifted at that spot and uphill of it, the sheet and the metal both |
| Only in heavy, wind-driven rain | Wind pushing water up under the tile laps and into joints: at wall flashings, under hip and ridge tiles, and wherever the underlayment can no longer take the extra water | The slopes facing the storm, the weather blocking at hips, ridges and walls, the sheet under lifted tiles; a hose test in dry weather if needed |
| On a ceiling below a valley | Leaves or debris damming the valley and pushing water sideways past the edge of the metal; valley metal rusted, holed, too narrow or short on laps; tile cut short of the metal | The valley cleared, then tiles lifted along it: the metal's width, splash rib and laps, how far the tile reaches over the metal, the underlayment strip beneath |
| At an exterior wall, or on a ceiling below a second-story wall | The flashing where the roof meets the wall, or the counterflashing over it; a missing kickout where the eave ends against the wall | Tiles lifted along the wall: the flashing turned up the wall, the underlayment turned up behind it, the counterflashing, the kickout at the lower end |
| Around a chimney or skylight | The flashing and counterflashing around it; water piling up on the uphill side of a chimney wider than 30 inches with no cricket or saddle (a factory skylight flashed to its maker's instructions doesn't need one); the skylight unit itself | All four sides with tiles lifted, uphill side first: the cricket, saddle or backer flashing, the side flashings, the weather blocking |
| Around a pipe or vent | One of the two flashings a tile penetration needs: the deck flashing sealed into the underlayment, or the tile flashing on top | Tiles lifted around and above it; both flashings, and how the lower one ties into the underlayment |
| Near solar panels | A mount's flashing, or something else under or uphill of the array: an older penetration, a wall or valley flashing, worn underlayment | Every penetration above the stain, mount or not; tiles lifted at and uphill of them, with panels moved if the spot is under the array |
| At the eave or overhang, or high on the inside of an outside wall | Water held at the eave by a raised fascia or starter with no anti-ponding piece; worn underlayment in the bottom courses; debris behind the first course; or a clogged gutter spilling back behind the fascia | The bottom courses lifted: the anti-ponding strip, the underlayment, the fascia and the edge of the deck |
| Along a hip or ridge | Weather blocking under the hip or ridge tiles cracked, loose or missing, letting wind-driven rain in over the field tile | The hip and ridge closures, and the underlayment under the hip and ridge tiles |
| Drips in dry weather, well after the last rain | Usually not the roof: a plumbing line, the air conditioner's condensate line, or condensation in the attic. But water soaked into insulation or held on the deck can keep dripping for a day or two after a storm, and equipment on the roof, such as solar pool-heating panels or an AC unit's condensate line, can put water there without rain | Plumbing and the AC first, a plumber's or HVAC technician's call; if the drip began during or right after a storm, or sits under rooftop equipment, the roof is still in play |
| At a window, or on a wall with no roof right above it | Possibly the window or the wall itself, not the roof | Whether any roof meets that wall higher up; if one does, that flashing and its kickout; if not, the window and the wall covering |
If a leak fits more than one row, go by the attic: where the wood is wet tells more than where the ceiling is stained. The general method for any roof, from the timing of a leak to the attic and the ground, is in how to find a roof leak.
Why the stain is rarely under the hole
Water that gets under tile doesn't drop straight through. It runs down the underlayment, then along the deck and the rafters, until it finds a nail, a seam or the edge of a board and drips. So the ceiling stain is often downhill of the entry point and off to one side, sometimes far enough to be in the next room. Opening the roof right above the stain and finding nothing there doesn't clear the roof; it means the search has to move uphill.
What to do with that:
- Photograph and date the stain. Each time it rains, shoot it from the same spot and note how hard it rained and whether it was windy. A light pencil line around the edge shows whether it's growing.
- Check the attic after rain, if you can get there safely (see below). Find the wet wood above the stain.
- Trace it uphill. Water marks on the underside of the deck and along the rafters run from the entry point down to the drip. The highest wet spot is where tiles should come up first. Note how far it is from something that shows on the roof, such as a chimney, a vent pipe or an outside wall, so it can be found from above.
Where water gets in on a tile roof that looks intact
The TRI Alliance (Tile Roofing Industry Alliance), in its Concrete and Clay Roof Tile Installation Manual (March 2024 edition, revised May 2025), calls installed tile a highly effective water-shedding assembly and ties how well it keeps weather out to every component being installed properly. Put simply, the tile turns away most of the rain, and the layers and metal under it keep out the rest (parts of a roof shows where each one sits). These are the places where that rest gets in, each with what a correct detail looks like under the 2025 California Residential Code (CRC 2025, in effect since January 1, 2026) or the TRI manual. The code sets the minimum for work done now; an older roof was built to the code of its day, but these are still the details that keep water out. None of them can be judged from the ground.
Where the roof meets a wall
CRC 2025 R903.2 says flashing has to keep moisture out of the wall and the roof through coping joints, through materials water can pass, and where the roof meets parapet walls and other penetrations. R903.2.1 requires it where a roof meets a wall, wherever the roof changes slope or direction, and around roof openings, and sets metal flashing at no thinner than 0.019 inch (No. 26 galvanized sheet). For clay and concrete tile, R905.3.9 calls for flashing and counterflashing where the roof meets a vertical surface: a base flashing turned up the wall and a counterflashing lapped down over it. Along a side wall the base piece is a pan under the tile edge; at a head wall, where the slope runs into a wall above it, the TRI manual adds an apron flashing lapped at least 3 inches onto the tile, and turns the underlayment at least 4 inches up the wall behind it.
The lower end of that run matters as much as its length. Where the eave of a sloped roof meets a sidewall, R903.2.1 requires a flashing that diverts the water away, commonly called kickout flashing. Without it, water that ran along the wall flashing can empty into the wall at the corner, and the stain shows up on the wall below that corner instead of on a ceiling. What a roofer finds when these fail: flashing rusted, holed or loose, counterflashing pulled away from the wall, or no kickout at all.
Chimneys and skylights
The same flashing and counterflashing rule applies around a chimney or a skylight, on all four sides, and the uphill side takes the most: everything flowing down the slope above hits it. CRC 2025 R903.2.2 requires a cricket or saddle on the uphill (ridge) side of any chimney or penetration more than 30 inches wide, measured across the slope, covered with sheet metal or the same material as the roof; it splits the water and sends it around the sides. The code exempts a unit skylight installed under R324.6 and flashed to its manufacturer's instructions, so a wide factory skylight without a cricket isn't a code defect; its flashing kit is what gets checked. The TRI manual recommends a cricket at 30 inches and wider and uses a backer or saddle flashing on narrower ones. It also calls for weather blocking at head walls, where it includes chimneys, skylights and solar panels, to keep water on the surface of the tile.
Flashing on a tile roof sits under and among the tiles, so reaching it means opening the roof around it, sometimes a lot of it (see Porter Ranch below). At a skylight, the unit itself can leak too, and the roofer checks it along with the flashing. If solar is planned, what the code asks around chimneys, skylights and vents is in how skylights, chimneys and vents change a solar layout.
Valleys
A valley gathers the water from two slopes, so it carries more than the slopes on either side of it. For clay and concrete tile, CRC 2025 R905.3.9 sets the minimum. The valley metal extends at least 11 inches each way from the centerline, with a splash diverter rib at least 1 inch high along the flow line to keep water from one side from washing across to the other. Sections lap at least 4 inches at the ends. On slopes of 3:12 and steeper, a 36-inch-wide strip of underlayment runs the full length of the valley under the metal, in addition to the regular underlayment. The TRI manual adds that the tile has to extend at least 4 inches over the valley metal, and that the metal has to carry the water it's expected to carry.
What goes wrong: leaves and debris pile up in the valley and behind the tiles along it, dam the flow and push water sideways, under the tile and past the edge of the metal. Valley metal on an older roof may be narrower than today's 11-inch minimum, rusted through or short on its laps, and tile cut too far back lets water land beside the metal instead of on it. Keeping valleys clear is ordinary upkeep before the rain, covered in getting the roof ready for the rainy season; on tile, that's done by someone who knows where to step.
Pipes, vents and other penetrations
Every pipe or vent through a tile roof should be flashed twice (the top piece is often called a pipe jack or boot). The TRI manual calls for two-step flashing: a deck flashing sealed into the underlayment around the pipe, then a tile flashing on top, formed to the profile of the tile. The lower one handles water that has already gotten under the tile; the upper one sheds water on the surface. A leak at a pipe points to one of the two missing, cracked or no longer tied into the underlayment, or to a job done with sealant in their place. The same goes for every other hole through the roof, older ones included. On a shingle roof, the boot and its laps are covered in how pipe boots and vent flashing leak.
Solar mounts
Each solar mount is one more penetration through the tile and the underlayment. How it should be sealed, and what separates a mount that lasts from one that leaks, is covered in how a solar mount is sealed. But a stain near the panels doesn't prove a mount is to blame. An array covers a lot of roof, and under and uphill of it sit the same pipes, flashings, valleys and underlayment as anywhere else; the Granada Hills roof below is a case in point. If the array is still under its installer's workmanship warranty, call that installer first and ask for the finding in writing; some workmanship warranties exclude work by others, so check the terms before anyone else takes panels off. Who pays when a roof under solar leaks is in three warranties, one leak, and what tile needs before panels go on is in solar panels on clay tile roofs.
Eaves
The bottom edge of each slope carries all the water that came down it. The TRI manual points to a trap there: a raised fascia or starter strip at the eave forms a water dam, so it requires an anti-ponding piece, a beveled cant strip or formed sheet metal, to let the water run off. Without one, water can sit against the lower edge of the underlayment and the fascia instead of running off the roof, and debris packed behind the first course of tile does the same. Leaks from here tend to show at the overhang or high on the inside of an outside wall.
Hips and ridges
Hip and ridge tiles cover the joint where two slopes meet. The TRI manual calls for weather blocking at hips, ridges and head walls to keep water on the surface of the field tile, the main body of tile on each slope. When that blocking cracks, crumbles or comes loose, wind-driven rain gets in over the top of the field tile and runs down onto the underlayment along the hip or ridge. From the street it may look like nothing more than a gap under a ridge tile.
The underlayment itself
When the metal checks out and nothing is damming the water, the sheet under the tile is the likely cause: torn, brittle, open at a lap or around nail holes, or left in the sun where a tile slipped. CRC 2025 R905.1.1 requires underlayment under clay and concrete tile, and R905.3.2 allows tile no flatter than 2½:12 and calls for a double layer of underlayment between 2½:12 and 4:12. A local failure can be renewed and the tile set back. Whether it's worn across the whole roof, and when to replace it, is a separate question, answered in when to replace tile underlayment.
What you can check yourself, without going on the roof
- When it leaks. In every rain, only in storms with wind, or on dry days. If you know which way the wind was blowing, write it down.
- Where it shows. Ceiling, wall, window frame, the room under a second-story wall. Photograph and date each stain, and every new one.
- Whether it's the house, not the roof. A drip that starts on a dry day, well after the last rain, points to plumbing, the air conditioner's condensate line or condensation in the attic. A stain around a window with no roof above it points to the window or the wall.
- The attic, if you can get in safely. Take a good flashlight and step only on the framing, never on the ceiling drywall between the joists; it won't hold you. Look at the underside of the roof boards and the rafters above and uphill of the stain for dark, wet wood or water trails, and photograph what you find with a note of where it is.
- From the ground. Leaves piled in a valley, a tile out of line, a gap under a ridge tile. Look; don't climb.
What to leave to the roofer. The TRI manual says walking on tile should be avoided, and when it can't be, to step only on the lower 3 to 4 inches of each tile, where it laps over the tile below. That's a roofer's footing, not a homeowner's. Don't smear sealant on the tile, and don't run a hose on the roof yourself: done without someone inside watching and a section-by-section plan, it just puts more water into the house and tells you nothing about where it entered.
What a roofer checks, in order
1. The attic first. Match the stain inside to the wood above it, follow the trail up the deck and rafters to its highest wet point, and measure that spot from something visible on the roof: a chimney, a vent pipe, an outside wall.
- The roof above the stain. From the surface, over and uphill of that spot: debris in valleys and behind tiles, cracked or slipped tiles, the metal at walls, chimneys, skylights and pipes, the closures at hips and ridges. Where walking can't be avoided, only on the head lap.
- Tiles lifted near the leak and uphill of it. Working up the path the water would have taken: the underlayment, its laps and nail holes; the metal under the tile, from wall and pan flashings to valley metal and deck flashings at pipes and mounts; the weather blocking. Sound metal over a dry sheet rules a spot out, and the search moves up.
- A hose test, if it's still not clear. From the bottom of the slope upward, one section at a time, with water run down the slope the way rain falls, not blasted up under the tile laps, and someone inside watching, so the first section that shows water inside is the one letting it in. Starting at the top would soak everything below at once and prove nothing.
- Dated photos of every spot opened, with where each one is, taken before anything is repaired, so you see what was found. Lifted tiles go back and cracked ones are replaced; the TRI manual's tile-replacement method includes patching the underlayment where the old fasteners came out. If the fix turns out bigger than one spot, repair, relay or new tile sorts out which job it is.
Why sealant on top doesn't fix it
A bead of roof sealant along a tile joint, or smeared over a crack, looks like a repair. But on a tile roof the tile isn't the part that keeps water out, so sealing it treats the symptom. The entry point, whether a torn sheet, a rusted valley or a pipe flashing that was never tied into the underlayment, is usually under the tile, where the sealant doesn't reach, and water that gets under the tile anywhere uphill still runs down to the same hole. Sealant also glues together tiles that a roofer later has to lift, and it can hide where the water was going in. The fix is made under the tile, and the tile goes back over it. Sealing the actual entry point once tiles are up and it's been found is a different thing from sealant smeared over tile.
While it's leaking right now
- Put a bucket or tub under the drip and towels around it, and move furniture, rugs and electronics out of the way.
- If the ceiling is sagging or bulging with water, keep everyone out from under it.
- If water is coming through a light fixture or near outlets, switch that circuit off at the panel and keep clear of it.
- Photograph and video the drip and the ceiling, and note the time, how hard it's raining and whether it's windy. That's what a roofer will ask for first.
- If you can reach the attic safely, stepping only on the framing, set a container or a plastic sheet under the drip and photograph the wet wood above it.
- Call a roofer. Don't climb onto the roof, least of all in the rain: wet tile is slippery and cracks underfoot.
Three tile roofs: what was under the tile
Granada Hills, concrete tile with solar. The panels went on in 2021. In March 2023 the owner reported leaks and put them down to the solar. We were on the roof two days later and found the water getting in at an older penetration that predated the array and carried no mount. We sealed that penetration on the visit to stop the water and gave the owner our findings in writing. The underlayment on that roof was due, so we then scoped replacing it across the whole roof with the same tile, matched by the manufacturer's part number. The owner had his own roofer do that work; we took the panels off and put them back.
Porter Ranch, late 2023. Before the solar went on, the flashing around the chimney needed replacing. Reaching it meant taking up about 400 square feet of tile.
Burbank, 2023. Concrete tile over a wood deck, leaking, with the tile in good shape. The detail that mattered was the junction with the wall of a projecting part of the house: a torch-applied membrane was carried up the wall and run under the Z-bar flashing rather than stopped short behind it, because stopped short, that junction can look finished and still drain wrong. The underlayment and the pan flashings at valleys and penetrations were renewed over about 300 square feet, and the same tile went back.
Cali Energy holds California contractor license #1032379 with three classifications: C-39 Roofing, B General Building, and C-10 Electrical, which covers solar. More finished work is under case studies, and what we do on roofs is on the Cali Energy roofing page.
Frequently asked
Can one cracked tile cause a leak?
Can a tile roof leak be sealed from the top?
Do solar panels cause tile roof leaks?
Why does my tile roof leak only in heavy rain?
Can I find the leak myself?
How do I tell a roof leak from plumbing or the AC?
Related reading
Sources & methodology
Code sections, rules and figures on this page come from the primary sources below. Codes, local requirements and product terms change; each was verified October 8, 2026.
We'll find where the water is getting in under your tile
Call (323) 844-7777. Have ready when it leaks (in any rain, only in wind-driven storms, or with no rain at all), where it shows inside, whether there's solar on the roof and who installed it, and photos of the ceiling and the attic with their dates. The entry point shows only when tiles are lifted near the leak and uphill of it, so that's where we look before anyone talks about the repair.
Prepared by Cali Energy, October 8, 2026. This article is for general educational purposes only and is not legal, tax, financial, engineering, or utility advice. Rates, incentives, codes, permit requirements, equipment specifications, prices, and program terms may change; figures and timelines are estimates, not guarantees. Confirm current requirements with the applicable utility, AHJ, program administrator, manufacturer, or a licensed professional. See our Content Disclaimer. Cali Energy · 19201 Parthenia St, Unit E, Northridge, CA 91324 · CSLB #1032379 (B, C-10, C-39)