Why Underlayment Is
The Whole Ballgame
Here's the thing almost nobody tells homeowners: when a tile roof leaks, it's almost never the tile. Tile outlives the felt paper under it two to one. The tile is fine, but the old felt underneath aged out years ago, and felt is just paper. Take a paper towel, get it wet, let it dry, and repeat that season after season. Eventually it falls apart in your hands. That's what's on top of most houses out here.
Titanium PSU-30 is what we put in its place. It's a self-adhered, high-temperature peel and stick membrane. Instead of being nailed on like felt, it bonds directly to the deck and seals around the fasteners that go through it. It's built to survive under tile in our heat, which is one of the hardest environments a membrane can live in.
This is the product named in our lift and relay contracts, where we carefully lift your existing tile, replace the dead underlayment with PSU-30, and relay your own tile. The tile you already paid for keeps working, and the part that actually failed gets replaced with something far better than what the house was built with.
When the roof is dry enough at an estimate, I'll lift a few tiles and photograph what's under there so you can see your current underlayment with your own eyes. No scare tactics, just the actual condition of the layer doing all the work.
Where We Install PSU-30
- Tile lift and relay projects, the full underlayment replacement under your existing tile
- New tile installations as the base waterproofing layer
- Full deck coverage, sealed around every fastener
- Paired with deck inspection and repair of any damaged wood
- Flashings and penetrations detailed before tile goes back on
- Documented with photos before the tile covers it forever
Frequently Asked Questions
Because the tile sheds most of the water but the underlayment stops all of it. Tile outlives the felt beneath it two to one, so most 'tile roof leaks' are actually underlayment failures. Replacing the underlayment while reusing your tile, a lift and relay, fixes the real problem without paying for tile you don't need.
Felt was the best thing available for a long time, but it's still paper. Wet and dry cycles make it swell, dry out, and go brittle until it cracks and falls apart. Modern peel and stick membranes have far better tensile strength, they don't tear, and PSU-30 seals itself around fasteners in a way felt never could.
For the part that failed, yes. A lift and relay replaces the underlayment, the actual waterproofing, while reusing your existing tile. If your tile itself is damaged or you want a new look, that's a full tile replacement, and we do those too, with a catalog and a showroom visit.