It’s one thing to make a stone coated roofing tile that looks like Gerard®, but it’s quite another to make one that still looks like Gerard® a year after installation. Our Advanced Coating Technology is one of the reasons Gerard® Roofs always look consistently good and retain their looks for a lifetime.

In recent news posts, we’ve explored the benefits of Aluzinc steel and Natural Stone Chip, but bringing these two together is a science, and the subject of this weeks post.

At Gerard® we apply a thick layer of our patented basecoat to our Alu-Zinc steel in order to stick our natural stone chips to the steel. We apply a thick layer so that the stone chip sinks deep into it, ensuring a super-tight hold. We then repeat the process of applying the stone coating using smaller chips to fill any gaps. This ensures a 100% covering, especially when the tile is bent during installation (down into a valley or up against a wall or chimney). Our basecoat has been developed over decades of continual improvement to do one job – stick stone chips to alu-zinc steel, and it does it for a lifetime. 

Investing in a Genuine Gerard® roof is an investment in the future. But what about those customers who choose a fake Gerard® roof? Because other tile manufacturers find it impossible to compete with Gerard® on quality, they instead reduce the cost of their tiles to sell them cheaply. But things are cheap for a reason! Reducing the cost of manufacture means reducing the quality of the materials you use. In the case of coating their tiles, this means using a generic “off-the shelf” basecoat that has been made to do a multitude of things, and using it sparingly. It won’t stick as well as Gerard® and, because they use the minimal amount, fake tiles suffer badly from chip-loss (see below)

When chip loss occurs it exposes the steel to the elements and it begins to corrode and rust. This can happen prior to installation, during transport, handling and during the installation process itself. This means that there is a high risk that a fake Gerard® roof will be rusting from day one of installation, if not before. Unfortunately, the only way to rectify this problem is to replace the roof. And the cost of doing this is more than choosing Genuine Gerard® in the first place.

Make sure you choose #GenuineGerard.