Roofing in France

France has some of the most regionally varied roofing in Europe. Travelling across the country you see slate in Anjou, Brittany and the Ardennes, small flat clay tiles in Burgundy and the Paris basin, interlocking clay tiles almost everywhere, low-pitched curved canal tiles in the south, thick stone lauzes in the Cévennes and Causses, and the grey zinc roofs of Paris. Roofing work is framed by the NF DTU technical rules and by a strict ten-year liability and insurance regime.

Climate and hazards

France spans an Atlantic west with frequent rain and wind, a continental east with colder winters, Alpine and Pyrenean mountains with heavy snow, and a dry, hot Mediterranean south. These differences are built into the rules: the NF DTU documents for pitched roofs set minimum pitches according to climatic zone, site exposure and rafter length, so the same tile can need a steeper pitch in Brittany than in Provence. The low-pitched canal tile suits the south's light rainfall, while mountain roofs carry heavy stone or slate that holds snow.

Roofing history

In Gallo-Roman times, slate from the Ardennes was used mostly for flooring rather than roofs. In the Middle Ages slate from the Ardennes travelled far: in 1156 the abbey of Saint-Trond in present-day Belgium was reportedly roofed with slate from Fumay on the French Meuse. Prestige buildings were covered in sheet lead; the 13th-century oak roof structure of Notre-Dame de Paris, known as "the forest", carried more than 400 tonnes of lead on roof and spire.

The mansard roof, named after the architect François Mansart, first appeared around 1550 at the Louvre. A 1783 rule limiting Paris buildings to 20 m (66 ft) at the cornice made rooms inside steep roofs valuable, and under the Second Empire (1852-1870) the rebuilding of Paris by Baron Haussmann spread zinc-and-slate mansards along the new boulevards.

France was central to the industrial clay tile. The Gilardoni brothers of Altkirch in Alsace patented a practical interlocking tile in 1841, and their factories ran until 1974. The Marseille pattern followed in the 1860s and was exported across the French colonies and beyond.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Tuiles plates (flat tiles), small double-lap tiles of Burgundy, the Île-de-France and other northern regions.
• Tuiles canal or tuiles romanes, curved tiles on low-pitched roofs around the Mediterranean and in the south-west.
• Ardoise (slate), traditional in Anjou and the Loire valley, the Ardennes, Brittany and Savoie. French slating uses a small range of rectangular formats, about 10-15 in total and usually two or three in any region, split about 2.5-4 mm (0.1-0.16 in) thick.
• Lauzes, stone slabs of schist or limestone in the Cévennes, the Causses and other upland areas. On the limestone Causses, where timber was scarce, lauzes were often laid directly on stone vaults.
• Thatch (chaume), which survives in parts of Normandy and the Brière marshes.
• Zinc, typical of Paris; about 80% of Paris rooftops are covered in zinc.

Roofing today

Interlocking clay tiles are the most common covering on French houses, with concrete tiles, flat clay tiles and canal tiles used according to region. France is described as the largest consumer of natural roofing slate and the largest buyer of Spanish slate, as domestic quarrying has declined. Zinc and copper standing seam are common on contemporary architecture. Flat roofs on commercial and apartment buildings use bitumen and synthetic membranes, and a 2015 law requires roofs of new buildings in commercial zones to be partly covered with plants or solar panels.

Codes, standards and regulation

Roofing work follows the NF DTU (documents techniques unifiés) series, whose secretariat is held by the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB). The DTU 40 series covers pitched coverings: for example DTU 40.11 natural slate, 40.21 interlocking clay tiles, 40.23 flat clay tiles, 40.24 concrete tiles and 40.41 zinc. Products outside the DTUs are usually assessed through a CSTB Avis Technique. Under the 1978 Spinetta law, reflected in Article 1792 of the Civil Code, builders are liable for ten years for serious defects (the garantie décennale), must carry liability insurance, and owners must hold dommages-ouvrage insurance.

Industry

Terreal, whose oldest predecessor dates from 1855, is a leading French clay tile maker and has belonged to the Austrian group Wienerberger since 2024. The rolled-zinc trade grew from the Belgian Vieille-Montagne company, founded in 1837, whose building zinc continues under the VMZinc brand. In 2024 the skills of Parisian roofers and ornamentalists were added to UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Notable roofs

• Notre-Dame de Paris, whose oak-and-lead roof and spire burned on 15 April 2019 and were rebuilt in oak and lead; the cathedral reopened on 7 December 2024.
• The roofs of Paris, the zinc and slate Haussmann roofscape, proposed for World Heritage listing since 2014.
• The Causses and the Cévennes, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 28 June 2011 as an evolving cultural landscape; lauze roofs are a defining feature of its farms and villages.

Local roofing terms

• Couvreur: roofer; zingueur: zinc worker.
• Tuile mécanique: interlocking tile; tuile plate: flat tile; tuile canal: curved tile.
• Lauzier: lauze roofer.
• Pureau: the exposed part of a slate, tile or lauze.
• Noue: valley; faîtage: ridge; arêtier: hip.
• Brisis and terrasson: the steep lower and shallow upper slopes of a mansard.
• Volige or douelle: boarding under slates or lauzes.

Sources and gaps

National statistics on the share of each roof covering in French housing: published information is limited.