A practical guide for Leicester homeowners — written specifically for Leicester's housing stock and roofing conditions.
Nail sickness is the progressive corrosion of the ferrous (iron or steel) nails used to fix concrete interlocking roof tiles to the battens beneath them. As the nails corrode, they lose their holding strength and eventually snap or waste away entirely, leaving the tiles unfixed on the battens beneath them. Tiles that appear perfectly sound from the ground can be completely unfixed internally.
Concrete interlocking tiles installed on Leicester post-war housing estates from the 1940s to 1970s were fixed with galvanised steel nails. Galvanising is a zinc coating applied to protect the steel core from corrosion. The zinc coating has a finite design life of approximately 40–60 years in a UK roofing environment. Once the zinc is exhausted, the underlying steel begins to corrode.
Corrosion causes the nail to expand and then weaken. In the early stages, the tile remains fixed but the nail is becoming fragile. As corrosion progresses, the nail snaps under wind loading or simply wastes away to the point where it provides no fixing function. The tile is now resting on the batten with nothing securing it against uplift.
From the ground: look for tiles that have slipped slightly down the slope, tiles sitting at a different angle to their neighbours, or tiles with a visible gap at the head. In the loft void: corroded nails leave visible rust staining on the batten wood around each nail position. The definitive assessment requires a roofer to lift sample tiles and inspect the nail condition directly.
Nail sickness is concentrated in Leicester's post-war housing estates: Braunstone (1940s–50s, most advanced), Eyres Monsell (1960s, now reaching critical stage), Thurmaston (1960s–70s), Birstall (1960s–70s) and parts of Wigston and New Parks. The 1930s semi-detached stock in Oadby, West Knighton and Evington has clay plain tile which uses a different fixing system less prone to nail sickness, but the older concrete tile properties in those areas can also be affected.
The correct repair is to lift each tile individually, remove the corroded nail, and re-fix with a new A4 stainless steel nail. Stainless steel has no practical corrosion design life limit in a UK roofing environment — a properly re-nailed Leicester roof will not develop nail sickness again within the property's lifetime. We do not use aluminium nails (adequate but not the optimal specification) or galvanised nails (same failure mode, shorter remaining life).
Yes. The guidance in this article is written specifically for Leicester housing stock — the Victorian terrace belt, the post-war estates, the 1930s suburban stock and the outer Leicestershire towns. National guidance is referenced where relevant but the Leicester-specific context is the primary focus.
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