Concrete and clay
Tile roofing
The tile is the armor. The underlayment is the roof. Central Florida has a lot of both.
From Winter Park to Sarasota, tile is the roof people mean when they say the house looks finished. Concrete tile is the volume product. Clay is the longer-lived, heavier, more expensive cover. Neither one is waterproof by itself.
Underlayment is the job
Tile systems shed water. The membrane under them is what keeps the deck dry when wind pushes rain uphill. When we replace a tile roof we are usually replacing that membrane, the flashings, and any broken or brittle field tile, then resetting a system that matches the manufacturer and the Florida tile manuals the code points to.
Weight matters. A tile roof wants a deck and a structure that were meant to carry it. We do not put tile on a house that was not framed for it just because the street has tile.
Solar on tile
Tile can be an excellent solar roof if the underlayment is new and the attachments are made for that tile system. It is a poor solar roof if the membrane has five years left and the array has twenty-five. The solar-ready reroof is the sequence we prefer.
Bradenton and Sarasota see the most tile. Orlando and Winter Park see it on the older streets, with shade as the second problem.