A bonnet hip tile is a plate tile shaped to cap the hip of a clay tile roof — the angled line where two slopes meet. Each one is custom-fitted to the roof it finishes, tying the two fields of tile together into one continuous surface. On our work, bonnet hips come through Ludowici. Custom bonnet hips are only available through Ludowici, and they are fitted by hand, roof by roof.
Where two slopes meet
A hip is the outside corner of a roof — the line that runs from the ridge down to the eave where two slopes turn away from each other. Rain runs down both slopes toward that line, so the hip has to shed water in two directions at once and still move with the building as the seasons change.
A plain cap or a mortar-only finish can cover a hip. A bonnet hip finishes it in tile — the same material as the field, fitted over the turn so the roof reads as one surface from the ground.
Why the fitting is custom
No two roofs share the same pitch, the same angles, or the same tile profile. A bonnet hip that is not fitted to its roof sits proud, gaps at the edges, and starts the leak it was supposed to prevent. Ours are custom-fitted per roof — measured, shaped, and set as part of the tile system, not added as an afterthought.
That system matters. We are a Ludowici Elite Crown Roofer — the top tier of Ludowici's installer program — and have held the certification since the program began in 2012. Our Ludowici installations carry a 75-year material warranty.
Where you have seen them
On the South Georgia plantation roof in our work index, the hips are tied together with custom-fitted bonnet hip plate tiles — the line that lets a big, complicated tile roof read as one piece. The same detailing shows up on our Ludowici tile work in Alpharetta.
It is a small detail. It is also the detail that separates a tile roof installed as a system from one that was merely laid. When you are looking at tile roofs — ours or anyone's — look at the hips first.
— Gary Shank