Short answer. Honestly: most metal tile offcuts are good for nothing. The pattern has a period — a 350 mm tile step — and a piece without a complete bottom step reads as a fragment wherever you put it. So the real answer to “what do I do with the offcuts” is arrange not to have any: order the sheet length as a whole number of steps. Below is the arithmetic showing that five centimetres of slope length move the waste from zero to 7.8%.
Why a metal tile offcut is scrap and a profiled sheeting offcut is material
Profiled sheeting is uniform along its length: any piece looks like the whole sheet and can go anywhere. Metal tile is a modular product. It has a direction and a period: a step at the bottom, the next one 350 mm up. A piece cut out of the middle has no proper bottom, and on any plane that shows from the street.
Everything else follows. A profiled sheeting offcut is leftover material. A metal tile offcut is almost always scrap you have paid for.
How much steel the module eats
Metal tile sheet length is not arbitrary: it is a multiple of the 350 mm step. So for a slope of length L with a 50 mm overhang you take the next multiple up. The difference is the waste nobody counts in advance.
| Slope length | Needed with overhang | Steps | Sheet length | Excess |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.00 m | 3.05 m | 9 | 3.15 m | 0.10 m (3.2%) |
| 3.45 m | 3.50 m | 10 | 3.50 m | 0 m (0%) |
| 3.50 m | 3.55 m | 11 | 3.85 m | 0.30 m (7.8%) |
| 4.00 m | 4.05 m | 12 | 4.20 m | 0.15 m (3.6%) |
| 5.00 m | 5.05 m | 15 | 5.25 m | 0.20 m (3.8%) |
| 6.00 m | 6.05 m | 18 | 6.30 m | 0.25 m (4.0%) |
Look at the two adjacent rows: 3.45 m gives zero waste, 3.50 m gives 7.8%. Five centimetres of slope length, and you pay for one extra tile step on every sheet on that slope. On a 9 m wide slope that is nine sheets, 0.30 m of excess length each.
Practical conclusion for anyone still designing: the slope length should be tuned to a multiple of 350 mm, not the other way round. It is free at the rafter stage and never happens afterwards.
Profiled sheeting has no such constraint: there is no period along the sheet and the length is whatever you ask for. Waste there comes only from rounding across the width of the slope.
What offcuts are actually good for
| Use | Works | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Canopy over a door or a wicket gate | yes | a piece with a complete bottom step, two steps (700 mm) or more |
| Small area over a bay window or a dormer | yes | same: complete bottom, whole number of steps |
| Spare for repair after damage | yes | but keep a whole sheet, not a bag of pieces |
| A patch over a damaged sheet | no | water stands under the patch and corrosion runs faster than without it |
| Wall abutments, soffit lining | no | there are proper flashings for that |
| Cladding a vertical wall | no | the pattern reads as an unfinished roof |
Anything that does not fall into the first three rows is more honestly taken to a scrap yard than kept behind the shed for three years “just in case”. Galvanised steel with a polymer coating is accepted as ordinary scrap.
The cut edge of an offcut
If an offcut does get used, what it was cut with matters. An abrasive disc burns the zinc off along the whole cut, and that is where the rust starts — tools compared here. A clean cut does not have to be touched up; when touch-up does make sense is covered separately.
What we do not do
We do not take offcuts back, and we do not cut or reprocess other people’s steel. What we can do is roll the sheet to a length that is a whole number of steps, so the offcuts never appear.
How to order
Step 1. Measure the slope to the centimetre
Ridge to eaves plus the overhang. That number decides whether you land on a multiple or not.
Step 2. Round to the 350 mm step
If the build is still going, adjust the rafter overhang to land on a multiple. If the roof is finished, price the excess from the table above.
Step 3. Order sheet and flashings from one coil
Call (067) 077-56-77, Mon-Fri 08:00-17:00. Production 1-2 days, delivery another 1-5 days.
FAQ
Can metal tile be ordered in a non-multiple length? No. The pattern sets a 350 mm step, and cutting inside a step means ruining the tile.
How many offcuts does a hip roof produce? Considerably more than a gable roof: the diagonal cuts along every hip are added to the modular waste. That is a property of the roof shape, not of the material.
Can offcuts be made into a fence? Technically yes, but each piece carries its own step height and the fence comes out striped. Fences are built from profiled sheeting.
How much should I keep as a spare? One whole sheet per roof. It will cover real damage; a bag of offcuts will not.