Lead has been used on roofs for thousands of years. It is inert — it is not damaged by rain or sunlight. It is maliable — meaning it can be folded into different shapes. Special tools are used to beat lead into the desired contour without damaging it.

Lead is primarly used to deal with joints between changes in roof direction or where two different materials require joining and sealing against rain ingress.

Lead is also qute heavy so this feature can be used to help hold it and other roofing components in position.

Before the invention of newer materials lead was sometimes used on entire roofs which were either flat or had insufficient slope to use tiles.

Today lead is primarily used as flashings and soakers. A flashing is a strip of lead which is incised into brickwork and then folded onto a roof while soakers are strips of lead which fit under the flashing and are lapped under the roof tiles or slates.