Absorbent cloth protecting tip of roofing tool (6)
I believe the answer is:
trowel
'tool' is the definition.
(trowel is a kind of tool)
'absorbent cloth protecting tip of roofing' is the wordplay.
'absorbent cloth' becomes 'towel' (I've seen this before).
'protecting' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tip of' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'roofing' is 'r'.
'towel' enclosing 'r' is 'TROWEL'.
(Other definitions for trowel that I've seen before include "Digging tool" , "Hand tool for plasterers or gardeners" , "Small hand tool for gardening" , "Small garden tool for handling plants" , "Small triangular tool for weeding in garden" .)