We go up before we quote.
Re-roofs, restorations and repairs on pitched roofs across Adelaide's eastern suburbs and the Hills face: corrugated steel, terracotta and cement tile, and slate, with new gutters, downpipes and skylights. Nothing's finished until we've run the gutters with a hose.
Move the rain. That gutter's full of leaves. Click it.Drag to move the rain. Tap the gutter. Arrows move the rain, C clears the gutter, R changes the roof.
What we find up there
You can't quote a roof from the driveway. So we get the ladder out, walk the whole thing, and come down with photos of what we saw.
Rust at the laps.
Water hangs longest where one sheet sits over the next, so that's where steel goes first. Surface rust we treat. Rust a screwdriver goes through means new sheets.
Lap: the overlap of one sheet or tile on the next.
A cracked ridge.
The caps along the top sit on mortar, finished with pointing. When it cracks, the caps rock and rain gets under. We re-bed and re-point the run, not just one cap.
Pointing: the flexible strip holding the caps.
A gutter falling the wrong way.
A gutter needs a slight fall to its downpipe. Some settle back, water sits and the steel goes. We re-hang it on the right fall and prove it with a hose.
Fall: the slope a gutter drains on.
A slipped slate.
It's usually the nail that's gone, not the slate. We slip a new one in and hold it with a copper tingle.
Tingle: a strip that hooks a slate in place.
A valley rusted through.
Where two slopes meet, the valley carries the most water, so it's often the first thing we replace.
Valley: where two slopes drain together.
We'll show you the photos before we talk about fixing anything.
Three roofs, and what each one wants.
Steel
Corrugated steel lasts well if the laps and screws are looked after. We replace rusted sheets, screw on the crest (never the pan, where the water runs), and re-sheet the whole roof when it's time.
Tile
Terracotta and cement tile. Tiles outlast their pointing and their valleys. We replace cracked tiles, re-bed and re-point ridges, and re-lay course by course when the battens underneath have had it.
Slate
Slow, careful work: slipped slates, rusted nails, worn valleys. We match what's there and keep as much of the old roof as is sound.
Press a profile and the rain at the top of the page runs over that roof instead.
Off, down to the battens, and back on.
Rafters
Battens
Sarking
The sheeteach course laps the one below
The flashing
The cap
Then we run the gutters with a hose. That's when it's finished.
Rafters
Off first, down to the frame. We look at what's there before we decide anything.
Battens
The timber strips the roof is fixed to. Rotten ones come out, and new ones go in at the right spacing.
Sarking
A membrane under the roof. It catches what gets past, and cuts heat and dust.
The sheet
Steel, tile or slate back on, each course lapping the one below, fixed where it should be.
The flashing
Folded steel where the roof meets a wall or chimney, so water is turned away, not let in.
The cap
The ridge capping over the top: bedded and pointed on tile, screwed down on steel.
Most leaks start where two roofs meet.
- Valleys
- The busiest channel on the roof, so we replace them in one length, not patched.
- Flashings
- Where a roof meets a wall or chimney, folded and turned up, not smeared with sealant.
- Skylights
- A new skylight puts daylight down a dark hallway, and we flash it in the same way so it stays dry.
From the room below.
Steel rings. Tile clicks. Slate hushes. A blanket under any of them takes the edge off. Pick a roof and listen.
Stopped.
- Steel rings. You hear each drop, then the sheet hums a little after it.
- Tile clicks. Short, dull taps; heavy rain becomes a roar without a ring.
- Slate hushes. A soft patter, like rain on a coat.
- A blanket under any of them takes the top off and shortens every drop.
Synthesised on this page from noise and filters, not a recording.
Will your gutters keep up?
About 225 litres a minute into each of your 2 downpipes.
That's roughly 11 garden hoses running into each one.
The more that goes into one downpipe, the less room a gutter with leaves in it has. Another downpipe, or a bigger outlet, spreads the load.
Whatever we do to a gutter, we finish by running it with a hose and watching where the water goes.
The eastern suburbs, up to the Hills face.
- Norwood
- Kensington Park
- Beaumont
- Burnside
- Glen Osmond
- Leabrook
- Tusmore
- Linden Park
- Stonyfell
- Wattle Park
- Magill
- Rostrevor
- Teringie
- Auldana
- Skye
- Waterfall Gully
- Crafers
- Stirling
- Aldgate
- Norton Summit
- Summertown
- Greenhill
If you can see the Hills face from your gutter, we probably come to you.
Ask us up.
Tell us what you've noticed. We'll come and get up there before we say a word about cost.