roof restoration experiences?

Personally I wouldn't throw good money after bad. How old is your roof? What condition are the tiles in?

We had concrete tiles on the roof, which were about 50 years old. There were mutliple problems.

The concrete held water and besides making the roof itself extremely heavy, it developed a predisposition towards leaking.

The overlapping lip of the tile (the piece you walk on) had worn down on most of the tiles to around 5mm or less. This meant that the tiles had become eggshell brittle, and repairing them became nonsensical. Every second tile you walked on cracked.

It was nigh on impossible to find matching tiles for the profile I needed. The newer tiles were all longer, wider or of a different shape all together.

Eventually (after a year of tarp roof) we just switched to Colorbond - no mucking around. We did try and stall until the renos were done, but the roof deteriorated beyond tarp help.

My advice - Colorbond.

Thanks for your ideas Namtrak.

I had a preinspection report done by the Archicentre when I first bought my house and the guy said the cement tiles were in good condition with only a bit of moisture underneath them when they were lifted which was normal. He suggested having the roof painted if I wanted to improve the appearance.

I love the look of Colorbond but probably can't justify the $10,000 or so that it would cost me to do the roof and gutters. The roof painting guys told me my tiles were in good condition also and that I would only be replacing the roof with Colorbond for looks only and so why do it. Not sure if they make more money from painting roofs than replacing with Colorbond. Maybe... One of them also said that it is easier to extend if the roof is tiles compared to Colorbond which is cut to size and would have to be replaced. Would you agree with this?

Anyway only about 5 tiles will need to be replaced in the restoration. Sounds like your tiles had deteriorated a lot more than mine but my tiles are about 50 years old too so not sure why.

Thanks

Kerry

I couldn't really say about the ease of extending with a colorbond roof as opposed to a tile roof. I suspect they are probably right. We will need to cut iron off the roof, which we will lose and not be able to reuse - about 60 sqm of iron - this wouldnt be the case with a tile roof (assuming your careful) And yes, you would be looking at around $10,000.

To check the quality of the tiles, lift one (if you can without drama) and check the thickness of the lip at the top - the bit that sits on the tile above. That is where we had our probs.

Cheers

I've been restoring roofs in qld for 18 years and the worst product i ever used was regent ultra, wouldnt go near the garbage, also nutech and a few other small mobs, the sun up here is pretty harsh too. Regent coating was washing away in 18 months, they gave me every excuse under the sun, blamed me for everything, i'd never had that sort of drama in all these years, then they changed the formula,now i only use dulux 962 roof membrane, dont like supporting big companies, but,thats wot happens wen u get burnt.
If anyone needs a restoration in melbourne i've some family down there been doing that have been doing it for years, let me know, Wayne.





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Hi Nutta, I sent you a PM.

When I cancelled with the roof company that wanted to use Regent Ultra I had the owner call me and I told him of your experience with it and that you use Dulux. He said that I was told the wrong thing from the guy that works for him and that they will in fact use Nu roof resins which are made by another small roof paint company in Thomastown, VIC.

Have you heard of this paint?

I have also contacted Dulux and they are putting me onto an applicator of Dulux 962 but I have a feeling they might charge a lot more than the quotes I received so far.

Thanks

Kerry

George

Look into all the costs and compare it to having a new colourbond roof put on.. I bet you will be really surprised. I love the sound of rain on the tin roof, nothing more soothing. But I like that sort of thing.

Pete

K

Did you get the roof you wanted? What did you end up going for?

I have a large terracotta roof and have just been quoted 11,000 for a repoint, rebed (if needed), clean, seal. A lot of money. The roof is 25sq (so quite large) but still alot of money.

The roof has lichen on most of it and looks a little unsightly. I dont really want it cleaned or resealed or painted. I just want it repointed and I dont want to pay 10k plus for it.

Anyone have some suggestions on what the job actually entails and what I should estimate as a cost. Also anyone have some recommendations of a company in Melbourne. Please?

Hello to all I am a roof paint manufacturer at Regent Paints, I am NOT A SALES man I am the foreman of 3 guys. I personally have been making the paint for about 6 years now and I am a little biast towards my paint but I can tell you that we take great care in making it. I like to ensure that the product goes out the door the same way every time, now thats very hard work but I try my hardest, the paint itself is very very good and if APLIED CORRECTLY it will do what we say its supposed to, there are not many instructions on the drum even my children could understand it. If anyone wants to talk to me about the paint please post a Question and I will be very happy to answer it Thanks

Hi all, new to this forum so though I'd make my first!

We used Creative Roofing in Doncaster for our place, 1960's weatherboard with cement tiles (Standard M profile tiles) paid near enough $4k for the complete job including flashing, valley irons, soakers and of course re-bed, flexi point and top of the range paint.

Not the cheapest mob who quoted of course, but good service and happy with the results.

We priced colourbond and new tiles (both cement and terracotta) but based on the value of the house and the fact we're not planning on staying for years, it was the most cost effective solution for us.

Cheers!

Had a plumber look at our cement roof tiles - paint flaking off and some 'erosion' - and his recommendation was to replace the lot with terracotta; that repainting would only ever be temporary.

He did say that if I wanted to keep going for as long as possible as is, to clean out the little 'gutters' on the overlapped long edge of the tiles for the last 3 or so rows next to the spouting. They tend to clog up with sand. I've done this and it helped.

Unbiassed advice I figured since he's not a roofing specialist and didn't want the job.

I have been interested by some of the figures mentioned because when I designed the house that I am building I specified a curved roof on a 40 metre radius. The outilne of the roof is basically an "L" shape, 9.5 metres wide on the vertical part of the "L" and 11.6 on the horizontal leg. All up 140 sq.m. of roofing. It was dead easy to install with no ridges, valleys or flashings to worry about, just straight sections of iron layed over the roofing battens. It also only requires on gutter running along the low side. Probably not everybody's cup of tea as far as looks go but it certainly does the job and it would seem to be a fairly cheap design - all up, with sisalation as well, it cost $7000 to have installed and I reckon the plumber knew he had me over a barrel when he charged me $3000 for the install. It only took 2 days for two of them to install it, which is pretty good money, although I think that figure included crane hire to get the iron up on the roof.

Hi Paul,
Literally half an hour ago I phoned one of those big companies to organise a quote then decided to search the web and found this bulletin board. Is there someone local you would recommend or in deed yourself.
Thank you in advance for your advice.

Like Tabby, I too are looking for a good roof restorer in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne just for some rebedding / repointing. Can anyone on these boards suggest anyone?

Do a search on the forum as there have been many threads on this subject all with plenty of info.

Two reasons for roof restoration on concrete tiles:

1. Aesthetic - so that the colour and appearance is redone to a 'new' look.

2. Structural - to remove, replace and repair broken tiles and ridge capping and failing pointing.

Either can be done, but if you want 1. you need to make sure that 2. gets done properly before anything proceeds with 1.

You can get a good tiler to remove any cracked or broken tiles, remove and re-bed any loose or cracked ridge-capping and re-point all ridges, gable ends etc using a good quality flexible acrylic pointing compound.

If you are happy with the look of the roof as it is then you need do no more - unpainted concrete tiles rarely leak (unless they are cracked). They can become soft and crumbly with age, but in most cases this would after 60 years and mostly much longer. The pitch of the roof is what stops water ingress so long as there is no structural issue with the covering (in this case tiles).

If you do want that new colour and appearance then the restoration process will then include a coating system (and it is not necessarily to have the repairs done by the same people who do the roof coating).

Word of mouth is a reasonable test and these forums are good for that too - some people have many troubles with roof restorations - others still have good results after 10 years or so. My experience is that most coatings start to fail within 5-7 years (as do most external paints).

As others have said and is so for all painting preparation is critical - what the paint has to stick to is at least as important as the paint formulation and application.

Whatever is put on your roof will likely last around 10-12 years with existing technologies so ignore guarantees that suggest that life or longer. For one thing few companies will be around in 5 years let alone 10 (and those that have been around longer are probably worth getting quotes from). Even if the company is around most warranties will have a 'pro rata' clause meaning that the value of any warranty is depreciating (as your roof finish wears of course).

Look at the consumer affairs or fair trading sites for any business you are thinking of signing up with - not a certainty, but the worst rogues will usually have many complaints on record.

That is all fine and most of it very good advice thanks.... but if anyone has experience with a good repairer in Melbourne (eastern suburbs) that would be very helpful.....