Roofing in Liverpool and Fairfield

The leaks here are usually at a join, not in the middle of the roof

Across Liverpool, Cabramatta, Canley Vale and Bonnyrigg, the original houses were simple: a hip roof, concrete or terracotta tiles, one pitch. Then came the additions. A rear extension in the eighties. An enclosed patio. A carport tied into the side of the roof. A flat skillion over the laundry. A granny flat at the back with its own gutter running against the main house.

Every one of those creates a new junction. A change of pitch, a new valley, a flashing cut into a tile roof that was never designed to carry one. Water finds that join long before it finds a fault in the open field of tiles.

So when we inspect a roof in this part of Sydney, that is where we start. Not the middle of the roof. The edges, the steps, the joins and the bits that were added.

The second problem is age, and it arrived all at once

The estates built through the 1950s, 60s and 70s went up fast and together. Green Valley alone was built between 1961 and 1965. Fairfield grew through a large Housing Commission program in the 1950s. Casula, Lurnea and Moorebank filled in through the 1960s and 70s.

That means the roofs reached old age together too. Bedding mortar under the ridge caps has a working life. Pointing cracks, lifts and falls out. Once the caps are loose, wind gets under them and rain tracks straight into the roof space.

Signs it is time:

• Sand or grey grit in the gutters after rain
• Hairline cracks or missing chunks along the ridge lines
• Tiles that rock when walked on
• Moss and lichen holding water on the south side
• A ceiling stain that comes back every wet month

Call (02) 4601 3500 and we will look at it before it becomes a ceiling repair as well as a roof repair.

Heat and hail do the rest

This is one of the hotter parts of Sydney. Dark roofs and hard surfaces hold heat, and western suburbs run hotter than the coast through summer. That heat cycles the roof every day: metal sheets expand and contract and work their fixings loose, sealant goes brittle, and old mortar dries out and powders.

Storms bring the other half. South-west Sydney sits in the part of the basin that gets hail, and hail does two things to a tile roof. It breaks tiles outright, which you can see. It also chips and crazes the surface of older concrete tiles, which you cannot see from the ground, and that is where the next five years of slow leaks come from.

Houses, flats and factories

Not everything we are called to is a brick-and-tile house.

Around Fairfield and Cabramatta there are three-storey walk-up blocks with low-pitch roofs, long gutter runs and box gutters behind parapets. When one of those box gutters blocks up, the water does not spill into the garden. It comes through a top-floor ceiling.

Up at Wetherill Park, Smithfield, Prestons and Yennora the roofs are industrial: hectares of long-run steel, internal box gutters, brittle rooflights and tens of thousands of screws whose rubber washers have hardened in the sun. Those roofs almost never fail in the middle of a sheet. They fail at a gutter, a lap or a penetration.

We quote all three: houses, strata and shop-top buildings, and commercial sheet roofing. The inspection is the same idea each time. Get up there, photograph what is actually wrong, and write it down.

What we do

• Roof repairs for leaks, broken tiles, failed flashings and rusted valleys
• Roof restoration to clean, rebed, repoint and recoat a tile roof that still has life in it
• Roof replacement when the tiles themselves have gone
• Metal and Colorbond roofing for re-roofs, patios, carports and sheds
• Gutter repair and replacement including leaf guard and downpipes
• Storm and emergency repairs with make-safe first
• Roof inspections and reports for homeowners, buyers and insurance claims

How a job starts

You call or send the form. We book a time, get on the roof and photograph what we find. You get a written quote with the work itemised, so you can see what you are paying for and what we have left out.

Work is carried out by established, licensed and insured roofing contractors working to NSW Fair Trading requirements, and every completed job carries a written workmanship warranty. No pressure and no obligation on the quote.

Where we work

From Liverpool and Casula along the Georges River through Moorebank and Chipping Norton, across the Green Valley estate suburbs, and north into Fairfield, Cabramatta, Smithfield and Wetherill Park.

The full list is on the service areas page. If your suburb borders one of ours, ask anyway.

Call (02) 4601 3500 or request a free quote.