01 Can we see the same roof before and after?
Anyone can show you a photograph of a finished roof. A before and after pair of the same roof, from the same angle, is much harder to fake and tells you what they actually started with.
Before you book
How to choose a roof restorer
Written by someone who wants the job, which you should factor in. These are still the right questions, and they work on us as well as on anyone else.
Rated Excellent5.0 from 3 Google reviews
Every roofer in the district will tell you they do good work. We aren't going to sit here and claim we're the best one, because you have no way to check that and we wouldn't believe it from a stranger either.
What we can do is tell you what separates a proper roof restoration from a cheap one, because we spend a fair bit of our time going back over roofs that somebody else coated two or three years ago. The failures are always the same, and they're always in the part of the job you can't see from the ground once it's finished.
Ask these eight questions of whoever you're considering. Ask them of us too.
02 What exactly is in the quote, line by line?
A single figure for a roof restoration hides where the corners get cut. Ask for it itemised: cleaning, repairs, how many tiles, how much ridge is being rebedded versus only repointed, how many coats, and what's excluded.
03 How much of the ridge is being rebedded, not just repointed?
This is the question that catches out a cheap quote. Repointing over failed bedding looks identical on the day and fails in a few years. Rebedding means the capping comes off and goes back on fresh mortar. Ask which one you're paying for and on which aspects.
04 What product, and how many coats?
Ask for the brand and the system, not just a colour. A primer and two coats of a proper roof membrane is a different product to one thick coat of something generic, and it's the difference between a roof that holds up and one that chalks out in three summers.
05 Are you cleaning it first, and how?
Coating over moss, lichen and chalk is the single most common way a roof restoration fails. The wash and the treatment aren't the exciting part of the job but they decide whether the coating bonds to anything.
06 Who is actually going to be on our roof?
Ask whether the person quoting is the person working, and if not, who. There's nothing wrong with a crew, but you should know whether the care you're being sold in the driveway is the care that turns up on the day.
07 Do you want a deposit, and why?
Deposits are normal in some trades and less so here. If a large one is asked for before anything happens, ask what it's for. Money paid up front for work not yet started is the part of a job you have least control over.
08 What happens if you find something once you're up there?
Roofs hide things. The answer you want is that you get told and asked before anything extra is done, not that it appears on the final invoice as a variation you never agreed to.
The cheapest quote is usually cheap for a reason
Price is the most common reason someone goes elsewhere, and we understand it. Nobody enjoys spending this money. But the way a roof restoration gets made cheap is by skipping the wash, repointing over bedding that should have been replaced, and putting one coat where there should be two. All three are invisible on handover day.
If a quote is thousands under the others, it's worth asking which of those three it's, rather than assuming somebody has simply decided to earn less.
Ask us these questions
Tell us what needs doing, where the roof is and how to reach you. Add a photo if you have one. This is an enquiry, with no obligation to go ahead.
Rather talk?
0400 973 695Got it. We'll ring or text you.
If the roof is leaking right now, don't wait for that: ring 0400 973 695.