In December of 2020 Oz-Roof received a phone call from a new potential client regarding ongoing leak issues with an original 1970s Terracotta Roof in Belair.
An Inspection was booked in for the following week and the team from Oz-Roof met with the homeowner to discuss her ongoing issues and concerns and what could be done to rectify them.
The original Glazed Terracotta roof at Belair on the day of our roof Inspection.
Upon our inspection we discovered that the original roof was clad with glazed Terracotta roof tiles. The house was constructed in the mid 1970s making this roof around 45 years old. As is quite common with Terracotta roof tiles of this age, they were in the early stages of fretting. Fretting is simply the process of the tile breaking down and starting to crumble away. The tiles effectively just start turning back into the very clay soil from which they were made. Once in this state the tiles become quite brittle and very prone to breakage even when walked upon carefully. All these symptoms were apparent at the Belair property and hence our advice to the homeowner was to undertake a full roof replacement or re-roofing with Colourbond roofing Iron.
Above: Close up Image of the original Terracotta roof surface at Belair. Note the small red coloured chipped areas that can be seen on the sides of the tile are fretting.
The roof replacement work started in late March and took just over 1 week to complete. Some scaffolding was required for this job as the property is double storey at the front. The scaffold made for a great, safe platform for the guys to throw the roof tiles off of the roof and into the skip bins below.
Scaffolding to the 2 storey section and skip bins below. In total around 12 Tonnes of Terracotta roof tiles were removed from this roof.
Once all the roof tiles had been removed the next job was to install metal battens for the new roof sheeting to mount to. The original tile battens were left in place with the new metal battens being installed around them at 900mm spacings. The original timber tile battens serve no purpose with the new roof other than a good substrate to hold the Insulation blanket in place directly under the new roof sheet.
Once the metal battens were installed the next step was to cut the Insulation blanket to length and put it in place over the tile battens. Following this the new roof sheeting was placed over the insulation blanket and fixed down through the insulation blanket into the metal roof battens below.
A good shot showing the metal roof battens (blue) and freshly installed new roof sheeting with the foil backed glasswool insulation blanket beneath.
The owner went with the 60mm foil backed Insulation blanket to line the new roof sheeting. We highly recommend this to all our potential clients. The addition of the Insulation blanket means that the new roof is much cooler in summer and warmer in winter. It also eliminates a lot of noise from the expansion and contraction of the roof sheets on a hot summer day and also the noise of the rain is heavily reduced when compared to a Colourbond roof with no lining.
Re-roofing / Roof replacement at the halfway point. The guys temporarily seal the ridge capping at the end of the day to ensure no rain enters the roof space overnight.
Considering Belair is a high bushfire risk zone we recommended that all flashings be scribed to the roof sheets and that top quality Ember rated gutter mesh be fitted to all gutters on the roof.
In summary the home owner was super happy with the result. The finished roof surface is nice and strong and not prone to denting. This is due to the new metal roof battens being fixed at 900mm centres and the fact that we exclusively use the deeper 21mm Corrugated roof sheeting from Revolution Roofing on all our roof replacement and re-roofing jobs in Adelaide. The product doesn’t cost much more but is fantastic for extra strength and looks much nicer too.
The chosen colour of Colourbond Monument really made the house look more modern. She was left with a leak free fully warranted new Colourbond roof. The new roof is quiet, bushfire resistant and maintenance free for years to come.
The below is a Drone shot of the Original Terracotta roof prior to the roof replacement.
The Below is a drone shot showing the roof after roof replacement has been completed. Finished colour is Colourbond Monument.
Roof Inspection and Replacement Advice
If you suspect your roof is in need of replacement, Roof sealing or roof painting then contact us today. We offer free quotations and can give you free advice and rough estimates of cost for your job over the phone.
