COMMON METAL ROOF REPAIRS SYDNEY
Part of owning any property is maintaining the roofing.
The point of your roof is to protect the inside of your home from the elements outside. When there is a deficiency in this armour, there are untold amounts of damage that can happen.
Every year thousands of roof repairs are needed because of damage from turbulent weather; and with climate changing, the chance for more and more extreme weather events means roofs everywhere are going to be undergoing a ton of stress.
As a property owner, you want to know what to prepare for so you can properly budget your property costs in the future.
In this article, we’ll discuss 4 of the most common roof repairs in Sydney and at the end, we’ll give you the number one tip to saving you money on all your roof repairs.
Roof Leaks
Roof leaks are the number one most common roof repair in Sydney. No matter how small or insignificant the leak may seem to the eye, a leaking roof is a very serious problem. What you see may not be any indication of what’s actually happening behind your walls or in the lining of your roof.
Water getting into places it’s not designed to be can lead to multiple disasters. Rot to foundational components of your home and lead to critical structural failure causing loss of life or overwhelming financial stress.
Water can also travel along pathways and come into contact with electrical components within your walls leading to fires or shock hazards, or simply create moist pockets for mould to grow leading to health hazards for you and your family.
Metal roof leak repairs should be handled by professional metal roofing contractors. Metal roof specialists will help you address what you may believe to be the cause of your roof leaking. More importantly, they’ll provide an entire roof safety inspection to check for any unidentified roofing problems that you have probably missed.
After your roof has been repaired, your roofing professionals should help educate you on safety measures to make sure you can protect your roof from future roof leaking problems.
Unsecured Roofing
If metal roofing materials are installed improperly, open seams in the sheets make spaces for the wind to catch. This can lead to parts of your metal roof ripping off during high gusts.
These openings can also occur if flashing isn’t properly secured. Flashing is a thin metal material that’s installed onto the exposed areas like vents, edges, valleys, and seams of your roof. It works to create a watertight seal between your metal roof sheets and other roofing components.
Your roofing may also become loose even after proper installation. In Australian summers, it’s not uncommon for the heat to expand and contract metal roofing materials. This movement can cause the materials to loosen leaving openings for high gust winds.
If there are any gaps, missing materials, or loose objects on metal roofs, a simple roof repair will prevent the problem from developing into anything significant. Metal roofing is made to be extremely durable, so fixing any unfastened or loose parts is usually a very affordable cost.
Coating Corrosion
Metal roofing is one of the most durable roofing materials and is well known for its ability to resist corrosion and weathering. Materials like galvanised steels and zinc alloys are specifically engineered to combat the harsh climates of Australia.
However, it is possible for this coating to become damaged from friction, harsh weather events, and age. Once the coating starts to wear off, your roof becomes directly exposed to the weather, insects, pest, rust, and mould.
Luckily, with a metal roof, reapplying these protective coats is a simple repair. Coating roof repair will involve hiring professional metal roofing contractors to inspect your roof then make the necessary repair.
Roof Punctures
Roof punctures are a very uncommon occurrence relative to other roof problems. These breaks tend to only happen in areas with a lot of foot traffic or falling debris.
Perhaps you’re having a roof vent installed and a contractor accidentally punctures your roof, or maybe a piece of debris falls from a higher level roof from the same or different property.
Punctures and tears need to be dealt with right away. If not, they can cascade into the previous three roof problems–holes leading to leaks, spaces vulnerable to wind gusts, and stripped coating leading to raw roof exposure.
Roof punctures require professional service. Your metal roof is meant to act as one unified system against the exterior elements and having dents, cracks, or breaks lowers the efficacy of this job.
A professional roofing contractor will, depending on the size of the problem, simply need to apply some patchwork with caulking, replace a few tiles (if you have a tiled metal roof), replace a few metal roof sheets, or in the worst-case scenario an entire metal roof replacement.
The Number One Way to Save You Money on Roof Repairs
The number one way to save you future costs in metal roof repair is not actually a repair. Instead of waiting to fix a problem after it’s shown up, preventative maintenance is the number one way to avoid having to repair in the first place–or at least increase the time between repairs.
Properly maintaining your metal roof will help you avoid serious problems that can escalate into future repairs or replacements. There are two strategies to prolong your roof problems:
Regularly Clean Your Roof
Houses and buildings are regularly exposed to harsh exterior elements like pollution, road dust, wind, rain, saltwater, storms, and fires. The moisture produced by these elements can lead to mould, mildew, moss, algae, and rust.
The best way to avoid these elements damaging your roof is to have your roof regularly cleaned. For minor roof cleaning of light debris–leaves, small branches–if safe to do so and you feel confident enough, you can ascend and clean your roof yourself.
Any larger jobs should be done by professional roof cleaners. Professional roof cleaners have three primary ways of cleaning your metal roof:
- Chemical or “Soft Washing”
- Pressure Washing
- Solvents
Soft washing is done with cleaning agents–typically chlorine and sodium solutions.
The full method involves:
- Clearing and brushing any debris off of your roof to prepare for the chemical solution
- Mixing the cleaning agent with water in a soft wash pump
- Spraying the chemical solution evenly across your roof–no need to oversoak
- Either rinsing the solution off with a soft wash water pump or letting the rain wash it off
Pressure washing is done with heavily diluted chemical solutions.
The full method involves:
- Clearing and brushing any debris off of your roof to prepare for the power wash
- Mixing the cleaning agent–very diluted, not as strong as chemical washing–in a pressure washer
- Spraying down the roof
Solvents are extremely strong, very toxic chemicals.
They’re used to remove stubborn non-water elements that may be impacting your roof. Stubborn marks like tar, graffiti, paint, and grease oil. Essentially, solvents are used for specific, problem areas. Not the entire roof. Because solvents are meant for targeted areas, they are extremely toxic. Please use extreme caution when handling these chemicals.
Invest in Regular Roof Inspections
Small investments in the present will save you larger costs in the future. Hiring professional metal roofing contractors to properly inspect your metal roof a few times a year will allow you to catch problems before they get out of control.
Metal roof specialists will be able to advise you on preventative measures and metal roofing solutions you can take to protect your roof from:
- Heavy rain periods
- Saltwater build-up
- Nearby insect or pest troubles
- Potential for impact damage
Ultimately, noticing warning signs before they become problems is the best way to ensure the health of your roof and property. If you have any questions or need further guidance, we are the best providers of roofing and gutter cleaning services throughout New South Wales.
Please don’t hesitate to call our trusted team of roof and gutter experts. We’re here to help.