Roof Restoration & Repairs Bentleigh

Bentleigh is one of those established Glen Eira suburbs where a lot of the housing is interwar California bungalow and post-war brick, built from the 1920s through the 1950s. Most still wear their original terracotta or early concrete tile. Those tiles are tough, but the mortar bedding and pointing that holds the ridge caps on wears out long before the tiles do, and by now it usually has.

It is a sought-after family suburb, so the homes are worth looking after properly. I take a careful, sympathetic approach on Bentleigh's period roofs rather than a rip-and-replace one, keeping the character of the house while making it watertight again.

On the interwar and post-war tile roofs around Bentleigh, these are the issues that come up most:

• Perished lime-mortar pointing on 1920s to 1950s terracotta ridge caps

• Faded and chalky tiles that make a well-kept bungalow look tired

• Cracked or slipped terracotta tiles after storms

• Rusted valley irons letting water into the roof space

• Decorative ridge capping and finials that have worked loose over the decades

• Moss on the shaded southern faces of established, leafy streets

Most of these are fixable without touching the field tiles themselves, which is what makes a restoration such good value on a Bentleigh roof.