Roof Restoration & Repairs Moonee Ponds

Moonee Ponds is one of the north-west's established inner suburbs, full of Federation, Edwardian and interwar homes around Puckle Street. Most still wear their original terracotta tile, with decorative ridge capping and finials. Those tiles are tough and can last a century, but the mortar bedding and pointing that holds the ridge caps on wears out long before the tiles do.

These are handsome, well-kept homes, so they deserve a careful hand. I take a sympathetic approach on Moonee Ponds' period roofs, re-pointing and recoating in a way that keeps the character of the house while making it watertight again.

On the period terracotta roofs around Moonee Ponds, these are the issues that come up most:

• Perished lime-mortar pointing on Federation and Edwardian ridge caps

• Cracked or slipped Marseille-pattern terracotta tiles

• Decorative ridge capping and terracotta finials that have worked loose

• Rusted valley irons letting water into the roof space

• Moss and algae on shaded faces of leafy period streets

• Gutters clogged with leaf litter from established street trees

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