Find a trusted roofer in Adelaide

Iron villas, tiled brick homes and winter leaks

Adelaide roofs mostly fall into two camps. Villas and cottages in suburbs like Norwood, Unley and Prospect usually wear corrugated iron, and plenty of it is old enough to rust through at the laps, around the nail holes and along the gutters. The brick homes built from the 1960s onwards are more likely to have concrete or terracotta tiles, where the trouble is cracked ridge pointing, slipped tiles and coatings worn thin by the sun.

Because most of the city’s rain falls in winter, a roof can go months without being tested. Then the first cold front blows through and a brown stain appears on the ceiling. That makes late summer and autumn the smart time to get a roof checked, while it’s dry and before roofers’ diaries fill up with leak calls. Heat plays a part too: metal sheets expand and contract through hot summer days, which can loosen screws and lift nails over the years.

Hills ember protection, salt air and asbestos

In the Adelaide Hills, ask about embers as well as leaks. Gaps under tiles and at the ridge, open gutters packed with leaves and unsealed roof edges all give embers a way in. Metal gutter guards, sealing gaps and clearing gutters before the fire danger season are worthwhile jobs. New roofing that needs approval in a designated bushfire-prone area must be built to the bushfire attack level (BAL) assessed for the site, so raise it with your council early.

Down on the coast, from Semaphore and Henley Beach through to Glenelg and Brighton, salt air eats into steel faster. Ask which grade of sheeting and fixings the roofer will use and whether the manufacturer’s warranty still applies that close to the sea.

Older properties bring one more check. Some sheds, carports and lean-tos still have fibre cement roofing that may contain asbestos, and anything over 10 square metres has to come off with a SafeWork SA licensed removalist. A re-roof quote should spell out how that will be handled.

Checking a roofer’s CBS licence

In South Australia, roofing counts as building work at any job value, which means a roofer you engage must hold a CBS building work contractors licence. On the CBS Occupational Public Register, search by business name or licence number and read the conditions printed against the entry, since a licence can be limited to particular kinds of work. Minor roof plumbing under $3,000 by a licensed plumbing contractor is the one exception. Our SA licence checks page walks through the search.

Roofing prices around Adelaide

Adelaide roofers generally charge a little less than their Sydney and Melbourne counterparts. A leak repair usually costs somewhere between $250 and $1,000, while re-bedding and re-pointing every ridge on a tiled roof runs about $1,500 to $4,000. Restorations sit around $3,000 to $8,000. For a brand-new metal roof on a single-storey home, budget roughly $8,000 to $20,000, and more for tile-to-metal swaps, two-storey access or asbestos. The roofing price guide has the full list for sense-checking a quote.

Getting matched with one roofer

Whether it’s a drip in the hallway, a tired tiled roof or a full re-roof, describe it and give us your suburb. We’ll pass it to one Adelaide roofer after checking their CBS licence, insurance, ABN and reviews. We don’t pass your details to a list of roofing firms, and you won’t pay us a cent. Read more about roofers, find other Adelaide tradies, or get a free quote.