Find a trusted roofer in Canberra

Hail, frost and falling leaves

Canberra roofs get a bit of everything. Summer thunderstorms can carry hail, and the January 2020 hailstorm left plenty of homes across the city with cracked tiles, dented metal and smashed skylights. After a storm, photos of the damage taken by a roofer from up on the roof are far more useful to your insurer than a guess from the lawn.

Winter brings a quieter problem. On frosty nights, a metal roof with nothing underneath can collect condensation on the underside of the sheets, which then drips onto the ceiling. If you’re replacing tiles with Colorbond, ask the roofer to include sarking or a foil-faced insulation blanket under the new sheets.

Then there’s autumn. The older suburbs of the inner north and inner south are lined with deciduous street trees, and their leaves end up packed into gutters and valleys. A blocked valley is fine until the next downpour sends water back under the tiles and into the roof space, so a clean-out before winter is cheap insurance.

Much of the housing in Belconnen, Woden, Weston Creek and Tuggeranong dates from the 1960s to the 1980s, often brick veneer with concrete or terracotta tiles. After 40 years or more, cracked ridge pointing and tired flashings are the usual suspects when a ceiling stain appears.

Blocks near the bush

Plenty of Canberra’s edge suburbs back onto nature reserves, pine forest or grassland, and the ACT maps those areas as bushfire prone. If your block is in one and your re-roof needs building approval, the new roof has to be built to AS 3959 for your block’s bushfire attack level (BAL), which covers details like sealing gaps where embers could get in. Your building certifier can confirm what applies. Even where it isn’t required, keeping gutters clear before summer is worth doing.

Who needs a licence for roof work in the ACT

There’s no separate roofing licence in the ACT, so for repairs, look the business up on ABN Lookup and ask to see its public liability certificate. A full re-roof is different: it needs building approval and a licensed builder, who you can look up on the Access Canberra builders register. Anything involving solar panels needs a licensed electrician to disconnect and reconnect them. If your home was built before about 1990 and has fibro eaves or a fibro roof, assume it may contain asbestos, which only a WorkSafe ACT licensed removalist should touch. Every ACT register is linked from our ACT licence checks page.

Canberra roofing prices, roughly

Canberra roofers tend to quote toward the top of the national ranges, similar to Sydney. As a guide, fixing a leak usually runs about $250 to $1,000, cleaning and repairing gutters $200 to $600, and a full restoration $3,000 to $8,000. A new metal roof on a single-storey home is typically $8,000 to $20,000. More jobs are broken down in our roofing price guide. These are ranges, not quotes, so get a written price for your roof.

Your roofer, matched by needatradie

Your details won’t be passed around a handful of roofing companies, because needatradie isn’t a directory. Tell us about the leak, the storm damage or the restoration you’re planning, and we’ll match you with one Canberra roofer whose ABN, insurance and reviews we’ve already checked. Get a free quote, see how we find roofers across Australia, or browse other trades in Canberra.