Find a trusted roofer in Melbourne

Slate, terracotta and box gutters

Inner Melbourne’s Victorian terraces and villas, from Carlton and Fitzroy to Richmond and Williamstown, often still carry their original slate. Good slate can outlast the people who laid it, but the nails holding each piece corrode, slates slip, and old lead flashings around chimneys crack. A roofer who knows slate will replace individual pieces rather than talk you into a whole new roof.

Terraces also hide box gutters, the flat metal channels that run behind the front parapet or between two roofs. When leaves or a bird’s nest block one, the water has nowhere to go but through the ceiling. Clearing them, and relining one that has rusted through, is a regular Melbourne roofing job.

Further out, Edwardian and interwar homes in suburbs like Northcote, Camberwell and Essendon mostly wear terracotta tiles, and it’s the ridge pointing that cracks long before the tiles do. Brick veneers built across the middle and outer suburbs from the 1960s often have concrete tiles that lose their coating and go porous, which is when a restoration pays off.

Cold fronts, bay air and bushfire areas

Melbourne roofs take most of their punishment from cold fronts: gusty northerlies ahead of them, then rain driven in from the west and south-west. That’s when loose ridge capping, lifted flashings and blocked valleys turn into brown stains on the ceiling. Spring and summer storms add the occasional burst of hail.

Near the water, from Williamstown round to Brighton, Sandringham and Frankston, salt air off Port Phillip Bay eats steel flashings, screws and gutters faster than it does inland. If you’re re-roofing near the bay, ask which steel and fixings the manufacturer rates for your distance from the water.

On the bushland fringe, around Eltham, Warrandyte and the Dandenong foothills, much of the land is a designated bushfire prone area. Roof work there that needs a building permit has to meet the construction standard for the site’s bushfire attack level (BAL). That can change what goes under the sheets and how every gap is closed off against embers, so raise it before you sign.

Victorian licences and permits for roof work

Metal roofing, flashings, gutters and downpipes count as plumbing in Victoria, so whoever does them needs a Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) licence in roofing (stormwater), whatever the job costs. Search them on BPC Find a plumber, and for plumbing work worth $750 or more, expect a compliance certificate when it’s finished. Tiled roof work over $10,000 needs a BPC-registered builder instead. Our Victorian licence checks page covers both lookups.

Changing the roof type, say from tiles to Colorbond, generally needs a building permit, while new sheeting on the existing battens usually doesn’t. In a Heritage Overlay, check with your council before changing a slate or terracotta roof you can see from the street.

Roofing prices around Melbourne

Melbourne sits close to Sydney on price, and most roofers here quote per job. Typical figures are $250 to $1,000 for a leak, $1,500 to $4,000 to re-bed and re-point every ridge on a tiled roof, and $3,000 to $8,000 for a restoration. Re-roofing a single-storey house in metal usually lands between $8,000 and $20,000, and new Colorbond gutters and downpipes around $2,000 to $5,000. Slate costs more again. The roofing cost guide lists more jobs; read every range as a guide, not a quote.

One Melbourne roofer, checked first

needatradie won’t hand your number to a pile of roofing companies. Describe what’s leaking or worn and the suburb it’s in, and our match is one local roofer, with their licence, insurance, ABN and reviews checked before you hear from them. Read about what roofers do, browse other trades across Melbourne, or get a free quote when you’re ready.