Roof cleaning across Sydney
Roof cleaning in Sydney. The thing that goes wrong is water in your ceiling, so we soft wash.
Read enough Australian reviews and one failure keeps coming back: the roof got clean and then the ceiling got wet. It happens when somebody puts high pressure on a tile roof with nothing underneath it. So tile is soft washed here, every roof is treated as unsarked until we can see otherwise, and any broken tile is photographed and written down rather than covered up.
Metal has a starting figure. Tile does not, and here is why
Roof, concrete or terracotta tile
Quoted after a look
including GST
quoted after inspection, soft wash only
Get a written priceA metal roof is a predictable surface. The area, the pitch and the access do most of the pricing, so a starting figure is honest and we publish one. Tile is not predictable. The published sources that price tile against metal disagree with each other badly, by anything from a small premium to several times the cost, and they disagree because roofs differ that much.
So we do not print a tile number. You send photographs or we come and look, and the figure comes back with the roof area, the material, the pitch and the growth written next to it. A price we invented for a roof we have never seen would only ever move one way on the day, and moving it on the day is what this trade gets complained about.
The method, written down, so you can hold us to it
Every line below exists because of something that has gone wrong for somebody else, in public, in a review or a forum thread about a Sydney roof.
The downpipes come out of the equation first
Before any water runs, the downpipes are blocked or disconnected and the wash water is directed to a holding point rather than into the stormwater system. That is the council guidance for roof cleaning in this state, and it is also what stops a gutter full of slurry emptying into the street.
Tile is soft washed. Always
Low pressure and the right chemistry, given time to work. A tile roof is a set of overlapping pieces held down by gravity, and a high pressure lance finds every gap between them.
Sarking is checked before the method is chosen
A roof with no sarking has nothing between the tiles and your ceiling. If we cannot confirm there is sarking, the roof is treated as though there is none, which means low pressure, controlled volume and no lance under the laps.
Colorbond is soft washed too
Metal roofs are cleaned in a way that keeps the coating intact, because the finish is the part doing the work. A cleaned roof with a stripped coating is a worse roof than the one you started with.
Lichen on terracotta gets dwell time, not force
Lichen roots into porous terracotta, which is why it needs treatment and time rather than pressure. Every source that separates tile from metal prices tile higher for this reason.
Broken tiles are photographed and written down
If a tile is already cracked, or if one breaks, it goes in the report with a photograph before anything is put back. It is not painted over, it is not glued, and it is not left for you to find in the next storm.
Fewer footsteps on your roof, because most tile damage is people
The safety hierarchy for work at height starts with working from the ground or from solid construction, and only then moves to platforms, edge protection and harness systems. So the first question on any roof is whether it can be reached and treated from a ladder, a platform or the ground rather than by walking it.
Fewer footsteps on a tile roof is also better for the roof. Cracked tiles and blown ridge pointing are usually caused by weight in the wrong place, not by water.
Insured, with the certificate of currency available on request, and a written scope before anything starts. Five things worth checking, on us or on anybody else.
Roof cleaning questions
How much does roof cleaning cost in Sydney?
A single storey metal or Colorbond roof starts from $899 including GST. Tile carries no published figure, because roof area, pitch, material and how far the lichen has gone all move it, and a number written before anybody has seen the roof is a guess with a dollar sign on it.
Will cleaning my roof make it leak?
Not the way we clean one. Water gets into a ceiling when high pressure is used on a tile roof with no sarking, so we soft wash tile, we treat a roof as unsarked unless we can confirm otherwise, and we do not put a lance under the laps.
Do you use high pressure on tile?
No. Not on terracotta, not on concrete tile, and not because the roof looks tough enough to take it. Soft wash is slower and it is the only method we will use on tile.
What happens if you break a tile?
You get a photograph of it and a line in the report, on the day, before anything is put back. A broken tile is reported, not covered up.
Can you clean an asbestos or cement sheet roof?
No. High pressure water spray on asbestos material is prohibited, and low pressure chemical washing of it is not a workaround. If a roof is corrugated cement sheet, or might be, we stop and tell you to have it assessed by an asbestos professional.
Do you paint or restore roofs afterwards?
No. We clean roofs and we hand you a report. If the report shows work worth doing, you take it to a roofer of your choosing with the photographs in your hand.
Send us the roof
Photographs from the ground and from an upstairs window are usually enough to price it. You get the roof area, the material and the growth written next to the figure.