Woolwich Roof Repairs Near Clarkes Point

The end of the peninsula

Woolwich sits at the tip of the peninsula, with harbour on three sides and Cockatoo Island a short ferry ride off the wharf. Woolwich Dock and the heritage-listed Woolwich Wharf are at the waterfront, Clarkes Point Reserve looks out over the harbour, and the Woolwich Baths pontoon is below. Kellys Bush, saved in the early 1970s by the first union green ban, is still bushland. The Woolwich Pier Hotel is among a long list of locally and state-listed properties — more than sixty in the suburb are on the State Heritage Register. The council is the Municipality of Hunters Hill.

Beautiful position, demanding roofing environment.

Harbour exposure, heritage fabric

Two forces shape every job here, and they pull in opposite directions.

The harbour. Salt-laden air attacks the metal parts of a roof far faster than the covering. Fasteners, flashings, valley trays, gutters and downpipes corrode first, and the sheltered areas that salt reaches but rain does not rinse corrode fastest of all. Everything replaced here should be coastal grade, with compatible fixings and no incompatible metals in contact.

The heritage fabric. With this many listed properties, like-for-like is usually the only acceptable approach — and it is also the approach that keeps the approval simple. Complying development is not available inside a conservation area in this municipality, but the council can issue a heritage exemption letter for genuinely minor work, with a slate roof replaced in slate using matching flashings and ridge capping as the published example.

Put together, the typical Woolwich job is careful, material-matched repair work: individual slates refixed with copper or stainless fixings, lead dressed properly at chimneys and abutments, corroded flashings replaced in the right metal, and guttering renewed in a grade that will survive the air.

Access is the third factor. Steep sites, narrow frontages and long drops at the rear mean the set-up is planned and priced, not improvised.

Have it assessed

The inspection and the written quote are free, and the quote states the material grade and the method. Call (02) 9100 0199.

Relevant services: roof repairs including slate and lead, roof inspections and reports for pre-purchase and insurance, and gutter repair and replacement in coastal grades.

Next door we also cover Hunters Hill, Huntleys Point and Boronia Park. See every suburb on the service areas page.