Roofer in Medina

Roofing in Medina

We have worked on enough Medina roofs to know what we will find before the ladder goes up.

Medina was Kwinana's first suburb. Designed in the early 1950s by Margaret Feilman , Perth's first female town planner, as the first of four “neighbourhood units” built to house workers for the new Kwinana Industrial Area. For an inspection, its single most important feature is the signature Medina house , whose original State Housing construction was highly specific: jarrah weatherboard to window height, asbestos sheeting above, on jarrah frames, floors and stumps . That fabric inspects nothing like the brick-and-tile found across most of Perth. Two things follow directly. First, a proper subfloor inspection is essential, those jarrah stumps and timber floors need checking for levelling, ventilation, moisture, borer and termite. Nothing dramatic. Second, the asbestos sheeting is a defining part of the house , so careful asbestos assessment is central here, not incidental. These are the two things a Medina report must get right. The suburb keeps its heritage Feilman “neighbourhood unit” layout. Curved streets, mature street trees, some heritage-listed community buildings and sits close to the Kwinana Industrial Area , so air quality, emissions and heavy-vehicle traffic are genuine local factors. Being near the coast and industry, salt is only a minor consideration (delignification low-to-moderate). The Medina report is really about its distinctive jarrah-and-asbestos fabric: the subfloor and the asbestos above it.

Salt does the damage here long before age does. It gets drawn into anything porous and it sits in the laps and creases where water lingers, so fixings, valley irons and gutter seams give out while the tiles above them still look perfectly serviceable. Owners are often surprised by that order of failure.

Leaf litter is the recurring problem up here. Jarrah and marri drop constantly, gutters and valleys pack solid and backed-up water goes sideways under the tiles into a roof with nothing else wrong with it. That is the most common call we get from these streets.

Old roofs need a lighter hand than modern ones. Original terracotta is brittle, early profiles have not been manufactured for decades and a century of settlement means very little sits square. Matching salvage stock beats putting modern tiles across an old elevation.

How we approach a Medina job

Two seasons, two mechanisms. Long dry summers strip the surface off tiles and bake flexibility out of old cement. Winter fronts then push water uphill under laps and into any crack that opened during the heat. That is why a roof that behaved perfectly through February suddenly stains a ceiling in July.

We book coating work for the drier months and fit repairs around the weather. Emergencies get attended when they happen, not when it suits the calendar.

Workmanship is covered for ten years. Product warranties sit separately and come from the manufacturer, which is why accreditation matters. Keep both pieces of paper. They cover different failures and you may need either.

One more practical note. Our crew are employees rather than a rotating cast of subcontractors, so the person who quotes your roof is generally the person standing on it. Gear gets carried in, rubbish gets carried out and the garden survives. Small things, but they are the difference between a tidy job and a fortnight of picking mortar out of your lawn.

We cover the whole of the City of Kwinana. Around Medina that takes in Kwinana and Perth. Short drives keep roofing affordable on smaller jobs and most of ours are smaller jobs.

Sometimes the honest answer costs us the job. If the tiles are sound and only the ridge has failed, that is what we will quote, even when a bigger number was on the table.

Questions we get asked in Medina

How long will it take? A straightforward repair is often half a day. Roof Bedding & Pointing Perth and pointing a whole roof usually runs two days. A full restoration with cleaning, repairs and coating typically takes three to five working days, weather permitting.

Do you charge for the quote? No. Inspection, photographs and a written price cost nothing.

Is my roof insured for this? Depends entirely on cause. Insurers cover sudden events such as storms or impact. Gradual deterioration is excluded, whatever the salesman told you.

Can you deal with asbestos? Older roofs sometimes contain it. We identify it before disturbing anything and handle it lawfully rather than pretending it is not there.

Talk to us

Give us a call and we will come and look. No cost, no pressure, and a written quote you can compare against anyone else's.