Roof Carpentry in Mount Hawthorn

Roof Carpentry in Mount Hawthorn: the short version

Fascia, battens and rafter ends fail from water rather than from age and the water usually comes from a gutter that has been overflowing for years. More on our carpentry page.

What that means for roof carpentry in Mount Hawthorn

Original hardwood in period roofs is frequently in better condition than anything added since, which is an argument for repairing around it rather than replacing wholesale.

Roof framing from this era was built to the standards of the day and is generally sound, but battens are thin by modern expectation and sixty years of intermittent damp takes its toll.

In this environment we check connectors and fixings across the structure rather than only at the point of obvious damage.

Local conditions in Mount Hawthorn

Subdivided as a single estate in 1903, so Mount Hawthorn's original housing is remarkably consistent in vintage and lot size, early-1900s cottages and bungalows on modest, regular blocks. That consistency means the same era problems recur: solid brick with no damp-proof course, timber floors on stumps, original roof plumbing and services long superseded.

One of the state's largest primary schools sits in a suburb of small original cottages, which tells you exactly what has happened to the housing. Families needing more space on constrained blocks extend REARWARDS and UPWARDS, so expect second storeys added over walls never designed to carry them, rear additions over original subfloor vents and roof structures altered to gain space. Check how the load of any upper addition is actually carried.

Successive waves of addition since the 1950s mean asbestos sheeting is common in intermediate-era work, assess before renovation or demolition.

We cover the whole of the City of Vincent. Short drives keep roof carpentry affordable on smaller jobs and most of ours are smaller jobs.

Materials and specification

Fascia comes in timber or pre-finished metal. Timber suits heritage properties where appearance governs and performs well when kept painted and kept dry. Metal does not rot but corrodes at cut edges and near the coast that matters, so BlueScope guidance on marine environments is worth following.

A little about Mount Hawthorn

The land was Subdivided IN 1903, when Hicks named his portion Hawthorn Estate after the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn where he had recently stayed Anzac Cottage (1916), a war memorial cottage in the suburb; a small plaque on the flagpole honours 19-year-old Leslie Wilkinson, killed at Gallipoli on 28 June 1915; notable former resident Thomas Axford VC (1918) Has become a desirable inner-city suburb attracting Young Families with its parks, cafes, bars and restaurants None of that decides what your roof needs. It does tell us what to expect before we get the ladder out in Mount Hawthorn.

What the work involves

• Rebuild only where it is warranted. Widespread failure, insect damage through the framing or a structure that was under-built to begin with. That is a bigger conversation and occasionally an engineering one
• Inspect from inside, not from the ladder. Rafters, battens, purlins, nail plates and the timber around every penetration. Physical testing rather than visual assessment, because degraded timber frequently looks perfectly normal
• Find the water before replacing the wood. Timber does not fail on its own. Something has been wetting it and replacing the member without stopping the water means doing it again in a few years

Three questions worth asking first

Three questions separate a genuine assessment from a sales visit and they apply to us as much as to anyone else. Which specific component has failed, rather than a general statement about age. Whether somebody entered the roof space, because batten condition cannot be judged from outside. And whether photographs exist. Clear answers to all three usually mean somebody looked properly.

Getting a quote in Mount Hawthorn

Book an inspection on 0421 768 842. No charge, no pressure and a written quote you can put beside anybody else's. If roof carpentry is not what your Mount Hawthorn roof needs, we will say so and explain what does.