Roof restoration and repairs in Tusmore

Roofs on Tusmore homes

Tusmore has substantial family homes on generous, tree-lined blocks.

Tusmore is about 4 km east of the CBD, in the City of Burnside. Burnside is established and leafy, with homes ranging from 1920s villas and bungalows to post-war houses on generous blocks, plus large modern rebuilds in suburbs like Tusmore, Toorak Gardens and Leabrook. Roofs here range from terracotta and slate on older homes to concrete tiles and Colorbond. Big trees mean gutters and valleys fill with leaves, and the foothills suburbs such as Mount Osmond, Stonyfell and Skye add steep blocks to the mix.

Popular roofing jobs in Tusmore

• Restoring and repointing terracotta roofs on character homes
• Clearing leaf-filled valleys and gutters and fitting gutter guard
• Replacing tired concrete tile roofs with Colorbond
• Rebedding and repointing ridge capping before it lets water in

What Tusmore roofs have to cope with

The biggest enemy of roofs in Tusmore is the summer sun. Years of heat and UV fade concrete tiles, wear away their coating and crack the mortar under the ridge caps. Then a summer storm or a wet winter finds the gaps. Leaves and dust in the gutters and valleys make overflows more likely, so a clean-out and a quick roof check every few years is cheap insurance.

Before you book

If your home was built before about 1990 and has a grey fibre-cement roof, assume it may contain asbestos: more than 10 square metres must be removed by a licensed removalist. For everything else, the rules are simple. Make sure whoever you hire holds a South Australian building work contractor's licence and gives you a written contract for work of $12,000 or more. Council approval usually isn't needed in Tusmore for repairs, restorations or a like-for-like re-roof. Parts of the City of Burnside are within Historic Area or Character Area Overlays under the Planning and Design Code. Like-for-like repairs are rarely an issue, but changing the roof's material, colour or shape where it can be seen from the street may need development approval. If you have solar panels, the quote should include an electrician to take them off and refit them.