Roofing work on Fitzroy houses
Melbourne oldest suburb outside the city grid. Narrow frontages, party walls on both sides, and heritage controls over most of it. Access is half the job here, and we plan it before we quote rather than after.
The roofs we see in Fitzroy
Fitzroy was the earliest urban area settled outside the Melbourne grid, and it holds an unusually high number of early Victorian and Regency-period buildings. They are generally simply detailed, tightly packed, and built to the boundary on both sides. That shapes every roofing job here more than the covering does.
The roofs that turn up in Fitzroy
Three coverings we work on here, and the way each one usually fails.
Early Victorian cottages and terraces
Simply detailed, single and double storey, mostly built to the boundary. Roofs are corrugated iron or slate, often set behind a modest parapet, draining to a box gutter along a party wall shared with the house next door. Shared drainage means a neighbour problem can become yours.
Corrugated galvanised iron
The default original covering and, in most cases, the correct replacement. Heritage restoration work in the Yarra precincts routinely specifies corrugated galvanised iron rather than a modern profile, because the profile and finish are what the overlay is protecting.
Rear extensions and junctions
Almost every Fitzroy house has had something added at the back. A modern skillion or flat roof butting into original iron creates a junction that has to be flashed properly. Detailed for a warranty period rather than for the long term, it will leak, and it usually does.
Why Fitzroy roofs fail the way they do
The same roofing faults, shaped by the streets, the trees and the housing stock.
- Party walls, no side access Boundary to boundary on both sides. Equipment comes through the house or off the laneway, and that has to be worked out before a price is given.
- Shared box gutters A box gutter running along a party wall drains two roofs. Fixing your half properly sometimes means a conversation with the neighbour first.
- Overlay on visible planes What goes back on anything seen from the street is constrained. Matching the existing profile is usually the safest and the best-looking answer.
- Original fixings, not original failure On slate and iron the covering usually outlasts the nails and fasteners. A roof that looks finished is often just holding on with hardware that has gone.
Roof types we work on in Fitzroy
These are the coverings and details that turn up on this suburb's houses. The list is a guide to what we see, not a claim that every house has every item.
- Corrugated galvanised iron on Victorian cottages
- Slate on two-storey terraces
- Box gutters along party walls and behind parapets
- Original lead flashings and valley irons
- Skillion and flat roofs on rear additions
- Brick chimney stacks between attached houses
The roofing work we do here
The same services as the rest of Melbourne. What gets quoted depends on the roof in front of us.
Suburbs around Fitzroy
If your house is in one of these suburbs, tell us. We will confirm we cover you before booking anything.
Suburb not listed? Ask about your area and we will confirm before we book an inspection.
Questions about roofing in Fitzroy
If the answer you need is not here, call and ask. We would rather explain it than have you guess.
Need the roof in Fitzroy looked at?
Tell us the street and what you have noticed. We will confirm we cover you, inspect the roof, and send a written quote for the work it needs.