Roof restoration is sold hard in Sydney, usually door to door, usually to people whose roof needs a clean. The two jobs differ by an order of magnitude in price, and the difference between them is not always obvious from the ground.
We do the cleaning half and not the restoration half, which is the context for everything below.
What a restoration includes
A full tile roof restoration is, properly done:
- High-pressure or soft wash to strip the surface back
- Replacement of broken and cracked tiles
- Re-bedding of ridge capping — the mortar bed the caps sit on, replaced
- Re-pointing with a flexible pointing compound over the bedding
- A sealer or primer coat
- Two coats of roof membrane, usually sprayed
On a Colorbond roof the equivalent is a wash, repair or replacement of corroded sheets and fasteners, and a repaint — there is no bedding or pointing involved.
What it costs in Sydney
Broad ranges, because roof area, pitch, access and the state of the ridge lines move the number a long way.
Full tile roof restoration: commonly $4,500 to $12,000 for a typical detached Sydney house, with larger or steeper roofs going well beyond that. A single-storey roof with easy access and sound ridge capping sits at the bottom of that band; a two-storey roof on a steep block with every ridge needing re-bedding sits at the top.
Re-bedding and re-pointing only, without the coating: often $2,000 to $5,000. This is frequently the work that actually needs doing, and it can be bought on its own.
Metal roof repaint: roughly $4,000 to $10,000 depending on area, condition and access.
A roof clean: a fraction of any of the above. Our piece on what roof cleaning costs in Sydney has the detail and the factors that move it.
Treat any quote materially below these ranges with suspicion. The commonest way to hit a low number is to skip the bedding and pointing and spray membrane straight over the existing ridge mortar, which looks finished and fails within a few years.
Which one does your roof need
The honest test is about the condition of the tiles and the ridge lines, not how dirty the roof looks.
A clean is enough when: the tiles are sound and unbroken, the ridge capping is intact with no loose or missing mortar, there are no leaks, and the problem is lichen, moss, algae or general grime. This describes most roofs we are called to.
Re-bedding and pointing is what you need when: the ridge capping is cracked, loose or shedding mortar, or there is mortar debris in the gutters, but the tiles themselves are fine. Buy that work on its own. You do not need the coating.
A full restoration makes sense when: there are multiple broken tiles, the ridge lines are failing, the tile surface has genuinely eroded, and you want another twenty years out of a roof you are not ready to replace.
Replacement is the better buy when: the roof is comprehensively deteriorated, there is widespread cracking, or the structure underneath has problems. Restoring a roof that should be replaced is money lost.
We go through this comparison in more detail in roof cleaning vs roof restoration.
Things that should make you pause
Door-to-door. An unsolicited knock offering a free roof inspection is the single most common way Sydney homeowners end up buying a restoration they did not need.
A quote written from the ground. Nobody can assess ridge bedding or tile condition from the driveway.
Photographs that are not of your roof. Ask for photos with something identifiable in frame.
A large deposit up front. Under NSW home building law the maximum deposit on residential building work over $20,000 is 5%, and 10% on work under that. Anyone asking for half the job in advance is outside it.
No licence number. Roof restoration over $5,000 requires a NSW contractor licence. It is checkable in a minute on the Service NSW licence register.
Pressure to decide today. There is no roof condition that becomes catastrophically worse between now and getting a second quote.
Our general guidance on what to check before anyone gets on your roof applies with particular force here.
The coating question
Roof membrane is sold on two claims: it extends the life of the tile, and it improves thermal performance.
The first is reasonable on a genuinely eroded concrete tile. It is close to meaningless on a sound tile with its factory finish intact, which is what most Sydney roofs have.
The second is real but modest, and is a function of colour more than coating. A lighter roof is cooler. You do not need a restoration to get that.
The thing nobody mentions at the quote stage: coating a tile roof is a commitment. Once membrane is on, it has to be maintained and eventually recoated, typically every ten to fifteen years. An uncoated concrete tile roof needs washing occasionally and nothing else.
If the roof feeds a rainwater tank, a coating also changes the catchment surface, and that needs thinking about — see roof cleaning on tank-fed properties.
What we would suggest
Get the roof inspected and photographed properly. Find out whether the tiles and ridge lines are sound.
If they are, have it cleaned — see roof cleaning — and reassess in a few years. If the ridges are failing, buy the bedding and pointing as its own job. Keep restoration for the roof that genuinely needs it.
We will tell you which of those three your roof is in, including when the answer means we do not get the work.
