Mount Druitt: Roofs Reaching the Same Age at Once

A planned centre, and the streets around it

Mount Druitt is named after Major George Druitt, who was granted two thousand acres by Governor Macquarie. The suburb as most people know it dates from the planning of a new housing area in 1966, with Mount Druitt itself intended as the centre for shopping and services for the estates going up around it.

That history is written on the rooftops. When thousands of homes are built within a few years of each other, their roofs are specified the same way, laid the same way and weather the same way. Fifty-odd years on, they do not fail one at a time — they fail by the street.

What we find on a 1960s or 70s tile roof

Most of these homes carry their original concrete tile. By now:

• The tile surface has lost its cement-rich skin, so the tiles are porous and stay dark for days after rain
• Some tiles are brittle enough to crack when someone walks the roof
• Ridge bedding has broken down and the pointing is gone
• Valley irons are rusted, often patched at some point and never properly replaced
• There is no sarking under the tiles, so anything that gets past them lands on the ceiling
• Roof space insulation has been wet at some point and has flattened out

Repair, restore or re-roof

This is the suburb where the answer is most often replacement, and we would rather say that plainly than sell a coating over tiles that are finished. A restoration on a porous, brittle roof looks excellent for two years and then costs you twice.

Where the tiles are still sound — and plenty are — restoration is the right call and much cheaper than re-roofing. A free inspection with photographs is how you find out which one you have, before you commit a dollar.

Nearby: Whalan, Hebersham and Rooty Hill. See all the suburbs we cover.

Call (02) 4705 5200 or book the inspection.