Mitcham's roofs, street by street
The old village
Mitcham Village was set up to serve the South Australia Company's sheep station at Brown Hill Creek. Its reserve sits on the old village green, and the older houses nearby are where matching original materials matters most.
Postwar timber prefabs
In 1948 Housing Trust contractor Frank Marshall opened a prefabrication factory and began building 500 timber-framed, partly prefabricated houses at Mitcham. A timber-framed house of that age deserves a structural check before anyone adds weight to the roof.
More units than you'd think
At the 2021 Census, 19.9% of Mitcham's homes were flats or apartments and 17.2% semis or townhouses, with 61.7% separate houses. In a unit group, the roof is usually shared, so the owners decide together.
Embers from the hills
RAA says bushfire embers can be carried long distances into suburbs such as Mitcham. Clean gutters and sealed gaps at the ridge matter here even if you can't see bush from the front yard.
Colonel Light Gardens next door
The 1915 Mitcham military camp site became Colonel Light Gardens, a State Heritage Area since 2000. Its mid-1920s bungalows were built under the Thousand Homes Scheme, and development proposals there are referred to the Minister responsible for the Heritage Places Act 1993.
What Colonel Light Gardens' Heritage Standards say about roofs
Heritage South Australia's standards for Colonel Light Gardens are unusually specific. Where it's visible from the street, new roofing should be corrugated galvanised or Colorbond sheet in dark red, green, light grey or dark grey, with D profile gutters.
They don't support rectangular or square profile steel sheeting, a Zincalume finish, or roof tiles on a house that didn't originally have them. Chimneys are to stay when the roof cladding is updated, and additions should match the original pitch, eaves and cladding.
See re-roofing in Adelaide for what pushes that up or down.
If it were our roof in Mitcham
In Colonel Light Gardens, we'd read the Heritage Standards before choosing a colour, and only ask for quotes on profiles and colours they accept. In the older village streets, we'd repair to match rather than modernise. On a 1940s timber-framed house, we'd want a structural opinion before switching from sheet to tile or adding solar.
Want a roofer to take a look?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match it with a Find My Roofer certified roofer who specialises in that kind of work, and they call you to quote. Your number goes to them alone.