Why Perth ridges give way
Cold fronts
Perth's winter weather arrives on cold fronts, and some carry real force. On 16 May 2005, a strong front spun up tornadoes that seriously damaged houses in Bicton, and the SES took more than 800 calls.
Old terracotta and Marseilles roofs
The City of Cockburn's guide lists terracotta roofs on Federation bungalows, and Marseilles tiles on Inter-War California Bungalows built between 1915 and 1940. On roofs that old, ask what the ridge was last repaired with.
Heritage streets
Fremantle is known for its Victorian and Edwardian streetscapes, especially in the West End. With 30 councils across Perth, each sets its own heritage rules, so check before work that changes how the ridge looks.
Winter all at once
With July, June and August bringing most of the year's rain, a ridge that cracked over summer gets tested hard in a few short weeks. Getting it done in autumn means it's ready for the first front.
How a roofer rebeds and repoints
They lift the ridge caps, chip off the old bedding, lay fresh mortar, set the caps back in a straight line, then finish with flexible pointing. Monier says pointing cracks and loosens with weather, and that repairs should use modern flexible compounds rather than rigid cement.
The National Construction Code requires ridge and hip caps to be fixed down with clips, screws, nails or flexible pointing to AS 2050, with how much fixing set by the site's wind class. If only a few caps are loose, a partial repair may be all you need.
From the ground, look for caps out of line, gaps underneath them, mortar crumbs in the gutters, or a ceiling stain along the line of the ridge or a hip. Monier lists cracked ridge bedding as a common cause of leaks.
Questions to ask about your ridge
- Is this a full rebed, or repointing over the old bedding?
- Will you replace cracked caps, and can you match my tiles?
- Which flexible pointing product will you use, and in what colour?
- How will the caps be fixed down for my wind conditions?
- Did you see cracked tiles or other problems elsewhere on the roof?
Ridge quotes that should worry you
- New pointing slapped over bedding that's loose or crumbling underneath
- A quote that says 'ridge work' with no metres or number of caps
- Pressure to restore the whole roof when only the ridge is failing
If it were our house
We'd get the ridge looked at in autumn and done before June. If the roofer can show that the bedding underneath is solid and only the pointing has cracked, a repoint might be enough. If the caps rock when pressed, we'd pay for the full rebed rather than a cheap cover-up.
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.
Send us your postcode and a photo from the ground if you have one. We pass ridge jobs to one licence-checked Perth roofer where there's one for your area, and tell you straight away if there isn't. The national rebedding and repointing page has more, and the Perth hub lists the city's other jobs.