Petersham roof repairs: parapets, box gutters and old slate

Why water gets into a Petersham roof

Between the Audley Street shops, New Canterbury Road and the streets backing onto Petersham Park, the housing is mostly attached: Victorian terraces, Federation semis, and single-fronted cottages in continuous rows. Parramatta Road closes the suburb off to the north.

Attached means no eaves. There is no gutter hanging off the edge of your roof because there is no edge — there is a brick parapet, and behind it a box gutter running between your house and the next one, falling to a sump and out through a single downpipe.

When that one path blocks, the water rises in the channel and goes over the back lip, which faces the roof. Into the cavity, through the ceiling, out somewhere you were not expecting.

The usual fix

Most Petersham jobs come down to three things:

1. Clearing and rebuilding the drainage. The sump is where linings fail, because that is where water stands longest. Often there is no independent overflow at all, so we add one if the gutter is being rebuilt.
2. Reforming the party-wall flashing. The join with next door, patched by different trades over decades and held together with silicone that has gone hard and shrunk.
3. Slate work. There is still original slate on the older stock here. When iron nails corrode, slates slip one at a time. Individual slates can be cut and hooked back in; widespread nail failure means a re-slate conversation.

See box gutter and gutter work for the technical side, or roof repairs if you have a leak you cannot locate.

Access and permits

Zero setback to the footpath is normal here. On a two-storey terrace that usually means scaffolding and sometimes a footpath occupation, and reaching your box gutter may mean standing on the roof next door. Both get sorted out before the quote is written, not on the morning.

Around here

Also Stanmore, Lewisham, Marrickville and Leichhardt. The full list is here.

Free inspection

Call (02) 8000 1103 or send the details. No obligation, and a written quote either way.