Roofers in Unley, Adelaide
Unley sits just south of the Parklands, with the Unley Road and King William Road shopping strips running through it and the Hyde Park and Malvern streetscapes on its edges. It is a historic conservation area almost throughout, and roof work is judged against the streetscape by the City of Unley.
What usually goes wrong on Unley roofs
- Hipped iron roofs with multiple ridge and hip junctions where old flashings and cappings leak
- Return verandah roofs with low pitch and rusted gutters overflowing back under the eaves
- Terracotta bungalow ridges losing cement pointing as the reactive clay shifts the frame
- Chimney flashings and internal box gutters on double-fronted villas leaking into hallway ceilings
- Old lead flashings at roof-to-wall junctions on extensions fatigued and cracked
Local notes from the roofers
Unley's return-verandah villas are the signature roof of the suburb and also its most common leak. The main roof is hipped corrugated iron with a shallower verandah roof wrapping two sides, and the junction where they meet has a flashing that has been baking and cooling for a century. Along the streets between Unley Road and King William Road you also find double-fronted villas with a central box gutter running the length of the house, a design that works until the outlet chokes and the whole gutter dumps into the hallway ceiling. The 1920s bungalows closer to Greenhill Road are terracotta tiled and generally sound, but the Keswick Clay under this part of Adelaide lifts and drops the footings enough each year to crack the cement pointing on ridges and hips. Re-sheeting is common here and the City of Unley expects the profile and colour of street-facing iron to match the original; modern Colorbond in a heritage colour is usually acceptable. Big street trees mean gutter cleaning is part of every job, and narrow side setbacks limit where ladders and scaffold can go.
Housing and roof types in Unley
One of the densest concentrations of 1880s to 1920s bluestone villas, return-verandah homes and bungalows in Adelaide, mostly under corrugated iron with terracotta tiles on the later bungalows, and a strip of 1960s and 70s walk-up flats along Unley Road and Greenhill Road.
