Erskineville roofing for tight cottage rows and laneways

The tightest blocks on our list

Erskineville is built on some of the narrowest residential blocks in Sydney. Around Erskineville Road, the oval, the town hall and the streets running towards Macdonaldtown and the Ashmore area, the stock is single-fronted workers cottages and small semis in long unbroken rows, with laneways behind and frontages that meet the footpath with no setback at all.

The newer Ashmore apartment buildings sit alongside that older fabric, which gives the suburb two completely different roof types within a few hundred metres.

Why the cottages leak

A single-fronted cottage has almost no roof width to work with. The covering runs between two party walls, and the water is collected in a narrow box gutter that falls to a sump at the rear and leaves through one downpipe.

Narrow means unforgiving. There is minimal capacity in reserve, the freeboard allowance is 30 mm, and a handful of wet leaf litter at the outlet is enough to put water over the back lip and into the ceiling. The front parapet is often rendered and capped with something that cracked years ago, so water also tracks down inside the brickwork and surfaces indoors metres from where it got in.

Rear skillion additions make it worse: a lean-to kitchen or bathroom at a pitch far below what tile can handle, often covered in tile anyway.

What gets done

• Clear, reline or rebuild narrow box gutters and sumps
• Fit an overflow device where none exists and the gutter is being rebuilt
• Reform the party-wall flashing with the neighbour
• Recap cracked parapets
• Re-cover low-pitch rear skillions in sheet metal, properly flashed into the main roof
• Replace slipped slate on the older rows

Gutter and box gutter work and metal roofing for the skillions are the two most common jobs.

Getting gear in

There is no side access and often no usable front access either. Material goes through the house or down the lane, scaffolding is required on anything two-storey, and a footpath occupation may be needed. On a shared gutter, the only safe working position is sometimes the neighbours roof. All of it is resolved before the quote.

Also nearby

Newtown, St Peters, Camperdown and Enmore. The whole area list is here.

Book a free inspection

Call (02) 8000 1103 or send your details.