Is my roof ready for solar?

Hi all

I have an old property with terracotta tiles and have had a few minor roof issues in recent years. Should I get up there and do some checks before getting some solar quotes, get a professional inspection, or should I expect the solar provider to conduct these checks when giving a quote?

What do you guys think? Thanks

acreed2002

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@gordon is one of the better/best experts in this area and I am sure he can give you a very good answer to your query. I suggest that you may wish to private message him on this topic if you have very specific issues but I am also sure he will respond here with some good feedback.

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What are the minor issues? Broken tiles, pointing problems, leaks etc?

We have a terracotta riles roof with an installed solar system. The installers we used don’t do a roof inspection, they just install the mounts (and panels) best suited to your type of roof. Something they did say was they were not responsible for sourcing replacement tiles for any broken during installation, but would replace any tiles they broke if we had spares (which fortunately we did as they broke about 6 and luckily still have more spares under the house).

I always wondered why they thought they were not responsible for tile damage, but suspect that it may be because walking on the roof if the tiles are brittle may result in the breaking. They aren’t responsible for the condition of the tiles, but should still take necessary care to minimise any potential damage.

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Having recently installed solar only 1 of 3 quotes included a physical site inspection, although the other 2 offered to come if I wished. Interestingly I went with a company that did not do a site inspection but asked for a few photos of the breaker box, and they all check the roof aspect from sat images. Interestingly the company that came to the site (with a top reputation) seemed to be less authoritative than the others because he was a salesperson, the others were engineering salespersons with relevant qualifications.

I have a colourbond roof, but the standard T&C’s I read from multiple vendors stated a pre-installation requirement for a tile roof is to have spare tiles in case of breakage or it is at the customers risk if one gets damaged sans a spare. @phb is correct advising older tiles get brittle and can be relatively easily damaged and some tiles, especially older ones, can be surprisingly thin and not the most robust, and @grahroll’s reference to contact @gordon is good advice.

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Thanks guys. I recently had the flashing around the chimney done and the tradesperson mentioned as an aside I might want to look at renovating the roof in the next year or so (he didnt ask to quote for it!). A lot of the cement had weathered severely and there are a few cracked tiles. We did have a leak a year or so as well. I can get up there and have a look, but am not really sure what I’m looking for. I guess if its just a few cracked tiles I could replace them and get some spares before solar.

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Our terracotta tiles are more than 60 years old, and understandably brittle. BoM warnings of large hailstones fill us with dread. During our solar installation, the bloke up on the roof treated the tiles with all the respect I could hope for, and there were no breakages. There was one tile that he removed and didn’t correctly replace that led to a small leak, but that was easily rectified.

When we had gutter leaf guard installed it was a different matter. We later discovered three broken tiles, but fortunately had spares from when skylights had been installed.

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So I got 4 quotes and asked this of the preferred solar provider and the salesperson didn’t seem to think it was a problem. On install day, the install team considered the old mossy tiles too dangerous to install on and we have postponed until a roofer comes out to have a look.

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Before you finish your job consider Wet & Forget or similar roof treatment. My colourbond had a lot of lichen that probably blew on from neighbours tiles or came via birds; at 6 months it was 99% gone and has stayed that way at 2+ years and counting. Also did my driveway and it seems to have permanently (?) killed the mildew that has been prone to reappear.

Unfortunately it is a not an instant solution and takes months to fully work, and I cannot vouch for its effectiveness on moss, just lichen and mildew.

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Is my environment ready for “Wet and Forget”?

This might be a topic on it’s own. The active ingredient in Wet and Forget is “Benzalkonium chloride”, a powerful disinfectant.

The product Safety Data Sheet says:
Hazard Classifications
Acute Hazard to the Aquatic Environment - Category 2
Chronic Hazard to the Aquatic Environment - Category 3
Hazard Statements
H401 Toxic to aquatic life.
H412 Harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects.
Prevention Precautionary Statements
P102 Keep out of reach of children.
P103 Read label before use.
P273 Avoid release to the environment.

The last point is most relevant to it’s use in volume around and outside the home. Keep it away from the frog pond and gold fish.

Perhaps the active ingredient and mechanism of action ensures it is not a hazard or risk if used according to directions? No different to pool chlorine and household bleach or hand soap which it may be added to.

At $99 for 5 litres with 99gm/l of benzalkonium chloride in concentrate, it works out to be close to $199.99 per litre for the active ingredient.

In respect of regulation for general use in the environment it appears to escape APVMA regulation as it is listed as exempt being reserved for use as an antiseptic. Not something you generally run around pouring all over the lawn and garden. There’s a wide range of similar products in the market place. Generally they are also bad news for any invertebrates living in the lawn and frogs.

https://apvma.gov.au/node/172

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Possibly not a good idea if you are on tank water.

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From their web site:

* If I am on tank water, can I use Wet and Forget on my roof?

Sure can. But you must disconnect the water supply to your tank for 3-4 weeks or have at least 10mm of rain to remove the concentrate. Wet and Forget has been used in rural communities for over 25 years to treat biological growth on roofs.

I accept 3-4 weeks disconnection is not always practical, especially considering the application regimen wants a dry day.

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It might be worth noting that the “30 Seconds” brand has a similar product for roof cleaning. Mould, algae, moss, lichen spray and forget. $39 for 5 litres at Bunnings. Not really 30 seconds to do a full roof?

The Safety Data Sheet says the active ingredient is benzyl - C12 - 16 - alkyldimethyl , chlorides, <10% by weight.

The rest is pure New Zealand water plus a little colour/dye.

The 30 Seconds roof cleaning product appears to be a lot like Wet and Forget, only much cheaper! And 30 Seconds is also a NZ company exporting to Australia. Wow!

The two even market a similar range of spray and walk away household outdoor cleaning products.

http://www.30seconds.com.au/products/

https://www.wetandforget.co.nz/

Edit: I’ve kicked off a new topic suggesting Choice could look at Outdoor Cleaning products. There appears to be plenty of scope for marketing hyperbole, products that do and don’t work as expected, and value rorts?

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When I bought my Wet & Forget it was from a mate’s referral, and purchased at Costco, only a few dollars above the competitors. There are numerous companies offering similar products, but I only used the one and qualified the breadth of the market by adding

When you climb on a roof to spray, go through the trouble to cover plants and so forth, you really only want to do it once. I was also attracted to the W&F tag done with great humour about following the directions and it will work, or not following them and having another go.

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@phb added a worthwhile comment in another thread, relevant here.

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