I would like to issue a warning to people who are contemplating doing a roof renovation/repaint for cement roof tiles. A concrete roof tile is simply made of concrete and coated with a paint colour at manufacture. When they do a repaint they flush off the colour using an intense water jet and then they recoat with the colour of your choice. If the roof is otherwise sound this is purely cosmetic. I have had 2 recoats at a cost of $3-4 K each time and now needs another as the roof is reverting to “cement” colour due to weathering. I will have to do this for the rest of the roof life (or mine). It would have been cheaper to just have a new roof. The CSIRO fact sheet (google) states that the roof strength remains the same but you have an unsightly roof. If the roof needs repairing this can be done but you do not have to have a costly repaint. I wish I had known this before I started - they don’t tell you that they only last 7-10 years which is their maximum warranty.
Lyndy
Back in the days when the roof painting scammers were just starting out, they used tactics which fraudulently told householders that weathering of their concrete tiles made them leak. The industry, once it spotted the scam, published information giving the lie to it, but plenty of people had been conned in the meantime.
These days they sell it as a purely cosmetic process, which it is.
I have a colourbond roof that has some lichen here and there. My partner wanted to have it pressure washed so I rang 3 companies.
One did its best to sell a wash and repaint ($10K!); the second asked what colour it is and what colour I wanted for the repaint (that pesky repaint seems a standard line item for the trade), and when I said the same colour they advised to wait until we were going to sell; the third asked a few questions and advised not to waste our money.
Caveat emptor.
If just looking for a cleanup, Wet&Forget/Gone in 60 Seconds and similar products work a treat to clean up the roof. Only call in the restorers if you have a lot of broken tiles (or iron), and need repointing.
I did my concrete tile roof (25 yr old home) with a bad mould problem. In about 3 months wet and forget had completely removed it and 3 years later, the roof still looks like new! Great product!
