Painting your home not only adds a fresh new feeling when you walk in the door, but can lighten up a dull coloured older home. It is a cheap, effective way to add value to your home and hide some of the unsightly areas at the same time. This is the case for the inside of the home, as well as the exterior walls and facades, but should you paint the roof of your home?
My answer would be a clear, no and I will explain why.
Painting vs Pointing
Paint can be either oil or water based, and before I go any further let me remind you that although I have had much experience with paint, I am by far no expert. The following content is based off my observations from locating and fixing 1000’s of roof leaks, from the tiniest crack or pinhole, point and bedding failure on the ridge capping, rubber or silicone seals and broken or fretting tiles throughout the Perth, Western Australia region.
Our most popular inner city areas are between 100 – 50 years old with either concrete or clay roof tiles predominantly, with each tile profile having their unique pros and cons. Clay is a natural product and cement is a chemical man-made product. Both come in different colours, with concrete coming in the largest choice, but both have the colour baked into them, not coated. Paint on the other hand, is an additive requiring a chemical bond between substrate and product.
It is because paint is separate layer and requires a chemical bond to allow it to stick that I do not recommend painting the roof. Now if you have your heart set on a beautiful coloured roof, you may as well stop reading because you will most likely ignore my warning, but being the highly practical person that I am, I cannot.
Painting your roof can severely shorten the lifespan of some of the most critical components, and it is because paint is a coating that is neither flexible or waterproof. A painted roof in the middle of a Perth summer can be exposed to temperatures above 65 degrees and paint without a good primer added, will most certainly delaminate from the surface of tiles, not to mention lead, steel or silicone.
Ridge capping was a mixture of sand and cement with an oxide powder mixed in that was used as early as 30 years ago, but being cement, it was very hard. Hard surfaces exposed to fluctuations in temperature tend to crack ,and so an alternative was introduced into the building industry. Flexible pointing compound.
Flexi-point or point mix, is a silicone based sealant that is troweled on straight out of a ready mix bucket. It comes in a large variety of colours and creates a mechanical fastening between the ridge and roof tiles. The ridge caps are seated on a small bed of cement underneath and when the cement has cured (generally 24 hrs), the point mix is troweled on either side and over each overlapping colour at a roughly 3 -5mm thickness. This creates a semi-permeable surface that allows the ridge capping to ‘breathe’, allow small movement without cracking and moisture to escape (small amount). This means that water that may get trapped behind the ridge bedding, has a chance to evaporate and dry out.
Paint does not breathe, and does not allow moisture to escape. If you have ever had a leaking shower and rising damp in the back of the wall, you will know that it needs the paint, plaster and sometimes render removed in order to dry out the wall.
So, What should I Do with My Old Roof?
At the end of the day, the roof can be an extremely costly item to repair and most of the time, people don’t worry about it until there is a big problem, but this can just make everything more expensive. At the first sign of problems from the roof or canopy of your home, you should investigate.
Maintenance on the roof involves cleaning the gutters every 3- 6 months depending on vegetation around your home, and ensuring all valley trays and downpipes are clear, to ensure adequate rainwater disbursement to the ground or soak wells. The silicone seal on any roof extrusion, pipe, antenna, air-conditioning and hot water systems are topped up and smoothed over to allow water to shed. Broken roof and ridge tiles should be sealed adequately, or replaced, and any cracked pointing or bedding remediated as soon as possible.
As for the overall look of the roof, maybe high pressure clean with hot water to remove moss or dirt, but not strip the coating of the tiles. Roof tiles can be replaced with second hand tiles, although the colour may not always be able to be matched. If you have a spare $40 – $60k, you can replace the lot with Colorbond steel, which has much less maintenance. Painting the roof will provide great coverage for the roof tiles, but will block the ridge pointing from being able to dry out and will cause the ridge to crack with movement.
Painted Roof Leaks & Repair
With over 10 years of experience specifically locating and repairing roof leaks in Perth, Western Australia, I have seen many issues that make me shake my head. From ‘trade qualified’ roof plumbers installing downpipes that don’t match the back of the gutter height, upside down bends leaking straight back into the eaves, or minimal silicone on an internal gutter bend, but roof painting has become a niche with an ugly dark side.
I have admired a freshly painted roof from the driveway as I pull up to a home, but as soon as I step on the roof, the cracks begin to appear, quite literally. Painting requires a solid surface to paint, so gaps and cracks in the ridge capping that are supposed to be filled with point mix or cement, are filled with no more gaps (not thoroughly, I must add) and painted over. The same with cracked, and I mean split through the middle of the tile, are painted straight over. That means that the only thing stopping water coming into the ceiling, is a thin layer of paint.
I have had disagreements with customers telling them where the leak is, being directly under a ridge hip section and them denying that this was the case. I then used my grinder to remove the paint either side and found interior no more gaps had been used. The remedy? Grind back every ridge tile edge and collar and repoint the entire roof. freshly painted roof and I had to point with a colour that cannot match. Years later, the same customer has me back to do more work for them.
Roof Repairs, Who Can You Trust?
Why do I care, when other trade qualified trades don’t seem to? Simple, I would expect the same for my house as I would for yours. The majority of my customers are retired, living alone and in a home in disrepair. These people deserve honest advice, and a fair price, so I aim to provide that, especially with such a stressful problem. When your roof is leaking, you stress and worry the the roof is going to collapse, when most of the time it can be managed with minimal damage to other parts of the home.
Working Class Hands is a maintenance handyman specialising in patio/ roof leaks and repairs, among many other jobs. We service the north western parts of Perth, Western Australia, and we are one of thee most trusted names in the game. Feel free to check out our reviews on google, facebook or send a quote request e-mail to gaven@workingclasshands.com.au.
