Corella Painting repaints Colorbond and concrete tile roofs across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. A chalky, faded roof is washed by hand, keyed, treated where it's rusting and given two coats in the colour you choose, following the steel maker's own steps for repainting.
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From the surface up, in the order the work happens. Your written quote lists the same layers by name, so you can see nothing has been skipped.
Colorbond is steel with a metal coating and a paint finish baked on in the factory. Years of sun leave it chalky and faded, but the steel underneath is usually sound, which is why it can be repainted rather than replaced.
Washed with detergent and a soft broom, keyed with scourer pads so the new paint grips, then washed and rinsed with fresh water and left to dry. Never steel wool: its filings rust and stain the sheet.
Rust is brushed off with a stiff nylon brush, taking off the rust and not the coating, and the bare spot gets a zinc-rich etch primer. Close to the beach the paint maker may call for a corrosion-resistant primer across the whole roof.
A water-based acrylic roof paint, the type BlueScope names as generally the most suitable for repainting its steel, from one maker for every coat so primer and paint are made to work together.
The second full coat, in the colour you picked, applied to the paint maker's instructions on temperature, dew and drying time between coats. Ridges, flashings and the gutter line get the same two coats.
Most Colorbond roofs around Newcastle get painted for one of two reasons. Either the colour has faded and gone chalky after years of sun, or the owner wants a different colour without the cost of a new roof. Either way, the job starts with the same question: what does the maker of the steel say? BlueScope publishes a technical bulletin on overpainting its products, and our prep follows it.
The bulletin calls for a wash with household detergent and a mop or soft broom, so that's what your roof gets rather than a blast from a high-pressure washer. It's washed, scoured lightly with kitchen scourer pads so the new paint has something to grip, then washed and rinsed again with fresh water. We let it dry fully before the first coat goes on. It's slower than blasting it and painting the same afternoon, and it's the reason the paint stays on.
Before any of that, we check how old your roof is. Painting over Colorbond voids any warranty BlueScope issued on it. If yours is still young enough to be covered, you hear that from us at the quote, not after the job.
Newcastle's beaches are close to a lot of roofs. Salt spray settles on the sheets, and where a scratch or a cut edge has gone through to the steel, rust starts. Around screws, laps and the gutter line is where we usually find it. Each spot is brushed back with a stiff nylon brush, taking off the rust but not the metal coating underneath, and given a zinc-rich etch primer.
In the suburbs closest to the water, the paint maker may call for a primer with extra corrosion resistance under the whole roof, not just the rusty spots. We follow the maker's system for your exposure, and the quote names the primer, the paint and how many coats of each.
A concrete tile roof is a different surface with a different system. Moss and lichen come off with the wash, then a sealer or primer goes on to stop the tiles soaking up the paint, then two coats of a roof paint made for tiles. Before we quote, we walk the roof and look for cracked tiles and loose ridge capping. Fixing those is a roofer's job, not ours, and we'll tell you if your roof needs one first.
A roof is the most dangerous place we work, and the bulletin we follow reminds painters to meet the working-at-heights rules too. We set up edge protection or harnesses before anyone walks a roof, keep the ground under the work area clear, and tell you which days the driveway is out of action. Your gutters get cleaned out while we're up there, because a gutter full of leaves holds water against the fresh paint.
Every roof quote lists the wash and the scour, each rust spot treated, the primer by name, both coats of roof paint by maker, product and colour, and the flashings, ridges and gutter line. If you're on tank water, it says which paint we're using and when you can reconnect. If you're comparing quotes, put them side by side by coat. A cheaper quote with one coat is half a roof.
For our jobs, a single-storey Colorbond roof usually comes to $4,500 to $8,500 + GST, and a concrete tile roof $5,500 to $10,000 + GST. The pitch, the height, how much rust there is and how many skylights and vents we cut around all move the price. Your written quote lists every coat, so you can see where the money goes.
Yes. BlueScope's own technical bulletin says its Colorbond and Zincalume steel can be successfully overpainted, and sets out how to prepare it. It also says overpainting voids any warranty BlueScope issued, so if your roof is young enough to still be covered, we tell you that before we quote. Matt and Metallic Colorbond finishes are a special case, and we check those with BlueScope first.
It can be handled, but it changes the paint. Not every roof paint is suitable for a roof that feeds drinking water, so we use one the paint maker recommends for that, and we disconnect the downpipes from your tank while we wash and paint. The quote says when it's safe to reconnect them, following the maker's advice.
It depends most on where you live and which way each slope faces. BlueScope points out that paint which dries in the air weathers differently from its factory finish, so a repainted roof won't behave exactly like a new sheet. Good prep, the right primer near the coast and two full coats are what make it last, and they're all on the quote.
No. Replacing tiles, rebedding and repointing ridge caps is a roofer's job, and we're painters. If your tile roof needs that first, we tell you at the quote and you can have a roofer do it before we paint. Painting over a cracked ridge only hides the problem for a season.
Most house roofs take two to four working days on site, spread over a week if the weather turns. We need a dry roof, so we start after the morning dew has gone and stop well before evening, and we don't paint if rain is due before the paint maker's drying time is up.
A few lines and a photo or two is enough. We'll ring to book a look, then leave you a written quote with every surface and every coat on it. No obligation, and no follow-up calls chasing you if you decide to wait a while longer.