Metal roof replacement in Sunshine

Sunshine grew up around H.V. McKay's Sunshine Harvester works, and some of its oldest streets still have the timber workers' cottages and interwar weatherboards from that time. Further out, Sunshine and Sunshine West filled in after the war with brick veneer and weatherboard homes, and more recently with townhouses on subdivided blocks.

The older homes often still carry galvanised iron that's been patched more than once: short sheets with plenty of laps, over timber battens that have dried out and split. Once the iron rusts through at the laps and fixings, patching just moves the leak along. The post-war homes tend to have concrete tile roofs that are now porous, cracked or slipping.

Roofs here can collect dust and grime from the nearby industrial areas and main roads, and in sheltered spots, under laps and behind flashings, that grime holds moisture against the metal. Like most of the west, Sunshine is also open to strong northerlies and westerlies.