The rest of the roof was replaced at the same time to give a consistent look across the whole house.
Far from a straightforward job, Top Notch Roofing’s Nathan Leslie likens replacing the roofing panels on the spire of this 1912 home to doing a ‘make-your-own jigsaw puzzle’.
“What they had done originally was put flashing on it and solder it together and it was pretty rough, with paint over top,” says Nathan. “We had a play around with different options and decided this system was the best way to do it.”
The new system involved using COLORSTEEL® custom fabricated panels in a flat tray profile. Flashings were screwed on at the bottom of the panels, with a custom-made flap folded to attach the panel at the top. Each panel was then folded over the previous, explains Nathan.
“It took two weeks to make them all up. Every panel was slightly different, as you would expect, so we couldn’t order them to the exact size. We got the top and bottom of the trays pre folded and then everything else was done on site. We had a work table set up on the scaffold and we were putting them on as we went. We would make one, rip the old one off, put all the underlay in and then put the new panels in one at a time.”
Grey Friars was chosen by the client as a colour that matches with the traditional villa aesthetic, but also blends in well with the more modern neighbouring homes. All the COLORSTEEL® products, including the panels, the corrugated roofing, spouting, downpipes, base flashings and ridge caps, were supplied by local Dunedin company Allan’s Sheetmetals. When it came to the spouting and downpipes, a classic profile was chosen to match with the era of the home.
“Allan’s Sheetmetals has a roll forming machine, which we hired and took out to site. Some of the pieces are too long to transfer so we just took it out to site and ran all the spouting on site. And as we went round, we fixed up timber and put new fascia up as well,” says Nathan.
The cap on the top of the spire was formed from COLORSTEEL® that was cone-rolled on the flat and then tapered to fit. “We had a bit of a head scratch as to what to do with that as the thing that was on there was just a massive lump of lead and flat on the top, so it had water sitting there,” says Nathan.
Working with heights and fiddly details, this was an interesting and challenging job for the roofing crew. Including weather and Covid delays, the project took around a month to complete. While it may have been a labour of love of sorts, the result is a spire that looks as good as new, helping this unique historic home to return to its former glory.