Roof restoration 1

A mate of mine a few years ago render his house and need to change the colour of his roof from terra cotta to black, to keep his colour scheme. So he hired a pressure washer and painted it himself. Just doing a face a once. But it came up really well and still looks good now 6 or 7 years on.
I think of doing the same at the end of the year.

Great! I leaned something here.

Correct me if I'm wrong:

- Terracotta roof tiles have a use by date?
- They can be pressure cleaned?
- it's very expensive to have them painted, which (potentially) adds value to your house but that's all?

My 1981 terracotta tile roof is 30yo next year. The mortar is cracking so it needs re capping, and there is green stuff (moss?) growing on a fair bit of the roof, which definitely takes away from the appearance of the house.

Can anyone advise me on whether I can high-pressure hose the green stuff off? Damage to tiles?
Got a rough estimate of what I should pay for a re-capping?

Cheers,
HeatCrime

Ditto..

I getting my roof done, the quote was $2000.00(only a small house) using dulux acra tex which seems to be what most companies are using these days.

I read with amusement some of the responses to the initial question posed.

Mightychristos, if $$$$ is an issue then restoring your roof would be the way to save $$, if you are wanting to stay in your house long term then as others have suggested, a full replacement would be preferable but not a necessity.
Firstly you never mentioned whether your roof is iron or tiled ? Makes a big diff.

I am retired now due to injury, so my comments are made without hope that you will call me for work to be done (It looks like some here just want to push their own barrow).
When I was professionally painting we did many house roof restorations and they are relatively straight forward.
For iron roofs: We used a high pressure 3,000psi, machine to clean the roof. We then checked that there were no rusted or leaky spots and repaired as required. Any spot that needed patching then required priming. Then we used our airless spray gun to apply the paint. As the sprayer we used was a professional unit only 1 coat was needed. The first day we washed and prepped the roof and on average for a 4 bedroom home this took 1 person the better part of a day. The next day we sprayed it, and we usually did this as a 2 person team and took around 6 hours.
All up about 16 man hours to complete.
Back then we were charging about $40 per hour for labour + materials (about $500). Which means the average roof was worth around $1000 - $1500 to complete

As far as paint is concerned there are lots of paint companies with different products. e used Dulux or Solver. Solver used to have roof paint in a special can marked 'Roof Paint', but now they just sell you Duraguard.
Have not used Dulux for well over 15 years so I am not sure what they market their paint under any more.

As far as special paints that reflect heat ? Most light colours will do that, but I do remember seeing some products at a building show that claimed to do just that but never investigated any further.

The job we did is as good as any so called 'Roof Restoration Specialist' did. They may make all the claims in the world about their products, but at the end of the day it's just paint. I suspect they have all got their spiel down pat so they can justify their sky high prices. We had one lady client whose roof we sprayed (still looking good 12 years on !) for about $1500, she had other quotes ranging in price from $4,000 up to $9500 !!!!
"Roof Restoration Specialist", has an important sounding tone to it, that's how they get you to call them. There is a bloke from the town where I live, he has no trade qualifications at all. He wanted to run his own business so he responded to an advertisement 'Become your own boss'. He parted company with the better part of $50,000 spent 2 weeks training, and now he is one of those "Roof Restoration Specialists" that you so confidently ring.
Painters have to complete a 4 year apprenticeship under the guidance of a professional. I know who I would choose.

My only advice is don't sign up for a contract for someone knocking on your door. You do your research and seek out a painter (either from friends referrals or through testimonials), and employ them to do the job. Shop around as quotes will vary.
Ask what brand of paint and make sure it's one of the leaders.

As one poster here said 'Dulux' have accredited applicators. This is true, but it's a 2 day course that any licenced painter can do, but mostly for texture coating.

Yes, once you paint a roof, like any other painted surface will need re doing every 10 to 15 years, but if that buys you time till you can afford a full replacement then it's done it's job.

As for tiled roofs, it's much the same process except there is usually a lot of re grouting of the ridge capping and broken tiles to contend with (we tried to steer clear of tiled roofs)

WOW great info from Eyspy. When we bought our 65yo house 25 years ago, the concrete tiled roof had just been repainted and sealed. Looked great. We are now just redoing. Husband got up there himself on weekend with 2500psi water blaster, washing off moss. Not painted yet, but made a huge difference already. He's got to redo some mortar too. The paint is cosmetic but helps retard the moss.

Personally, I would NOT get a new roof unless it was rotten, rusty or in a state of disrepair. Concrete has an incredibly long life but it can chip if given a wallop and metal eventually rusts. It's sad how we now have such a 'throw away' mindset when often there is no need and robs people within our local economy/community of work.