Summer Hill roofing, from Lackey Street to the Hawthorne Canal

The village and the streets behind it

Summer Hill is built around the Lackey Street shops and the station, with the Hawthorne Canal forming its eastern edge towards Leichhardt and the old flour mill site marking the rail corridor. Walk out from the village and the housing changes within a couple of streets: terraces and semis close to the station, then Federation and inter-war brick on proper blocks with eaves and tiled hip roofs.

The street trees here are mature and generous, and they are the reason a lot of these roofs need attention.

Leaf load does the damage

A valley iron under a steady drop of leaf litter never dries out. It rusts from underneath, and by the time water shows up inside, the iron has usually gone rather than just blocked. The same applies to eaves gutters — wet debris sitting in a gutter with no fall corrodes it from the inside out.

On the tiled Federation and inter-war roofs that dominate here, the regular work is:

• Rebedding and repointing ridge and hip caps where the mortar has crumbled
• Replacing rusted valley irons and clearing the valleys properly
• Replacing cracked tiles and matching terracotta where we can source it
• Re-hanging eaves gutters to a correct fall, and clearing downpipes
• Adding leaf guard where the tree cover genuinely justifies it

That combination is what roof restoration is for, and Summer Hill is one of the suburbs where it is worth doing properly rather than coating over.

The terraces near the station

Closer to the rail line there are attached rows with parapets and box gutters, and those behave like Petersham or Lewisham rather than like the bungalow streets. Different diagnosis, different method — see box gutter work.

Heritage controls

Summer Hill sits in the Inner West Council area, under the Inner West LEP 2022, and parts of it fall within listed heritage conservation areas. Where your roof is street-visible inside one, the covering, profile and colour can be constrained. We check the address before specifying anything.

Next door

Ashfield, Lewisham, Dulwich Hill and Haberfield — plus the rest of the area.

Arrange a free inspection

Call (02) 8000 1103 or request a quote.