Questions we answer every week, written down once

Most single-storey homes in long-run steel land between $20,000 and $38,000 including GST. The spread is mostly roof size, pitch (steep costs more, for good reason: it’s slower and more dangerous), and whether we’re converting from tiles. Anyone quoting a firm price over the phone without seeing the roof is guessing, including us.

Usually one of four things hiding in the cheap one: thinner gauge steel than your wind zone calls for, old flashings re-used, no underlay, or a crew subbed out to whoever’s cheapest that week. Ask each company to itemise and the mystery usually solves itself.

Always. A quote that grows 15% at invoice time is a trick, not a tax.

No. Roof check, photos, and an itemised quote are free. About a third of our checks end with us recommending you do nothing yet.

20% on booking, balance after the final walkaround. We never ask for full payment up front, and you shouldn’t pay it to anyone.

Usually no. Like-for-like re-roofing is exempt under Schedule 1 of the Building Act, and going from heavy tiles to lightweight steel is generally exempt too. Character areas and anything structural can be different, and we sort the council side when it applies. You get the answer in writing at quote stage.

Roofing is restricted building work, so it legally requires a Licensed Building Practitioner supervising or doing it. We’ll give you our LBP number before you sign and you can check it on the public register in about a minute. Any roofer who’s cagey about this has answered your real question.

Typical three-bedroom home: two to three days, weather permitting. Steep, complicated, or tile-to-steel jobs: up to a week. Either way, we never leave your roof open overnight; we strip only what we can close the same day.

Normal times, 2–3 weeks from signing. After a big storm, longer, and repairs still get slotted within a few days. If someone can start tomorrow in the middle of the busy season, ask yourself why their calendar’s empty.

Yes. Frosty mornings just mean a later start, and long-run steel goes on fine year-round. Painting is the weather-fussy one; it needs dry sheets and a dry forecast, so winter repaints book around the weather windows.

Storm damage that exceeds your excess, generally yes. Age and wear alone, no. The free check tells you which situation you’re in before you lodge anything. The full storm rundown is here →

That’s insurance fraud dressed up as a favour, and the “free” excess comes back out of your roof in skipped materials. It’s also the single most reliable way to identify an operator to avoid. Christchurch got a decade of education on this after the quakes.

We do the make-safe, the photo report, and a proper scope of works, and with your say-so we’ll talk to the assessor directly. Lodging the claim has to be you, since it’s your policy. Takes ten minutes and we give you a cheat sheet.

We install both, and steel wins most of the time here: lighter (your framing and any future earthquake both prefer it), faster to install, easier to keep watertight, and it handles the nor’wester better. Where tiles win is matching the rest of a tile street or a character home, and we’ll say so when that’s your house.

Gauge and fixings to your wind zone under NZS 3604, and COLORSTEEL Maxx if you’re in the salt spray zone near the coast. The upgrade for coastal homes isn’t upsell, it’s the difference between a 30-year roof and rust freckles by year eight. If you’re in Sumner or New Brighton and a quote doesn’t mention the marine environment, that quote has a problem.

We photograph it, text you the photos, and replace at $18 per metre, the rate printed on your contract from day one. A typical job needs somewhere between none and a few lengths. You’ll never meet the number for the first time on the invoice.

The metal filings from cutting and drilling steel. Left on a new roof, every filing rusts into a little black stain within weeks and the roof looks ruined before it’s a month old. We sweep sheets down at the end of every day. It’s ten minutes of broom work that separates roofers from cowboys, which is why we bang on about it.

Tarps over the beds, protection under the drip line, and two magnet sweeps for screws and offcuts. Plants hard against the house have a rough couple of days; everything else should be untouched. Tell us about the fish pond in advance and we’ll board over it. This has come up.

No. We need power (an outside plug) and the gate code if there is one. Most people go to work and come home to a new roof.

Two documents: the manufacturer’s warranty on materials (COLORSTEEL, up to 30 years against perforation depending on product and distance from the sea) and our own 10-year workmanship guarantee on re-roofs (2 years on repairs, 5 on repaints and spouting). If something we installed leaks, we fix it free, and guarantee calls get scheduled ahead of new work. All of it sits on top of your Consumer Guarantees Act rights, not instead of them.

Yes, free. The new owners just ring us with the address. A transferable roof guarantee is a genuinely useful line in a listing, and building inspectors doing pre-purchase reports around here know our paperwork.