We understand the appeal of DIY. Watching a few YouTube videos, buying some sealant from the hardware store, and fixing that leak yourself on a Saturday morning can seem like a straightforward way to save a few hundred dollars. For many home maintenance tasks, DIY is perfectly reasonable.
Roofing is not one of those tasks.
The combination of working at dangerous heights, using specialised materials and techniques, navigating insurance and warranty requirements, and complying with ACT safety regulations makes roof repair one area where the DIY approach creates more risk than it resolves.
Falls from height are one of the leading causes of preventable death and serious injury in Australia. Safe Work Australia data shows that falls from ladders, roofs, and other elevated surfaces result in thousands of hospitalisations and dozens of fatalities every year nationally. A significant proportion of these involve homeowners doing maintenance work on their own properties.
Roofs are inherently dangerous work surfaces. They are sloped, often slippery (especially when wet, frosty, or covered in moss), and offer few handholds. The consequences of a fall from a single-storey roof (typically 3 to 4 metres) are severe - broken bones, spinal injuries, and head trauma are common outcomes.
In Canberra specifically, additional hazards include frost that makes roof surfaces ice-slick on winter mornings (many people do not realise their tile roof is still frosted when they climb up at 9am), extreme heat that causes fatigue and dehydration in summer, and brittle polycarbonate panels on garages and pergolas that can shatter underfoot.
Professional roofers mitigate these risks with harness systems and anchor points, scaffolding and edge protection, height safety training and certification, awareness of material-specific hazards, and the experience to recognise unsafe conditions and postpone work when necessary.
Most roofing material warranties are conditional on installation or repair by a qualified tradesperson. If you repair your own roof and a problem develops later, the material manufacturer can reasonably argue that the issue was caused by improper installation and deny your warranty claim.
Similarly, if you have had professional roof work done previously (such as a restoration), the workmanship warranty from that company may be voided if you subsequently modify or repair the roof yourself. You could inadvertently lose thousands of dollars worth of warranty protection by applying some silicone to a flashing that a professional should have addressed under warranty.
Home insurance policies typically require that building maintenance and repairs be performed competently and in accordance with relevant standards. If you perform DIY roof repairs and a subsequent failure causes water damage to your home, your insurer may argue that the damage resulted from substandard maintenance and reduce or deny your claim.
There is also the question of personal injury insurance. If you fall from your roof while doing DIY repairs, your standard home and contents insurance does not cover your medical bills or lost income. You would need to rely on Medicare and any private health insurance for medical costs, and you would have no income protection unless you hold a separate policy.
If you hire an unlicensed or uninsured tradesperson and they are injured on your property, the liability implications for you as the property owner can be significant.
While ACT work health and safety legislation primarily applies to workplaces and commercial activities, the principles are relevant to anyone working at height. The legislation recognises falls from height as a high-risk activity and requires specific control measures including training, equipment, and procedures.
For any roofing work performed as part of a building project (as opposed to minor maintenance), the ACT requires that the work be done by or under the supervision of a licensed practitioner. If the work is valued at over $12,000, a licensed builder must be engaged. Building approvals may be required for significant works like roof replacements or tile-to-metal conversions.
Non-compliant work can create legal issues when you sell your home. Building inspectors will flag unapproved or non-compliant roof work, and buyers (or their solicitors) will either demand remediation or reduce their offer accordingly.
Even if you manage to work safely and avoid warranty and insurance issues, DIY roof repairs typically do not last as long as professional repairs. This is because retail products differ from trade products (hardware store sealants and coatings are not the same grade as what professionals use), technique matters (knowing how to properly dress a lead flashing, mix pointing compound, or lap sheets is learned through training and experience), and diagnosis is often wrong (the leak source you identified from inside the house may not be the actual entry point on the roof).
A DIY repair that fails after 6 months and allows water damage to occur during a storm can end up costing far more than the professional repair would have cost in the first place.
We are not saying you should never do anything roof-related. There are appropriate DIY tasks for a careful homeowner. These include cleaning gutters from a stable ladder (single storey only, with a spotter), visually inspecting the roof from the ground using binoculars, checking inside the roof cavity via the ceiling manhole (stepping only on joists), and clearing debris from accessible flat sections like garage roofs or covered patios.
For anything that requires getting on the roof, working with roofing materials, or making structural or waterproofing repairs, call a professional.
If your roof needs repair, a professional assessment is the right first step. Our $99 roof inspection identifies all issues and provides a prioritised repair plan with clear pricing. For straightforward repairs, we offer free estimates. Call (02) 5133 5608 or book online. We cover all ACT suburbs, 7 days a week.
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