Roof painting cost depends on the roof – its size and pitch, the substrate, how much rust or repair it needs, and how easy it is to get to. As a guide to the current Auckland market, roof painting runs roughly $25 to $55 per square metre, which puts a standard 150m2 home in the region of $3,500 to $9,500. A straightforward single-storey steel roof in good condition sits at the lower end; a steep two-storey tile roof with years of lichen and failed coating sits at the top, with scaffolding usually quoted separately. These are general market ranges – we quote your roof fixed once we have inspected it.

When it is prepped and coated properly – moss treated, rust sorted, the right primer down, then two top coats of a proper roof system to manufacturer spec – a repaint should give you many years before it needs doing again, and a wash every few years stretches that further. The big variable is the prep, not the paint. A roof sprayed quickly over moss and rust to save money can start peeling within a season, which is why a cheap job almost always costs more in the end.

Not straight over it. Painting over live rust just seals the problem in – it keeps spreading underneath and lifts the new coating off. Surface rust has to be treated back to bare metal and primed before any top coat goes on, and that is part of how we do it. If a steel roof has rusted right through or is perforated, painting will not save it – at that point it needs replacing, and we will tell you that rather than sell you a coat that buys a few months.

Yes. The stone-chip pressed-metal tile roofs on a lot of 1960s to 80s Auckland homes are good candidates for painting once they start losing their chip and looking tired – as long as the metal underneath is still sound. Repainting them is far cheaper than a full re-roof. We check the condition of the metal first, treat any rust, then prep and recoat. If the tiles themselves have gone too far, we will be honest about that before you spend anything.

Not without testing it first, and never by water-blasting or sanding it. Homes built or re-roofed before the early 2000s can have asbestos cement roofing, and disturbing it is dangerous and cannot legally be done without a WorkSafe-licensed asbestos removalist. If your roof is an older cement type, we arrange a test, and if asbestos is present the removal is handled by a licensed removalist as a separate, documented job. You can read the rules at worksafe.govt.nz.

Often it is just a wash. If the roof has gone green and grimy but the metal or tile underneath is still sound and the existing coating is intact, killing the moss and lichen and soft-washing it clean can be all it needs – at a fraction of the cost of a full repaint. We tell you honestly which one your roof is at. A wash and moss treatment every few years also stretches the life of the coating you have already paid for, so it is worth asking about the cheaper option first.

No. Painting a roof is not restricted building work and does not require building consent. Consent can come into it only if the job involves significant structural roof repair or changes affecting the weathertightness of the building – and if that applies, we flag it and quote it separately before any work starts. You can check the current rules at building.govt.nz.

The drier, settled stretches – roughly late spring through summer and into early autumn – are ideal, because the roof needs to be dry for the wash to work and for the coating to cure properly. That said, Auckland weather does not read the calendar, so what matters most is a run of dry days rather than the month itself. We work to the forecast and will not coat a roof that is not going to get the dry curing window it needs. Booking ahead of summer is wise, as that is when roof painters get busiest.

Yes. If you have roofs across a portfolio, we can assess them, flag which need painting now and which can wait, and work through them on a schedule that suits your cashflow rather than reacting one leak at a time. You get one scope, one point of contact, and the records for each property file. Repainting roofs on time is one of the cheapest ways to protect the most expensive part of each building and put off the far bigger cost of a full re-roof.