Roof Restoration · Six guides · Sheet 6
Replacing a roof · NSW, Victoria and QueenslandReplacing a roof: approvals and licences
Whether replacing a roof needs approval depends on your state and on the job, and in NSW, Victoria and Queensland the official pages put the duty to find out, or to make sure approvals are in place, on the home owner. The new roof still has to meet the building code, and the people who install it need the licence or registration their state requires.
General information, not legal or building advice. Check with NSW Planning, Consumer Affairs Victoria or the QBCC. This guide covers those three states only.
Does it need approval? Three states, three answers on where to ask
| State | What the official page says | Who grants or advises |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | Many renovations and minor building projects are exempt development and need no planning or building approval, if they meet the standards set by the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008. It is the property owner’s obligation to find out whether approvals are needed. Exempt development cannot happen on land with an item listed on the State Heritage Register or under an interim heritage order. | Complying development, a joint planning and construction approval, can be granted by a council or a private certifier. |
| Victoria | Find out from the local council whether a planning permit is needed, and get it before the building permit. A building permit is the written go-ahead from a registered building surveyor. It is the home owner’s obligation to make sure the permits are obtained, whether they do it or someone else does it for them. | A registered building surveyor, the local council or the state’s building regulator can advise whether a renovation needs a building permit. |
| Queensland | Even when a builder has been hired, the home owner is responsible for having the right building approvals in place before work starts. | A building certifier assesses and approves plans for new, altered and existing building work, and inspects work at set stages. |
Your Home adds two points that apply anywhere: homes with heritage overlays or in environmentally sensitive areas may need planning approval even for minor works, and building approval can be needed even when planning approval is not. Its advice is to check with your local council.
The building code’s checklist for a metal roof
The NCC’s Housing Provisions give deemed-to-satisfy rules for metal sheet roofing under seven headings. Gutters and downpipes have their own part, 7.4.
- Corrosion protection and compatibility. A coating suited to the location, and metals that are compatible where they touch. Coastal corrosion
- Minimum pitch. Each sheet profile has a minimum roof pitch.
- Maximum spans. A limit on the distance between roofing supports, set by profile and sheet thickness.
- Fixing, and installing the sheets. Two headings of their own.
- Flashings and cappings. The QBCC calls inadequate roof flashing a major cause of leaking roofs.
- Water discharge. The last heading of Part 7.2.
Other parts of the code reach the roof too:
- A thermal break. Where metal sheet roofing is fixed straight to metal purlins, rafters or battens, with no ceiling lining or a lining fixed directly to them, a thermal break of R0.2 or more must sit between the sheet and its supports.
- Colour. In climate zones 1 to 5, the roof’s solar absorptance must not be more than 0.64. Not in NSW: its own version of this clause, NSW 13.2.3, sets no colour limit, only the thermal break, and BASIX applies to new homes and larger renovations there. Roof colour and heat
- Roof space ventilation. Required in climate zones 6, 7 and 8. Condensation under a metal roof
The licence for metal roofing, state by state
Each state licenses metal roof work its own way. What each state’s own page says about metal roofing in particular:
- NSW. Roof plumbing is any work fixing, installing, renovating, altering, repairing or maintaining guttering, downpipes, roof flashing and roof coverings, apart from coverings of non-metallic tiles and slates, glass, concrete, timber, thatching and membranes, and you must have a licence or certificate to do it. Regulator: NSW Government, roof plumbing work.
- Victoria. Consumer Affairs Victoria lists roofing and roof cladding among the jobs where you should check a tradesperson’s credentials before choosing, and says plumbers are registered or licensed with the Building and Plumbing Commission and carry an identification card. Regulator: the Building and Plumbing Commission; consumer guide: Consumer Affairs Victoria, builders and tradespeople.
- Queensland. The QBCC’s roof and wall cladding licence covers selecting and installing roof cladding other than terracotta and concrete tiles, flashing penetrations through roofs and walls, and refurbishing and maintaining roofs, but not painting them. Regulator: QBCC, roof and wall cladding licence.
Before an old roof comes off: asbestos
Before an older roof is replaced, it helps to know what it is made of. The national asbestos agency says a home built or renovated before 1990 might contain asbestos; it was phased out by 1990 and banned in 2003. It says asbestos cement roofs are in the poorest condition of all the asbestos materials left in buildings: years of weather make them release fibres more easily, heavy rain can wash fibres into the guttering, and as they age they become brittle, raising the risk of breakage and even collapse.
Its advice to householders is that it is “not recommended that you handle or remove asbestos yourself”, and in some places the law goes further: in the Australian Capital Territory any removal needs a licensed removalist, unless it is part of minor routine maintenance or other minor work, and in Queensland a home owner must be trained before taking out more than 10 square metres of non-friable material, and only a removalist holding a Class A licence may remove friable material. Even for someone who would follow every safety procedure, the agency says, engaging a licensed asbestos removalist, who is trained, insured and equipped to prevent or minimise exposure, is much safer and easier. NSW Planning says there is “no safe level of exposure to asbestos”.
Never done to asbestos
- Cutting, drilling, sanding, scraping, scrubbing or water-blasting: NSW Planning says you must not do any of these, because they can release fibres from bonded asbestos into the air.
- High-pressure water spray or compressed air: the national agency says using these on asbestos materials is illegal in every state.
- Dry-sweeping asbestos dust with brooms or brushes, or cutting, grinding, sanding or drilling it with high-speed power tools.
Removal and approvals in NSW
When exempt or complying development in NSW involves removing any amount of friable asbestos, or more than 10 m² of bonded asbestos, a suitably licensed person must do the work. Below 10 m² of bonded asbestos, owners or tradespeople are allowed to, and must still avoid the steps NSW Planning rules out above, though it strongly recommends a licensed removalist. Other states set their own rules; the national agency links to each state and territory’s asbestos authority.