Springwood roofing, from Macquarie Road to Sassafras Gully

The commercial centre of the lower mountains

Springwood sits at about 371 metres and is the biggest centre between Penrith and Katoomba. Macquarie Road is the main street, running parallel to the highway; Buttenshaw Park and the pool sit on one side of town, Deanei Reserve with its threatened shale-cap forest on the other, and Fairy Dell and the Sassafras Gully track drop south into the World Heritage area.

Housing is the most mixed of any suburb on this list: Federation and inter-war cottages close to the centre, post-war fibro and weatherboard, large tracts of 1960s to 1980s brick veneer with concrete tile, and newer builds in Colorbond. Heritage buildings like the 1892 Braemar House and the Christ Church Anglican complex sit among them.

Call (02) 4703 5000 for a free inspection and a written quote.

What the gullies do to a roof

Springwood is almost surrounded by steep gullies — Sassafras, Magdala, the creeks running down to the Perch Ponds — and those gullies are full of mature eucalypts. Houses on the gully edges collect a continuous feed of leaf, twig and long strips of bark.

That litter does three things, in this order:

1. Fills the gutter so water backs up over the tile ends and into the eaves.
2. Dams the valleys so water runs sideways under the tiles and rots the valley board out of sight.
3. Sits as fine dry fuel at the most exposed point of the building, which matters on mapped bush fire prone land.

Twice a year is a sensible clearing baseline here, and more on a block with gums directly overhead.

The common jobs

• Gutter and downpipe replacement, with properly sized outlets for a steep catchment
• Valley iron and valley board renewal
• Leak tracing on 1970s concrete tile roofs that have been patched a few times
• Rebedding and repointing — frost here is real, if less punishing than at Katoomba
• Full re-roofs where the battens under a long-neglected tile roof have gone

Nearby

Faulconbridge is the next stop west, Valley Heights immediately east, and Winmalee and Yellow Rock sit north off Hawkesbury Road. Start with gutter repair and replacement or roof repairs. Everywhere we go: service areas.