Getting the roof right on a heritage-listed house

For owners of period properties, a heritage listing or overlay can dramatically regulate any building or renovation work that can be undertaken on the building.

In some cases, the restrictions can affect even the smallest details such as colour palette if repainting, fence styles or the appearance of roofing in the case of a reroof or new verandah restoration.

Many examples of early Australian buildings feature steel roofs in a corrugated profile.

Lysaght was one of the first companies to import this corrugated steel material to Australia in the 1880s, before beginning its own local manufacturing here in 1921.

‘Orb’ as the product was known was a corrugated steel sheet that had been ‘hot dipped’ galvanised, a process that gave the sheeting protection in demanding Australian conditions.

The stringent nature of heritage listing requirements means that in many cases like-for-like (or as similar as possible) materials should be used during any restoration process.

While some authentic building materials are difficult to source, this is not the case when it comes to steel roofing.

Lysaght continues to manufacture this traditional style product with its CUSTOM ORB® corrugated cladding and it’s available with an optional galvanised finish.

Lysaght also offer a special Heritage Galvanised variant that features a generous Z600 (600 grams of zinc per square metre) zinc coating, rather than the typical Z275 (275 grams of zinc per square metre).

The higher zinc content results in a larger, more prominent spangle (the visible crystallites on the surface of galvanised sheets) and delivers enhanced performance life more aligned to today’s roofing products such as ZINCALUME® steel and COLORBOND® steel.

This Heritage Galvanised finish provides an authentic appearance that closely matches the galvanised corrugated roof sheets of yesteryear in a way that modern unpainted ZINCALUME® steel cannot, helping to meet the building’s heritage requirements.

To create authentic curved finishes such as those that might be applied to bullnose verandahs, Lysaght also offer CUSTOM BLUE ORB® – this profile provides extra ductility which allows easy curving without distorting or damaging the profile.

MATERIALS: Lysaght CUSTOM ORB® Corrugated Cladding
FINISHES: COLORBOND®