What to check before a slate roof in Hobart is touched

The council's side

City of Hobart's heritage page says: You will usually need to obtain planning approval for any use or development of the site, if your property is Heritage listed or contained within a Heritage Precinct under the Tasmanian Planning Scheme - Hobart. Your property may also be listed on the Tasmanian Heritage Register.

That is the first call to make, before a provider is asked for a price: the answer changes what the quote has to cover.

The roof's side

The NSW Heritage Office's maintenance sheet on slating, a NSW sheet dated March 1998, online edition 2004, is the guidance this site leans on for slate itself. Its four checks are below.

• The nails: Slates in the gutter are often a sign of rusted nails. Water stains appearing as thin streaks down the slates may be an early indication of nail failure.
• The sound: Delaminated slates have a dull sound when struck, quite different from the clear ring of a sound slate.
• Reuse: Because slate is such a durable material, most of the slates stripped from a roof are likely to be reusable. However, it is common for at least 10% of the slates to require replacement.
• The gutters: The most critical areas of a roof are box gutters, because their failure will allow large volumes of water inside the building.

What none of this tells you

It says nothing about whether any particular Hobart house is heritage listed, how much of its roof can be saved, or what any of it would cost; no government source sets a price and this site sets none. It also says nothing about what qualifies someone for slate work in Tasmania, because the pages read for this site do not give a rule.

The checks are the questions that come before a quote, so a provider's answer to each is worth having in writing.

City of Hobart's heritage page lists a heritage precinct on Tower Road, with the code HOB-C6.2.34, covering the area between New Town Road and west of the railway line, with larger properties and single storey houses from the mid to late 19th century to World War II.