Richmond roofs, street by street
Narrow Victorians
Most houses are single-fronted Victorian style on long, thin blocks, built from the 1850s to the 1930s. The bluestone terraces at 13 and 15 James Street, from 1857, are among Melbourne's oldest surviving homes.
Workers' cottages and parapets
Industry in the 1870s and 1880s filled Richmond with workers' cottages. Melbourne's terrace builders hid roofs behind decorative parapets, which usually means a box gutter or concealed valley you can't see from the street.
The hill and the flats
Richmond Hill rises on the western edge, while the land drops to the Yarra in the east and to flat ground at Burnley and towards Collingwood. The ill-drained south near the river was slum housing by the turn of the century, and the 1934 floods left about 800 people in Richmond homeless.
More flats than houses
At the 2021 Census, 53.0% of occupied homes were flats, 30.7% terraces or townhouses and 15.6% separate houses. 54.7% were rented.
Before you re-roof a Richmond house
- Find your property's heritage grading: individually significant, contributory or not contributory
- Know that Yarra's permit exemption for new or replacement roofing only covers residential buildings graded not contributory
- Ask whether the job is a like-for-like repair or a replacement, because the permit rules differ
- Make sure the box gutters and parapet flashings are in the quote, not just the roof you can see
- Ask how materials will get in and out of a narrow block
- If solar is part of the plan, check Yarra's conditions for panels on street-facing roofs
Common jobs in Richmond
Box gutter leaks. Water that shows up on an inside wall after heavy rain often comes from a blocked or rusted box gutter behind the parapet. See box gutters and roof leak repair in Melbourne.
Heritage re-roofing. On a graded Victorian, the roofer needs to match the original material and details, which may mean slate or corrugated iron. Our guide to slate and heritage roofs covers what that involves.
Solar. Yarra exempts panels on street-facing roofs only if they're flush with the roof, stay below the ridge, aren't on a verandah, canopy or bay window, and the roof has no turret, tower, spire or dormer.
If it were our Richmond house
Look up the heritage grading before calling anyone, then choose a roofer who's worked on Victorian terraces and is happy to deal with council. The leaks we'd worry about first are the hidden ones: box gutters and parapet flashings, which can soak a wall for months before a stain shows.
Want a roofer to take a look?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match it with a Find My Roofer certified roofer who specialises in that kind of work, and they call you to quote. Your number goes to them alone.
