Fairfield's roof story
Creek country
Fairfield City Council says its five major creeks, including Prospect Creek, Orphan School Creek and Clear Paddock Creek, collect water from 60,000 homes and 700 km of road. The city had major floods in the 1980s, particularly 1986 and 1988.
Wet ground, long noticed
In 1793 Watkin Tench called the land between Prospect and Cabramatta 'frequently overflowed'. The Dictionary of Sydney says he was describing the floodplain heart of today's Fairfield.
A 1950s boom
Fairfield grew fast after the Second World War with ex-servicemen and European migrants, and large-scale Housing Commission building in the 1950s took the population to 38,000.
Flats around the centre
At the 2021 Census, 46.0% of occupied homes were flats or apartments and 40.0% were separate houses. The town centre is ringed by three-storey flats, and its first high-rise of around 9 to 11 storeys went up in the mid-2000s.
A few older survivors
A Federation weatherboard cottage in Lawson Street dates from around 1910, and Fairfield railway station (1856) is the oldest in NSW.
Keeping roof water moving in Fairfield
Downpipes first. A blocked downpipe turns a gutter into a bathtub that spills over the fascia and down the walls. Make sure each one runs freely and that its outlet at ground level isn't buried under garden beds.
Gutters that keep overflowing. If clean gutters still overflow in every heavy shower, they may be too small for the roof area or laid without enough fall. A roof plumber can size and regrade them.
Use the right trade. In NSW, roof plumbing covers gutters, downpipes, flashings and metal roof coverings, and it's a separate licence category. Work over $5,000 needs a contractor licence in that category. See roof plumbing in Sydney.
Check old materials. For 1950s houses and anything else built before 1990, the NSW EPA says asbestos materials are probable. Old eaves and fibre-cement gutters need identifying before anyone cuts or removes them.
What you can do, and what needs a roofer
You can
- Watch where water goes during heavy rain, from the ground, and take photos or a short video.
- Check that downpipe outlets at ground level are clear and not buried.
- Keep trees trimmed back from gutters, with a professional for anything near power lines.
Leave to a roofer
- Clearing gutters from a ladder or the roof.
- Resizing or regrading gutters and adding downpipes.
- Any work on old eaves or sheeting that could contain asbestos.
If it were our place in Fairfield
We'd have a roof plumber look at how the gutters and downpipes cope with real rain, or at your video of it, before replacing anything. If the trouble is the creek backing up, new gutters won't solve it, and a good roofer will say so. Send us the job and your postcode. Where a licence-checked roofer covers Fairfield we'll pass it to that one roofer; where we don't have one, we'll tell you straight away.
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.