Rebedding and repointing in Rockingham and Kwinana
Updated October 2026
The mortar holding your ridge capping on has a working life, and across the older half of this area that life ended a while ago. Rebedding and repointing is the backbone job on a concrete tile roof here, and it is the thing that separates a real restoration from a paint job. When the pointing cracks and falls away, caps loosen, tiles move, and the winter fronts put water straight into the roof cavity.
We are a referral service. You tell us what the roof is doing, we pass it to an experienced local roofer who works your suburb, and they call you back with a free quote.
Rebedding and repointing are two different jobs
Two layers hold your ridge capping on, and a quote that does not separate them is hiding something.
- Bedding is the thick mortar base the caps sit on. When it breaks down, caps rock loose and the bed has to be cut out and relaid. That is rebedding.
- Pointing is the finishing layer over the bedding that seals and locks everything in. Modern repointing uses a flexible pointing compound that moves with the roof instead of cracking like the original rigid cement did.
A roofer will tell you which you need after getting on the roof. Often the bedding is still sound and flexible repointing over the lot is enough. Where caps rock under hand pressure, those sections get rebedded first and then pointed.
Both are priced along the linear metres of ridge and hip, not across the roof area, which is why two houses of the same size can carry very different numbers. A hipped roof with a lot of short runs has more linear metres than a simple gable.
Why this is the main job on roofs around here
The oldest residential stock in the service area is not in Rockingham. It is in Kwinana. The State Government agreed in the early 1950s to build an oil refinery at Kwinana and committed to housing the workers, and Medina was planned and built by the State as that town, designed by Margaret Feilman, with its 1950s layout still largely intact and modest post-war houses through it. Calista, Orelia and Parmelia followed as part of the same programme. Concrete tile on stock of that age, still carrying its original rigid cement mortar, is at or past the end of a serviceable pointing life.
Rockingham's established coastal belt is next in line. The older streets through Rockingham itself, Safety Bay, Shoalwater, Cooloongup, Hillman, Waikiki and Warnbro are where old mortar and salt exposure overlap.
Rigid cement pointing was always going to crack through decades of expansion and contraction in a dry-summer climate. Salt-laden air on the coastal streets works on the same mortar from the other direction. Flexible pointing solved the problem, but only on the roofs that have had it done.
Signs your pointing has failed
- Cracked or crumbling mortar visible along the ridge and hip lines
- Chunks of grey mortar in the gutters or on the ground after a front
- Ridge caps that look crooked or have shifted out of line
- Damp patches on the ceiling near a ridge after driven rain
- Birds getting into the roof cavity through gaps under the capping
If you are seeing any of that now, the defect predates the leak. The Bureau of Meteorology's Garden Island station records all-years monthly rainfall means of about 132 mm in July against roughly 8.5 mm in December, so a fault that opened up in summer sits there unnoticed until the first front finds it.
What it costs
Rebedding and repointing is priced on the linear metres of ridge and hip, the pitch, and the access. We do not publish dollar ranges for this area, because the only Perth figures available came from marketing material rather than a source worth quoting. The cost guide sets out what drives the number and what a quote should itemise, and a free quote on your own roof is the number that counts.
If the whole roof is tired, it is usually worth pricing the clean, the repointing and the coating together, because the access equipment only goes up once.
Safety and who does the work
Ridge work means walking the highest lines of the roof, which is not a ladder-and-weekend job on brittle concrete tile. In WA, building work that needs a building permit and is valued at $20,000 or more must be carried out by a registered building contractor, or by an approved owner-builder, with $50,000 the figure for a Class 10a building such as a shed, carport or private garage. Work that needs no building permit can be done by anyone whatever it costs. A repointing job on its own is often well under those figures, but a full restoration can be another matter, so ask and check any registration number with Building and Energy.
Related services: tile roof repairs, roof painting and roof cleaning.
Frequently asked questions
How long does flexible repointing last?
Considerably longer than the rigid cement mortar it replaces, because it flexes with the roof's movement instead of cracking as the roof expands and contracts. We will not put a number of years on it, because no figure we could verify exists. Ask the contractor what warranty they offer on the pointing and get it in writing.
Can I just patch the cracked sections?
Patching is possible and it is occasionally the right answer, but it is usually false economy. If one run of 1960s or 1970s mortar has failed, the rest is the same age and the same mix. Most roofers recommend doing all the ridge and hip lines in one visit while the access gear is up.
Will repointing stop my roof leaking?
If the leak is coming from failed ridge mortar, yes. If tiles are cracked or the valley iron has rusted, those need fixing as well, which is why the inspection comes before the quote. If water is coming in right now, see roof leak repairs.
How long does the job take?
Most full repointing jobs on a single-storey roof here take one to two days in dry weather. Rebedding sections adds time, and the work stops when a front comes through.