Pitched or Flat, Plattekloof Roofs Done Properly

Plattekloof’s large hillside homes above the N1 were designed around their views of the city and Table Mountain, and many of them use flat concrete roofs, roof terraces and balconies instead of, or alongside, conventional pitched tiles. Those flat surfaces bake in summer, crack with temperature changes and pond water in winter, so they need a very different approach from a sloping tiled roof.

Roof painting in Plattekloof covers both. NPC cleans, repairs and recoats pitched tile and metal roofs with airless spray, and applies seamless waterproof roof coatings to flat concrete roofs that protect the slab and help bring down the temperature inside.

Flat concrete roofs: coating the slab

A flat roof does not shed water as a tiled roof does, so any crack, open joint or failed edge detail becomes a leak. Before coating, we inspect the whole slab, including outlets, parapets, upstands and the junctions where walls meet the roof. Cracks and failed areas are repaired first.

The surface is then pressure-washed and prepared, and a seamless coating system is applied with no joints for water to find. Lighter, heat-reflective finishes are a good choice on large flat roofs, as they reduce the heat absorbed by the concrete and passed into the rooms below, which is especially noticeable in open-plan living areas under the slab.

Roof terraces used as outdoor living space need a coating that can take foot traffic and furniture, so we discuss how you use the roof before specifying the system. Where a terrace has tiles laid over the slab, the approach is different again, and we will explain the options honestly.

Roof painting in Plattekloof for pitched roofs

Where homes have pitched concrete tile or metal roofs, the work follows our standard sequence, adjusted for the size of the house and the slope of the stand:

• Repairs to broken tiles, ridges and flashings
• Washing with industrial rotating nozzles and manual cleaning
• Anti-fungal treatment on porous tiles
• Primer matched to the substrate
• A minimum of two coats applied by airless spray

Large homes on steep sites often have pools, terraces and retaining walls directly below the roofline, so masking and overspray control are planned before work starts.