Henrietta St | Chippendale

At Henrietta Street, the roof had stopped doing its job. Years of weather had rusted the metal sheets through, and water was leaking into the tenancy below every time it rained. On top of that, the original box gutters were undersized — even after replacement, they would have overflowed into the building during heavy rainfall. This wasn't a sheet swap. It was a roof system redesign.

The Challenge

• Severe corrosion across the roof sheets created widespread, ongoing leaks.
• Undersized box gutters couldn't handle Sydney rainfall — overflow was pushing water into internal areas.
• A live tenancy below meant the roof had to be addressed quickly, with no extended building closure.

Approach

The cheap option was sheet-for-sheet replacement. The right option was to fix the actual cause — the water management system that had been undersized from day one. Both got done in a single program. This is the methodology our roof repairs and replacement service brings to every commercial tenancy job.

• Full removal of rusted-out roof sheets.
• Box gutters upsized to handle Sydney rainfall, not the original design assumption.
• New flashings and cappings detailed at every junction to seal the system end-to-end.

Execution

1. Removal & Preparation
   • Full strip-out of all corroded roof sheets.
   • Substrate and supporting members inspected before reinstatement.
2. New Roof Sheets
   • High-grade metal sheeting installed with precision fixings.
   • Alignment and sealing detailed for weather-tight performance.
3. Upsized Box Gutters
   • Larger-capacity gutters designed for actual rainfall loads, not the legacy spec.
   • Falls re-set to eliminate ponding and backflow.
4. Flashings & Cappings
   • Every junction sealed with new flashings.
   • Cappings installed to direct water away from internal areas.

For tenants and owners with similar problems, our breakdown of the 5 most common causes of roof leaks covers what to look for before commissioning a builder.

Outcome

• Watertight roof. The tenancy below is no longer taking on water.
• Drainage fixed at the source. Upsized gutters handle real-world Sydney downpours without overflow.
• System designed for the long run. Sheets, gutters, flashings and cappings all replaced as one integrated system.
• Tenant kept trading. Two-month program delivered without extended closure.

Project Significance

Henrietta Street is the case study for one principle: roof leaks are usually a water management problem, not a sheet problem. Replacing the metal without fixing the gutters would have failed inside three years. Done properly — sheets plus gutters plus flashings plus falls — the building has a roof that actually works. If you own or manage a commercial tenancy with a leaking roof and an undersized drainage system, this is the playbook. If you need a single sheet patch on a residential carport, that's a different job and a different service.

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