We're in Canberra, the house is in Tathra. They sent us photos at the end of each day and the job came in on the quoted price. Made the whole thing painless.
★★★★★
Helen Fraser
Canberra·Tathra re-roof, 2024
Tathra NSW · Postcode 2550
Tathra roofers. Salt air, sea spray, and roofs built to last.
Tathra is one of the most salt-exposed addresses on the Sapphire Coast. Half the homes are within a short walk of the headland, half are owned by people who live in Canberra and Sydney. We handle both. Our crew is based in Merimbula, twenty minutes down the road.
- Colorbond Ultra for salt-air homes
- Photo updates for remote owners
- Fixed price in writing before we start
What we do in Tathra.
Tathra is a small coastal town with a big-time premium-residential character. The headland homes look directly out across the Tasman, the wharf precinct is one of the few historic timber wharves still standing in the country, and a lot of the housing stock either sits high on the cliff line or tucks down into the leafy streets around Bega Street and Andy Poole Drive. The mix is older fibro-and-tile holiday homes (some 50+ years old), newer architect-built Colorbond builds, and a steady stream of post-2018-fire rebuilds (Tathra lost 65 homes in the 2018 bushfire). We've worked across all three.
The big factor in Tathra is salt. The town sits right on the coast and many homes are within 100 metres of the water, which is the BlueScope zero-warranty zone for standard Colorbond. For Tathra homes that close to the ocean we'd usually spec Colorbond Ultra (marine grade) at minimum, and on some headland-front jobs we'll spec stainless-steel screws as well. The other factor is exposure: Tathra catches the full east-southerly wind off the Tasman, so flashings and ridge caps get tested every storm season.
We do new roof installations, full coastal re-roofs in Colorbond Ultra, tile-to-metal conversions on older Tathra homes that have aged out of their terracotta, repairs after the East Coast Lows, and restorations on roofs where the structure is sound but the surface is finished. Tathra is twenty minutes from our Merimbula base. We can be on a Tathra roof inside an hour if you've got a leak after a storm.
Why Tathra roofs need coastal specialists.
Salt air in Tathra is unforgiving. BlueScope's own data is clear: standard Colorbond warranty drops to zero on any home within 100 metres of the ocean or salt water, and the company recommends washing the roof every six months in coastal zones to clear salt deposits off the coating. A lot of Tathra homes that close to the headland have never been washed once.
The four failure modes show up on Tathra roofs faster than anywhere else on the Sapphire Coast. Rust streaks running from under the screw heads (the fastener cap is the highest exposed point, salt sits on it, the seal fails, water finds the gap). Lichen and moss on the southern face where the morning sun never quite dries the surface out. Paint peel along the gutter line after ten to fifteen years, because the drip edge is where salt water sits longest between rain events. And on the older terracotta-tile homes around the back streets of Tathra, fretting, where the tile surface crumbles and grit washes into the gutters after every rain.
For any Tathra home within five kilometres of the coast (which is essentially all of them), Colorbond Ultra is what we'd spec. It's the marine-grade variant designed for coastal applications, and the cost premium over standard Colorbond is small relative to the lifespan difference in this corrosion zone. We'll put the recommended grade, and why, in writing on your quote.
Storm exposure is the other Tathra factor. East Coast Lows in June and July push directly into the headland and the May 2025 East Coast Low brought damaging weather right through Tathra. If your roof has copped a hit and you're not sure what's going on up there, give us a call. We'll come and look.
Recent jobs in Tathra.
Real homes on real Tathra streets. If you'd like a Tathra reference, ask when we quote.
Colorbond Ultra re-roof
Architect-build re-roof
Holiday-home re-roof (remote owner)
Canberra or Sydney owner with a Tathra place?
A big share of Tathra homes are owned by people who live in Canberra or Sydney. We do a lot of work for owners who can't easily be on site. The setup is simple: we go out for the on-site inspection, send you the quote in writing within 48 hours, and once you're happy we book in a fixed start date. We send photo updates at the start, middle and end of every working day so you can see progress without driving down. Handover happens with whoever you've nominated, your property manager, a neighbour, or just a final phone call plus the photo set.
If a storm has come through and your tenant or property manager has flagged damage, give us a call and we'll be on the roof in Tathra the same or next day. We'll send you photos and a written report before we touch anything. You don't have to fly down. We've handled Tathra jobs where the owner never visited until the work was done.
What Tathra homeowners say.
Quoted exactly what they said they would. Showed up on the day they said. Cleaned up properly at the end of each day. Roof looks better than the day we bought the place.
★★★★★
Margaret Walker
Tathra·Colorbond re-roof, 2025
We'd had three other roofers look at the leak before Merimbula Roofing. They were the first ones who actually went up and inspected the whole thing instead of guessing. Fixed it the first time.
★★★★★
Susan Mitchell
Merimbula·Repair, 2025
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Tathra roofing questions.
Got a Tathra-specific question? Call us on 0490 907 522. We get back within 24 hours.
How quickly can you get to Tathra for a quote?
Tathra is twenty minutes from our Merimbula base, so a quote visit usually happens the same week. If you've got a leak or storm damage, we'll do our best to get someone up that day. Call us and we'll give you a real answer based on the schedule.
My place in Tathra is right on the headland. Will standard Colorbond work?
For homes that close to the water, no, we wouldn't recommend it. BlueScope's standard Colorbond warranty drops to zero within 100 metres of the ocean, which covers most of the Tathra headland. We'd spec Colorbond Ultra at minimum, and on some headland-front jobs we add stainless-steel fasteners as well. The recommended specification, and the reason, goes on your written quote. Call us for a site visit and we'll show you what we mean.
I live in Canberra. Can I do the whole job remotely?
Yes, a lot of Tathra jobs we do are exactly that. We do the on-site inspection in person, send you the quote in writing within 48 hours, and once you've signed off we book the start date. From there it's daily photo updates and a final handover by phone or photo set. We've had owners who didn't visit Tathra until the work was completely finished. Call us to talk through how it works for your place.
We also serve nearby suburbs.
Just inland or just up the coast from Tathra.
Ready for a quote on your Tathra roof?
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