Ridge Cap Repairs

Re-bedding and re-pointing the ridge and hip lines with flexible pointing — Perth's #1 cause of roof leaks, sorted properly.

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Overview

Ridge Cap Repairs in Perth

Ridge cap repairs are the single most common job we do — every day, on roofs all over Perth. The mortar that holds your caps in place is exposed to brutal UV, thermal movement and seasonal storms, and once it starts to break down it's only a matter of time before water finds its way into the roof cavity. Most leak callouts we attend in Perth end up tracing back to failed ridge caps, even when the stain on the ceiling is metres away from the actual entry point.

What are ridge caps?

Ridge caps are the angled tiles or sheets that sit along the apex of your roof and down the hips, capping off the joins where two tiled or sheeted sections meet. Underneath them is a bed of mortar that holds them in place, and over the top of that bed sits a thinner layer of flexible pointing that seals out water. Together they're the only thing standing between Perth weather and your ceiling cavity at the most exposed line on your roof.

In Perth's climate they take a beating. Summer sun bakes the mortar at over 60°C on the tiles, then it cools rapidly overnight. That constant expansion and contraction, combined with winter storm fronts driving rain sideways under the caps, means even a roof that looked perfect ten years ago will quietly be developing hairline cracks today.

Repointing

Repointing is the process of replacing the flexible pointing layer that sits over the top of your bedding mortar. Modern flexible pointing is a rubberised compound — it moves with the roof rather than fighting it, which is why it lasts so much longer than the old rigid cement mixes. When pointing cracks, water doesn't need a big gap; a hairline split along the edge of a ridge cap is enough to let storm water track straight down into the bedding and out under the cap.

We see DIY repointing jobs constantly, and the usual story is the same — a homeowner buys a tub of cement-based product from a hardware store, troweled it neatly along the ridges, and a season later it's all cracked off again. Flexible pointing applied properly, to bedding that's been prepped correctly, is the only fix that lasts.

Rebedding

Rebedding is the bigger job underneath the pointing — replacing the actual mortar bed that holds the caps to the roof. Bedding loses its grip slowly. Decades of thermal cycling, the odd seismic settling of the roof structure, and water that has already found its way past failed pointing all conspire to crumble it away from inside. Once the bed is gone, the caps move every time the wind picks up, and no amount of fresh pointing on top will save them.

We assess every ridge and hip individually. If the bedding is sound, we'll repoint over the top and save you the cost. If it's loose, hollow or visibly cracked through, we'll lift the caps, scrape off the old bed completely and lay a fresh bed before re-laying the caps and pointing.

Cracked ridge caps

The caps themselves crack too — usually from a tradesman walking the wrong line during an aircon install, a falling branch, or just decades of thermal stress. A hairline crack on the top face of a cap is usually cosmetic and can be sealed, but anything that goes through the cap or runs along the bottom edge is a leak waiting to happen. We carry common cap profiles and replace individual cracked caps as part of any repoint, matching colour as closely as we can.

Moss and lichen growth

South-facing Perth roofs that don't get much direct sun grow moss and lichen, particularly around the ridges where moisture pools. It looks harmless, but moss roots block the small drainage channels designed into modern tile profiles, which means water that should run off the roof instead backs up under the next tile and into the cavity. We clean it off properly with a soft wash and treat the surface so it doesn't come straight back the next winter.

Roof sag

If a ridge line is visibly sagging — not just the caps, but the whole line dipping in the middle — it's a sign the timber underneath is failing. There's no point laying new caps on a sagging ridge; we'll assess the rafters and battens first, sort any structural issue, and only then re-lay the caps to a straight line.

Roof leaks

Tie it all back together: the vast majority of leak callouts we go to in Perth end up being a ridge cap problem. The leak shows up in a hallway, a bedroom, the middle of the lounge — but trace it back up through the cavity and it's almost always coming in along a failed ridge or hip line. If you have a leak, start by looking at the ridges.

Our repointing process

We walk every ridge and hip line on the roof and assess each one individually. Old, failed mortar and pointing is removed cleanly. Where bedding is sound, we apply fresh flexible pointing in your chosen colour. Where it's not, we re-bed properly first. Once everything is set, we water-test the work, photograph the finished job and clean up the site so you'd never know we were there.

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Ridge Cap Repairs