Posted Monday 26th June 2023:
How time flies! It is almost a year since my last update (announcing my ‘transition’ (sic)) after over two decades in the Sydney roof repair business
A lot has happened over at The ROOFING PORTAL (where I have spent the past year) – but since a lot of clients still come through this website to find Jack, so that they can get their roof looked at… Jack felt that it was worthwhile to leave his ‘persona’ HERE to help property owners navigate forward.
2023 has been the year of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CHATGPT popped up and the world changed.
But Jack isn’t about to deny the world’s transition into an AI driven ecosystem.
So, He has actually done something about it!
Jack is betting that the Roofing Professionals Westside is the FIRST on the Sydney ROOFING scene with a ChatGPT interface that will permit visitors to chat away with the owner of the business 24/7.
This is a GAMECHANGER for the roof repair businesses in Sydney.
The question that Jack has been asking himself this year is “How can I use AI to make it easier for property owners to gather as much useful information as possible to HELP them make the right decisions about their roofs?”
Jack believes that the ability of Large Language Models to pick through his knowledge base and serve it up through precise prompting (questioning) is THE ANSWER.
Try chatting with Jack and leave some feed back on the comments section of the chat page. Let Jack know what improvements will make your visit worthwhile…
Posted Monday 11th July 2022:
After over two decades in the Sydney roof repair business, Jack just celebrated his 65th birthday and it is now official.
Jack is putting The Roofing Professionals Westside into semi-retirement.
But Jack isn’t about to retire from the Sydney roof repair game…
So, what/who exactly is being retired?
While the Roofing Professionals Westside is having some ‘downtime’, this only applies to new roof repair enquiries.
The business has months of work already booked in – that it is obliged to deliver. It will be concentrating on getting all this roofing work done in the next 3 to 4 months.
Jack has made the difficult decision to disappoint Sydney homeowners looking to get their roofs repaired, so that he can concentrate on delivering current commitments and also have time to build the foundation of the next roofing journey that he will be undertaking post 65…
Jack is wrestling with the question: “What is the meaning of Life?”.
And if you are interested in his answer, go to our ‘ABOUT US” page and watch his video…
Posted Sunday 20th March 2022:
“I have called out to about 25 roofers (seriously) no can do. I have never chased so many roofers as i have chased men lol …”
“Thanks Jack, can you put me on your wait list. We’re all praying for no more heavy rain!”
We at the Roofing Professionals Westside are totally MAXED OUT with requests to look at fixing leaking roofs in Sydney. We are currently booked out to May (and that is just to look at a leaking roof).
It will actually take longer to do the actual repair work.
And guess what happens in a situation like this?
Roof repair prices will ‘go through the roof’. Unfortunately for homeowners, our only solution to throttle back our waitlist for roof repairs is to raise prices. This is also the solution for most Sydney roofers out there.
So, Sydney homeowners will need to prepare themselves not only for long delays in getting their leaking roofs repaired – but also paying more for this service.
So many homeowners have been trying to contact us without success because our booking calendar is full (we don’t answer our phones any more) and our contact form is the only avenue. These contact form enquiries are overflowing and we won’t be able to get to most of you who cannot afford to wait.
There are other roofers out there who may be able to help you. Try them and If you really get stuck, then come back to us later.
We can only do our best under these conditions…
Posted Sunday 6th March 2022:
As we enter our third week of the big Sydney wet, Sydney roofers are digging into their savings because they have not been able to earn a wage.
At the same time, Sydney homeowners have got buckets and towels out to soak up rainwater that had made its way through their roofs. Although, they were grateful in escaping the flooding that other areas of Eastern Australia were suffering from, they still had a problem, since any sort of water ingress will potentially damage parts of their house.
Our roofers at the Roofing Professionals Westside have spent every available window of opportunity (there weren’t many) in the last two weeks on warranty roof repairs. Since we do so many roof repairs, some of these will require additional work once heavy rain has done its testing. The Pareto Principle applies to roof repairs also – which means that 80% of our roof repairs will be successful, and the other 20% will need additional repair work to stop the roof leak.
Our roofers take ownership of their work and understand that warranty repairs have a much higher priority than any new roof repair work that has been booked in. They concentrate on warranty roof repairs as soon as the weather allows. That means a lag time between when the weather fines up and when our roofers can actually start work on new roof repairs.
Just like a bingle on the highway can cause massive traffic congestion by stalling traffic and slowing the restart because every driver slows down for a look as they drive past, the latest Sydney wet will do the same to our roofing work.
The Roofing Professionals Westside only takes appointments through our website (our office phone has not been answered for the last 3 years) and the average traffic is around 300 visits per day. The latest Sydney wet has bumped traffic up to 700 per day.
When demand doubles and there is no supply (because we cannot do any roof repair work), massive congestion is the result. We simply cannot cope.
This means that we will not be able to get to every roof repair enquiry that comes through our website. It also means that the roof repair work we have booked in will be delayed by up to a month. Which ultimately means that repairing a roof leak caused by the latest Sydney WET may take 3 months before we can do anything about it.
This is a MADDENING situation to be in.
And we are doing something about this situation – but all good things take time. HOPE for Sydney roofers and homeowners is on its way. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, you will probably have to get another Sydney roofer to investigate your roof leak – so it pays to know a little about roof leaks first.
We have a page dedicated to reasons why a roof will leak during light and heavy rain that is worth a visit while you are waiting for your roof repair person.
Posted Sunday 20th February 2022:
As 2022 settles into an election year, and we are all trying to adjust to a world locked into a COVID zoo, Sydney roofers have struggled with the unpredictable weather for the first two months.
If the long range forecast is accurate (which is highly unlikely), the end of February will mean that 50% of the available work days this year have been weather affected (rain or heat). This has resulted in delays to roof repairs for homeowners and low productivity for our roofers.
We have given up providing firm dates for our roofing clients to do their roof repair work. We have been worse that the weather forecasters – more often wrong than right.
To start the year off, roofing prices have skyrocketed. Supply chain issues continue with roof insulation and colorbond shortages. And now, the Sydney weather wants to play a part in disrupting work on roofs.
2022 may turn out to be the YEAR OF UNCERTAINTY.
Posted Sunday 5th December 2021:
A year ago, $5.00 for a tube of Roofers silicone sealant was on the high side.
Now that we are in a global supply shortage, we are no longer looking at 5 to 10 % price rises. That the price of silicone sealants is “GOING THROUTH THE ROOF” is a prime example why roof repairs will start following suit.
Today, a tube of roofers silicone is upwards of $10. It is anticipated that it may even go up to $15 in the new year.
Sydney homeowners will have to brace themselves for higher roof repair prices next year. If it is any consolation, Sydney home prices went up by 30% this year – so every home owner should still be able to afford higher roof repair prices…
But you can still save a lot by getting in early… BOOK IN your roof inspection ASAP.
Posted Wednesday 27th October 2021:
We crawled along during COVID in Sydney – not realising that there was going to be further problems after ‘FREEDOM DAY’ arrived in October. As we started back to work and placed our fresh orders for building materials, there were delays in deliveries.
“It is a supply chain problem” we were told.
There is a steel shortage. We started to live with that.
Last week, I placed an order for colorbond materials plus blanket insulation. Anti-condensation blanket is an essential component of a new roof.
“Sorry, we cannot supply the building blanket until sometime late November..” came back the reply.
Without the building blanket, we cannot install the new roof.
Whilst we managed to source some overseas supply of building blanket for this job, we have now put all our other colorbond roof replacement jobs on HOLD. Until we can get assured supply, we cannot commit to a start date.
The good news for the majority of our clients waiting for roof repair work to their leaking roofs is that roof repairs do not need a building blanket. That means they can get their roof repair work done a bit earlier than anticipated.
Therefore, if you are looking for a roof replacement, you need to wait a while.
For roof repair work, we now have more capacity. So, book in your roof repair inspection now before other supply chain problems creep into the roof repair segment of the industry.
Posted Wednesday 20th October 2021:
The Australian Financial review reported in August that China is withholding steel supplies to Australia and this will impact our construction industry.
The cost of zinc coated steel rose dramatically through 2021 and we are in a weird situation where zincalume roofing materials are more expensive to buy than colorbond. This defies logic – much like how water can sometimes be more expensive that Coca-Cola.
We did not think this lopsided situation was going to last and now the anticipated ‘catch up’ in pricing has just been announced by Stramit and all the other roofing manufacturers.
It is now official.
Colorbond prices will go up about 10% next January.
As we all wake up from DELTA and head into the Christmas rush, there will be labour shortages in the roofing industry. That means labour prices will go the same way as steel prices.
It is just like property prices in Sydney. It keeps on going up…
There is only a small window of opportunity to get roofing work done this year before you end up paying a large premium next year. Get in now and lock in the price of your roof job.
Posted Monday 27th September 2021:
All construction workers in Sydney can go back to work from 27th September 2021. What is not totally clear is our position in the roof repair industry.
Construction work has been declared during COVID as work to un-occupied building sites. The small occupied building sites where renovations and roof repairs are being carried out is determined to be PRESCRIBED work.
All the published NSW government literature infer that outdoor roof repair work is now UNLIMITED (as of 27th September 2021). Anyone from any LGA can NOW work on roofs.
Reference the NSW Government web page here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/rules/authorised-workers/renovations-repairs-maintenance-and-cleaning
Based on this information, ALL our roofers will be on the tools from today.
It will be a HECTIC 3 months to Christmas for our roofers.
Posted Wednesday 18th August 2021:
We are just as confused as many Sydney homeowners. But now, we are able to paint a cleared picture of where the roof repair industry in Sydney stands for the second part of August.
>
As of Monday 16th August, The Roofing Professionals Westside is permitted to carry out roof repairs ANYWHERE in Sydney (including in ALL the restricted LGAs). This is because the majority of our workers live OUTSIDE the restricted LGAs.
And roof repairs in Sydney is now on the ‘PRESCRIBED’ list of home renovation work – meaning that we are back on the ‘essential work’ list.
Reference the NSW Government web page here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/rules/authorised-workers/renovations-repairs-maintenance-and-cleaning
This means that our roof repairs booked in the restricted LGAs can now proceed.
It also means homeowners can start booking in roof inspections with us with some level of confidence that the work can be permitted to proceed.
Book at our website now if you have a roof inspection done by us in August.
Posted Wednesday 28th July 2021:
Posted Sunday 17th July 2021:
Many of us tuned in the NSW Government COVID update yesterday (17th July 2021) at 11am. We did not expect our premier to bring the hammer down on the construction industry. But she did.
Roof repair work falls under the umbrella of the building industry and when construction activity is ‘paused’, we are also forced into hibernation. Under the current restrictions, the earliest that we can get our roof technicians out to repair your leaking roofs will be Monday 2nd August.
Posted Thursday 6th May 2021:
There is little inflation in most consumer goods. BUT there is a lot of inflation in the building industry!
So, the only way to get it cheaper is to do your roof repairs sooner rather than later…
To find out how much an average roof repair costs in Sydney, go HERE.
Posted Sunday 28th March 2021:
The recent deluge had no high winds. So, most of the roof leaks would have been cause by ‘dodgy’ roofs that could not cope with heavy rain.
If you put in an insurance claim for roof repairs, you should know that the insurance will most likely reject your claim. The insurance company will send an assessor out in the next few weeks and the report that they will provide will most likely state: “…unfortunately the roof repairs are not storm related and are due to lack of roof maintenance.”
The insurance company will NOT repair your leaking roof. At most, they will only repair the internal damage part of your claim…
Go to this page for the reasons why roof repair insurance claims will most likely be rejected.
Posted Sunday 21st March 2021:
Posted Thursday 18th March 2021:
The weather man’s predictions have been a bit off for Sydney weather this past month.
We roofers in Sydney like a bit of rain to bring out the roof leaks to keep us in business. But prolonged days of heavy rain work against us because we cannot get on a roof and do any work. This sort of weather (heavy rain followed by a long dry spell) has another set of challenges for us. We would do many roof repairs in the dry period and these roofs get tested by the rain. The longer the dry period, the more roofs we would have repaired… The odds are that some of our repairs will be “found wanting”… So, before we can tackle any new roof leak repair work, we have an obligation to honour our warranties on the repair work that we racked up in the dry period. As soon as it dries up, we will be tackling any warranty repairs first. And depending on how many of these we have to do, fresh bookings for leaking roof inspections and repairs will need to take a ‘back seat’. If you are looking for a roof repair when this rain front moves away, our booking calendar will indicate our ‘up to date’ openings . Go to our booking calendar if you are in this category and what your roof inspected for a roof repair…
February 2021:
Last week, we have rolled out a new option on our website to allow clients to do an INSTANT BOOKING to get their roof looked at.
In Sydney (and the rest of Australia), anyone can make bets on the weather using their favourite bookmaker. So, what do they use for their ‘form guide’? I bet most of they will use the ‘BOM’ (Bureau Of Meteorology). It is the organisation with the most weather data for Australia. The BOM just did a ‘dirt’ on us this past week. It told us that rainy days were the norm. Instead of rain, we got sunny days. Our trust on the BOM just went down a few notches. We had bet on doing only a little bit of roof repair work and steeled ourselves for a flood of bookings for roof leaks. We just lost our bets. But what are our other choices? When next week comes around, we will log back into the BOM weather app and make our bets again. Suckers for punishment.
The BOM was ‘spot on’ last February. It warned us of a large rain event and it arrived as forecasted. I was not ready for it. This website got hit with so many roof repair enquiries through the contact form – that to this day, there is still about 100 enquiries that I have not been able to respond to. This is a massive failure on our system. Throughout last year, we struggled to get on top of the roofing enquiries. We never succeeded. But we did build on our roof inspection capacity. We now have two additional roofers trained up to look at leaking roofs with expert eyes. Training up Geoff and Mason for roof inspection work has more than doubled our capacity. And we have to put new systems in place make this possible. That is why we have introduced our new calendar booking system. It automates the insertion of your booking into our roof inspection calendar – making sure that you are not left out. You can now go into the calendar and find a time slot that suits you and make a firm roof inspection booking. Our internal allocation system then books in the most appropriate roof inspector for you. The old contact form is still available for certain circumstances. You will be booked manually once we make contact with you.
It has been a week, and the majority of our potential clients are using the booking calendar. A couple have used the ‘old’ contact form. And we even have a couple of people directly email us using the ‘info’ email. If you have made a booking and want to give us some feedback, make a comment on the bottom of this page. If you want to try out the new roof inspection booking system, just click on this link.
Posted Friday 12th February 2021:
Bluescope has a monopoly on steel roofing products in Australia, and they are just about to jack up their prices. That means that every business downstream of the Bluescope steel mill will need to update (raise) their prices. We order a lot of our zincalume and colorbond roofing materials from Stramit and they have advised of a 4.5% price increase on colorbond and a 9% increase in zincalume products.
We have a lot of roof repair and roof replacement work booked in already. These clients are locked into our currently quoted pricing. These clients are the lucky ones. They will get their roof work done at the current price. We are quoting for work at the moment and all quotes accepted before March 1st will be at the current price structure. From 1st March, our pricing program will be based on the new increased prices. That means all work quoted or accepted from March will be at the more expensive rate.
Posted Monday 25th January 2021:
We did the final tidy up work to our tile to colorbond re-roof last week. The final touches are usually the most time consuming and it is where my roofers can show a bit of their own personal flair with their flashing work. Back to our difficult roof repair jobs again: The inner west and those difficult roof repair jobs are what we are used to. Back with harnesses and long ladders….
We all wish our holidays were longer. But reality says that we have to do meaningful work for most of our lives. So, we are dusting ourselves off to re-boot 2021. We are luck with the weather this week and after doing some tidy up work today, my guys will be replacing a concrete tiled roof with a colorbond roof for the rest of this week. I have done a bit of tidy up work on this website during my holidays – so much of the functionality of this new website is good. There is still a bit more content and polishing up to do over the next few weeks.
Posted Thursday 31st Dec 2020:
The whole extended family took the trek to the top of Mt Kosciuszko today. 14 degrees and sunny when we took the chairlift at 9.30am. And the sun drifted in and out of the clouds as we started walking. We had packed for the forecasted ‘mixed’ weather – so we could strip our layers as we got warmer with the effort and as the sun popped out. The temperature drops 5 degrees as soon as the sun is blocked. We got to the top of the mountain around 12.15pm and the weather was beautiful. We gathered for a picnic and saw dark clouds roll in and out very quickly. We suspected that change was coming and made haste (after the queue for the summit monument photo) and started our return trip. At the highest toilet in Australia (just at the base of the last climb section), it started to sprinkle. It was big drops. Then the ‘pings’ started as small hail stones bounced off the steel walkway. We were glad that we had raingear in our backpacks that we could put on. That meant that while we were drenched outside, the inside stayed dry. And after 15 minutes, it all stopped. Our gear started to dry up as we made our way back to the chairlift. When we got off the panoramic chair ride down the mountain, the operators started telling the mountain bikers that the chairlift was going to be closing due to the oncoming weather. It was ‘Last ride” time. It took us 10 minutes to walk back to our lodge and the rain started to pelt down a couple of minutes after that. We all started the day prepared for the changing conditions – and when it happened, we were able to take it in our stride.
My wife was hooked on her news feed. Victoria was going to lock down its borders on New years day to ‘us people’ from NSW. They did not want our strain of COVID19. One of our sons had come down from Townsville to the ACT. Was he going to pack up soon before Queensland closed its border to ACT residents? What is going to happen next? And this is what we are hooked on. We are afraid of change but we dislike boredom a lot more. Life is a story, and it has to keep moving. What is in store for the roof repair industry in 2021? Life is getting digital and COVID19 has accelerated the change in the acceptance of a new way of communicating. The roofing industry will follow this new way of life. Everyone embraced the phone as their ‘face’ to the rest of the world. In this way, all our communications to our potential clients will need to be geared to cater for this device. People do not search for services on the computer very much now. If they are hooked to watch ‘wide screen’ movies on the mobile screen, then the mobile is the ‘go-to’ device. The Roofing Professionals Westside are now forced to cater for this change in search and communication usage – and we are going BIG on mobile and this thing that Google calls ‘Core Web Vitals’ (just another way of saying that people want websites to load fast and have good usability on their tiny screens). That is why I went ‘sleepless’ in Sydney… So, if you are reading this, it should be a good experience and you will not mind returning. We have planned for a lot more changes in the way that we operate this year… so pop in every now and then. We are on the journey of redefining how roof repairs will be carried out in Sydney.
Posted Tuesday 29th December 2020:
