The contractors came out today to remove the safety railing and I asked them to PLEASE Don't break any tiles. Well they broke a little piece on the under edge of one of the tiles but otherwise no problems.<br />The other problem was when the Safety railings were removed the tile above was able to be put back to its correct length leaving a little unpainted strip (20 mm) up the top, I will fix that.<br />After reading emails from other people about roof restorations there is no doubt there are some cowboys out there so all I can say is if you still want to restore your roof follow this.<br /><br />1/ Always get at least 8 quotes, you will get a surprise on the difference between the quotes.<br />2/ On all the quotes I had only 2 said I needed a total re-bed all the others were blind and charged more.<br />3/Before you sign the dotted line read the fine-print on the rear, you could get a shock.<br />4/Don't bother ringing the 1300 number "ROOF RESTORATION ASSOCIATION" they're never there and if they're there they ask for your number and never ring back, thats what happened to me.<br />5/as these products used for roof restorations are affected by weather, check the weather report first, don't allow to put the pointing cement/primers sealers or final coats down if showers or rain is suspected, don't rely on one Television stations weather report, check others or other means.<br />5A/ YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO TELL THIS TO THE CONTRACTORS THEY SHOULD KNOW AUTOMATICALLY, BUT ARE THEY,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,<br />6/BLOCK the downpipes before starting, I blocked mine with bird wire a week before.<br />7/Its in the owners interest that when pressure cleaning (IF YOU CAN) enter inside your roof and follow the contractor under the tiles just in case if water blasts up the tiles and floods your roof, if you have sarking you are 95% safe but houses without sarking could be a problem<br />8/houses like mine that had their rooves restored 16 years ago and it was coming off, it is recommended to TOTALLY remove all the old paint and out of the 8 quotes only Impulse said we will give it a go, Modern Roofing said they can't remove it and gave excuses and so did all the other contractors (we will paint over it), I had to laugh as Impulse's came out first with a pressure cleaner that I could piss harder than, I told the contractor take it home mate and bring back the big one, so after speaking the the sales manager from Impulse they decided to use another contractor a new (4000 PSI) pressure cleaner.<br />I MUST WARN EVERYONE IF THIS METHOD OF EXTREME PRESSURE IS TO BE USED TO REMOVE PREVIOUSLY PAINTED ROOVES IN POOR CONDITION YOU MUST GO INTO YOUR ROOF WITH BUCKETS AND PLENTY OF RAGS AS 4000 PSI pushes water up ANYWHERE and you can guarantee you will get water in your roof,,,DON'T TAKE A CHANCE.<br />All I wanted was to rip 99% of the old paint off and although water came into the roof I chased it and dried it immediately (sorry Modern and the other companies you said it could not be done 4000 PSI and persistence did it).<br />8/Summer and winter <br />doing the job in winter can bring some problems, DEW!!! check what time the dew removes itself off the roof, if you have no or very little sun allow longer time before allowing pointing cement/primer/sealer or final coat to go down<br />9/if it takes 2 hrs to dry in winter at a 20 degree day the job must be finished before 2.30 so the dew doesn't stuff the freshly painted surfaces.<br />10/if they come too late in winter tell them to come back another day, its your house.<br />11/DON"T LET THEM CLEAN replacement tiles on your driveway or on your grass, at least the grass will grow again, the Asphalt driveway won't.<br />12/ check the work in stages, Don't trust anybody, if you can, like me, take time off work to supervise the work, don't trust their supervisor, he is on their side not yours!!!.<br />13/Always ask for some primer/sealer/final coat to be left for you in the future just in case "BATS" crap on your roof, Bat crap eats ANYTHING, plus you might need some for replacement tiles in the future.<br />14/Make sure they clean the gutters out before your final payment. 14 out of all the emails I received said "THE GUTTERS WERE FULL OF RUBBISH".<br />15/Support the gutters with blocks, ladders with big guys going up and down all day will leave you with "BENT GUTTERS"<br /><br />If I remember any more I will add them in the next few days.<br /><br />On a final note Thank-you Impulse For doing a good job that other dick heads could not do and you were very fairly priced, its a pity a bit of common sense and NOT LISTENING to the owner (Me Phil) about the dew problem was not listened to, but after reading other peoples emails and posts on this forum about their problems mine were nothing, I was sort of unlucky about the rain, I knew it was going to rain, the Satellite weather channel told me that and for the Defective Pointing cement well I was unlucky.<br />And for any company that is reading this Don't rely on the Gangs supervisors to check the work, you need someone of higher authority to check that all of the above is being followed (blocked downpipes and dug up driveways its just not on)sometimes supervisors get a bit slack.<br />So what I am trying to say is you managers get off you Bum's and do random checks and talk to the customers and educate your contractors on the do's and don'ts of roof restorations.<br />Phil