Polycarbonate Sunroom Roof Replacement in Melbourne

The Project

This was a sunroom roof that had well and truly had its day. The original polycarbonate over the sunroom had yellowed, clouded and started to leak, and a length of green shade mesh had been laid over the ridge as a stop-gap to slow the water coming in. The owner wanted it done properly — the old sheeting stripped off and replaced with new twin-wall polycarbonate so the room was watertight and light-filled again.

The Problems

The old sunroom roof had a few issues that had been building for years:

• Aged, yellowed polycarbonate — the original sheets had gone cloudy and brittle with UV exposure, letting through a dull, discoloured light instead of a clean one
• Active leaks at the ridge — water was getting in along the apex, which is why the roof had been patched over with shade mesh to try to hold it back
• Failed seals and fixings — the glazing bars, capping and seals along the ridge had reached the end of their life and were no longer keeping water out
• Rotten timber — once the old sheeting came off, an area of timber underneath was found to be rotten and flagged to the owner for future repair

You can see the state of it up close — cloudy, weathered panels along the apex with green mesh laid over the ridge doing the work the roof should have been doing itself.

What We Did

We stripped off the old polycarbonate and mesh, checked over the structure underneath, and laid new twin-wall polycarbonate across the sunroom. Twin-wall sheeting is stronger and better insulating than the single-skin panels that were there before, so it handles the weather better and keeps the room more comfortable. Each sheet was set out square and fixed with fresh glazing bars, capping and seals along the ridge so the roof sheds water cleanly as a system rather than relying on patches. The whole job was completed in a single day, with a certificate of compliance issued the following day.

The Result

The difference from inside is exactly what a sunroom should be. Where there was cloudy, leaking, yellowed sheeting, there is now clean new twin-wall polycarbonate that fills the room with bright, even light — and, most importantly, keeps the water out. The ridge is properly sealed and capped, the sheets sit straight and flush, and the owner has a certificate of compliance and before-and-after photos on record. No more mesh over the roof, and no more leaks in the sunroom.