Every November our phones double in volume. Roughly 60% of those calls are problems we could have solved cheaply in September — gutters, ridge mortar, a slipped tile or two. The seasonal pattern is so reliable we’ve made this checklist for clients to run themselves.
Step 1 — Stand in the road and look
Before you climb anything, walk across the road and look up. Specifically:
- Is the ridge line straight? Any unintended dips or waves?
- Are any tiles visibly out of plane — sticking up, slipped or missing?
- Is the colour even, or are some tiles dramatically darker (a sign of moisture retention)?
- Are the gutters straight or sagging in the middle of long runs?
Spend five minutes on this. About 70% of small problems are visible from the ground if you know what to look for.
Step 2 — Walk the inside ceiling perimeter
Inside the house, walk every upstairs ceiling and run your hand along where ceiling meets wall — particularly under eaves. Look for:
- Any soft spots or warped patches.
- Faint brown rings (old leaks) — even if they look dry.
- Slight cracking along the cornice line, especially near the rear of the house where wind-driven rain hits hardest.
Step 3 — Clear the gutters before the leaves matter
Late September, after the dry season has shed the most leaves, is the right time. Either book a Gutter Care visit or DIY it if you’re comfortable on a stable ladder. Either way: clear the trough, flush each downpipe with the garden hose, watch for slow drainage anywhere.
“Ninety percent of monsoon ceiling damage we attend started life as a blocked gutter or a hairline ridge crack. Both are September problems, not December problems.”
Step 4 — Re-bed any loose ridge caps
If you saw mortar dust in the gutters this year, your ridge caps are due for re-bedding. This is not a DIY job — the wrong mortar mix cracks within 18 months and you’re worse off. Quote it out, get it done in October.
Step 5 — Test storm-prone areas
Pick a dry day and have someone climb up and gently water-test the areas you have always seen leak from: valleys behind chimneys, junctions where a single-storey roof meets a double-storey wall, and around any pipe penetrations. Two minutes of garden hose at low pressure, watching inside the roof void for any drip. This is the same first-pass test we run on every leak call.
Step 6 — Book the contractor by mid-October
Anything beyond DIY needs a contractor visit, and good contractors fill up by late October. We typically close our pre-monsoon schedule around the 25th of October. After that, work waits until February. Don’t leave the booking call to the first wet weekend in November.
The 30-minute pre-monsoon walk-around
If you only do one thing from this article, do this: spend 30 minutes one Saturday in late September walking around your home with this checklist. Take photos of anything that looks off. Send them to us or any roofer you trust. The cost of acting on what you find is almost always a fraction of the cost of dealing with the consequences in December.