Early concrete tile at sixty years: porous, chalky and very restorable
The concrete tiles laid across Thomastown in the postwar decades were a cost effective product for fast, affordable housing, and they've done their job for a long time. What they were never given was a durable surface. Six decades of UV and Melbourne rain strips the original pigment layer back until the tile face is exposed cement: chalky to the touch, noticeably porous, and quick to hold moss on any shaded pitch. Porosity is the important part: a tile drinking water is heavier, slower to dry and far more vulnerable to freeze and thaw damage on cold mornings. The good news is that this is close to an ideal restoration case. The tiles are structurally sound, and a proper clean, repoint and three-coat membrane system seals the surface and returns the roof to full weatherproofing for another ten to fifteen years, at a small fraction of replacement cost. Replacement is genuinely warranted here only where tiles have started cracking and delaminating rather than merely fading.
