tiles don't last forever, roof timbers can deteriorate and the cement that hold the ridge capping in place (pointing) can crack over time and flashing can deteriorate or be damaged, water leaks may not be obvious immediately and lots of damage can happen before it's seen inside ...if most of the tiles are in good condition you may get many more years of service but cement and broken tiles need replacing (swop out of sight good tiles for the broken ones in obvious places and replace out of sight tiles with mismatched new tiles if necessary).. all the cement pointing needs to be checked and repaired and dirt and lichens need to be removed .....it's possible to have all this done by a roofing specialist in a single day and some people also have the tiles painted a new colour (we paid about $5000 for the clean and repaint or replace tiles with steel about $15,000 for similar sized properties) ...but leaking roofs can cause very expensive internal damage so roof maintenance is an essential expense and insurance companies will often not cover damage caused by lack of proper maintenance...ask for several quotes with a detailed explanation of what the company will do and how long the work is guaranteed

Thank you. I found this really helpful. We will go ahead with pressure cleaning the lichens and then repairing the cement pointing.

Hey Kylie, our awesomelouise has well and truly covered this but I think getting multiple detailed quotes is your best bet here.

Thanks Nik. I'll do that. It's hard with a roof because you can't see it so you just have to trust them tradies.

That's it hey - gotta trust the professionals. I think for your own peace of mind & to make sure you get a really good picture, a few quotes should really help to make a more informed decision :) We wanted to install solar panels on our 1979 2 storey build but an electrician who is a friend of ours told us it was stuffed .... and while we could trust him, we put it off. Then, when we had another contractor up there looking at guttering, he took a quick look who confirmed it all anyway. Thing is.... I don't think we could've gotten away with a patch job and had to replace the entire roof. We got lucky with our roofing supplies (hubby knows a guy) and the roofers were happy with a cash job so the whole new roof set us back $6,000 whereas I believe that if we didn't have those 'contacts', our new roof would've set us back closer to $10k.