Sydney Hail Puts Dent In Coast Roofs
Illawarra Mercury
Wednesday May 19, 1999
Last month's Sydney hail storm has struck the Illawarra building industry a blow.
Building contractors and new home owners are being frustrated by increased costs and time delays as roof-tiling contractors head to Sydney where they can earn $700 to $800 a day.
Beechwood Homes general manager Gary Butler said Beechwood was one of several building companies that had lost roof-tiling teams to Sydney and it was having an impact on completion times and final job costs.
``Roof-tile company rates are up about 40 per cent," he said.
Boral Roofing System's general manager Glen Simpkin said 20,000 homes needed re-tiling in Sydney.
Tilers were descending on Sydney from all parts of Australia and a number of Boral's Illawarra tilers were among them.
``The manufacturing industry has a reasonable capacity to meet supply but the bottle-neck is the labour shortage," he said.
Marksman Home's managing director John McKenna said there was nothing the company could do about it.
``We have fixed-price contracts and it's costing us about $1000 a house," he said. ``Our competitors have been passing the additional costs on."
Mr McKenna said it was taking a little longer to finish building jobs and that was frustrating some people wanting to get into their new homes.
The industry experienced a similar problem with bricklayers working at Homebush 12 months ago.
Meanwhile Nu-Steel Homes at Unanderra has remained relatively unaffected.
``The tilers who work for us prefer more constant work than cyclic work," manager Gaetano Fina said.
Timms Roofing manager Noel Timms confirmed his company worked for Nu-Steel.
Mr Timms said some people had decided to repair hail-storm damage to earn money but his workers decided to stay.
``They said we're going all right," he said. ``We decided to stay and look after the builders we've worked with for years. We've been working with Nu-Steel for 12 months and Hotondo Builders for three years."
Mr Timms said the company could pick up more business but its resources were stretched. The problem had been exacerbated by the fact roof tilers, who worked on a rate system, hadn't had a pay rise for 12 years, he said.
Albion Park Roofing Service managing director Jim Green also decided to keep his two crews in the Illawarra. He now had to pay his tilers 40 per cent more and didn't expect the rate to go down.
``They haven't had a rise for about eight years," he said.
© 1999 Illawarra Mercury