Specialists in Roofing Maintenance and Restoration
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The Inner West has some of the best street trees in Sydney and some of the smallest back yards, so branches routinely end up directly over a roof or resting against a gutter. On a terrace that means litter dropping into a narrow gutter and into the drainage that runs between roof planes, which is exactly where a blockage sends water inside rather than over the edge. Branches resting on old terracotta or slate also break material that is not easy to match. We trim what is over the roofline and carry the cuttings out through whatever access there is.
Our tree trimming service is limited to manageable branches affecting roofs and gutters. Larger trees, protected trees or work needing a specialist assessment may need to be referred to a qualified arborist.
We start by working out which branches are genuinely over your roof, which on a terrace block is not always obvious from the ground.
Slate and old terracotta break easily and are hard to match, so branches touching them come off first and carefully.
The gutters running between roof planes send water inside when they block, so the growth feeding them is the priority.
Limbs bridging across to the roof are cut back from the roofline.
With no side access the debris goes out through the house or the lane, and it goes with us.
We check the roof and gutters at the end and tell you if a branch has already cracked something.
Call 0452 223 327 or send the form with your address and what is growing over the roof.
We look at the trees, the roof material and how the cuttings will get out, then price it.
We cut back off the roofline, take the debris away and check the roof and gutters.
Monkeys Roofing trims branches overhanging roofs and gutters across the Inner West and the rest of Sydney. On a terrace, getting the cuttings out is as much of the job as the cutting itself.
No. We trim branches that overhang or touch the roof and gutters. Removals and general garden work are a different trade.
Street trees on the verge belong to the council and are not ours to cut. Inner West Council handles pruning requests for those. Anything growing on your own property we can look at.
Yes. Inner West Council has its own tree controls and heritage conservation areas add more on top. If you are unsure about a particular tree, check with the council before the work is booked.
If branches are sitting on an old roof or filling a narrow gutter, cutting them back protects material that is expensive to replace. Call 0452 223 327 or send the form for a free on-site quote.
Newtown · Enmore · Erskineville · Camperdown · Marrickville · Dulwich Hill · Petersham · Stanmore · Lewisham · Leichhardt · Lilyfield · Rozelle · Balmain · Birchgrove · Glebe · Annandale · Ashfield · Summer Hill · Haberfield · St Peters
Also servicing surrounding Inner West suburbs. See our Inner West roofing page, or how we handle tree trimming across Sydney.
Australian standards and Code requirements we work to, with the source for each.
SafeWork NSW reports that most serious and fatal falls happen from roofs, ladders and building edges at four metres or under, and a fall from two metres can kill. A single-storey Sydney house is squarely inside that range.
Source: SafeWork NSW, falls from heights
Observatory Hill has averaged around 1,213 mm of rain a year on records kept since 1858. Everything on the roof, from panels and skylights to gutters, has to keep working through that volume of water and the grit it carries off the surface.
NSW work health and safety law requires a safe work method statement for construction work where a person could fall more than two metres. Single-storey gutter and roof work clears that line, which is why the job is planned, harnessed or edge-protected before anyone gets on the roof.
Source: SafeWork NSW, working at heights
Last updated: 13 August 2026
Quoting tree trimming in the Inner West is not the same job as quoting it elsewhere in Sydney. You need a permit to cut back that overhanging branch: Any tree 4 metres or taller is a prescribed tree in the Inner West, and pruning more than 10 per cent of its canopy needs a… That is the kind of detail that changes the materials, the timing and the paperwork on a roof in Haberfield or the streets around it. Everything below links to the council or standard it comes from, so you can check it yourself.
Any tree 4 metres or taller is a prescribed tree in the Inner West, and pruning more than 10 per cent of its canopy needs a permit, or a full application if the property is heritage listed. Clearing a gutter by lopping a neighbours branch is exactly that situation.
Source: Inner West Council Tree Management DCPAshfield street tree records list brush box avenues in Cecil, Oak, Federal, Ilford and Orpington Streets, with prickly paperbark common elsewhere. Both shed leaf and bark year round, so gutters here fill slowly and constantly rather than in one seasonal drop.
Source: Inner West Council, Ashfield Street Tree StrategyThe whole suburb is a conservation area, recognised as Australia first planned garden suburb, with a period of significance from about 1900 to the 1940s. In practice almost every roof job in Haberfield is a heritage job.
Source: Inner West Council, C54 Haberfield HCAThe DCP limits replacement roofing to unglazed terracotta Marseilles tiles, terracotta shingle tiles, Welsh slate, or non-reflective corrugated galvanised steel, and the steel only at the rear or on skillion roofs. Finials and ridge capping have to be kept and reinstated.
Source: Inner West DCP 2016, Chapter E2, controls C17-C21Haberfield does not permit skylights on the front or side of the main roof and does not permit dormers at all. Hot water and solar tanks cannot sit on the roof either: they go inside the roof space or out of public view.
Source: Inner West DCP 2016, Chapter E2, controls C11-C15 and C89We cover Haberfield, Ashfield, Summer Hill, Croydon, Leichhardt, Annandale, Balmain, Rozelle, Lilyfield, Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Petersham, Stanmore, Newtown, Enmore, St Peters, Tempe, Sydenham and Lewisham.
Any tree 4 metres or taller is a prescribed tree in the Inner West, and pruning more than 10 per cent of its canopy needs a permit, or a full application if the property is heritage listed. Clearing a gutter by lopping a neighbours branch is exactly that situation.
Ashfield street tree records list brush box avenues in Cecil, Oak, Federal, Ilford and Orpington Streets, with prickly paperbark common elsewhere. Both shed leaf and bark year round, so gutters here fill slowly and constantly rather than in one seasonal drop.
The whole suburb is a conservation area, recognised as Australia first planned garden suburb, with a period of significance from about 1900 to the 1940s. In practice almost every roof job in Haberfield is a heritage job.
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