Melbourne’s storm season doesn’t ease you in. One week it’s dry and 35 degrees, the next you’re getting 40mm of rain in an afternoon with wind gusts that rattle the windows. Roof plumbing that was limping along fine in summer can fail completely under that kind of load — and when it does, the damage shows up fast.

Getting ahead of it takes a few hours, not a renovation.

What Actually Fails in a Storm

Gutters blocked from the dry months

By the time storm season hits, gutters have usually spent months collecting leaf litter, seed pods, and whatever else the wind drops in. A partially blocked gutter handles light rain fine. In a heavy downpour, it turns into a trough — water backs up, overflows over the front edge, and runs straight down the wall.

The more insidious version is when the blockage is near the downpipe outlet. Water looks like it’s draining until suddenly it isn’t, and by then there’s already a puddle forming inside the roof cavity.

Downpipes that can’t handle the volume

A single heavy storm can push more water through a downpipe in an hour than it sees in a month of normal rain. Partially blocked downpipes, undersized pipes for the roof catchment area, or pipes that have shifted at the joins — all of these restrict flow at exactly the wrong moment. The water has to go somewhere.

Flashings that have been quietly failing

Honestly, flashings are the one thing that most people never think about until there’s a water stain on the ceiling. They seal the joins between roof surfaces and anything that penetrates them — chimneys, skylights, vents. They work through compression and overlap, and over time heat cycles pull them loose or cause sealant to crack. A dry summer is the worst time to notice a failing flashing because nothing’s leaking. A storm will find it immediately.

The Prep Work Worth Doing Before June

Clear gutters properly — not just the surface debris

Scoop out whatever’s sitting on top, then flush the gutters with a hose from the high end toward the downpipe. You’re checking two things: that water flows without pooling anywhere along the run, and that it exits freely at the downpipe. If it pools, the gutter pitch has shifted. If the downpipe drains slowly, there’s a blockage lower down.

Gutter guards help but don’t eliminate the problem — fine debris still gets through and compacts at the base over time.

Check every downpipe outlet at ground level

Go to where each downpipe terminates and look at what’s around it. Outlets blocked with leaf build-up, pipes that have come away from the wall, connections to stormwater that have cracked — all of these mean water discharges somewhere unintended during heavy rain. Takes five minutes to check.

Get on the roof or get someone else to

• Look along all flashing lines — anything lifted, cracked, or where the sealant has shrunk away from the surface
• Flat sections and gutters on low-pitched roofs where water can sit
• Any recent work that involved roof penetrations, because these are often where flashing is installed in a hurry

If you’re not comfortable on the roof, a roof plumber can do an inspection in under an hour and will spot things that aren’t visible from the ground anyway.

Flat roof drainage — clear the outlets before the season starts

Flat roofs collect debris that pitched roofs shed. The drain outlets on flat sections block up faster and the consequences are worse — water sits, weight builds up, and membrane deterioration accelerates. Clear them out and pour a bucket of water over the surface to confirm it’s draining toward the outlets rather than pooling in the middle.

If You Find Something

Minor stuff — surface debris, a loose bracket, an outlet that just needs clearing — you can handle yourself. Anything involving flashings, downpipe sections that need replacing, or gutters that have shifted out of pitch is worth getting a roof plumber to fix properly before storm season, not during it.