Roof sheeting is one of those materials you almost always end up with more of than you need. It gets ordered to cover a roof area with a bit spare for cuts, ridge laps and the odd stuffed sheet, and the spare never lands on a round number. So the job finishes and there's a small stack of full-length sheets down the side of the shed, plus a pile of offcuts nobody wants to trip over.
It's worth sorting rather than skipping, for two reasons. Colorbond and decent corrugated aren't cheap, and steel is heavy, so it's one of the more expensive things you can pay a bin to take away. Here's what to actually do with it.
Work out what you've genuinely got left
Separate the full or near-full sheets from the offcuts before you decide anything. A full-length sheet in a standard profile and a common colour is close to as good as new stock to the next person. Short offcuts are a different thing.. useful for flashing, capping, patching and small lean-to jobs, but not something a buyer travels for.
Check the profile and colour while you're at it. Corrugated, Trimdek and the other profiles each suit different jobs, and colour matters more than people think.. someone matching an existing roof, shed or fence needs the same colour, not close enough.
Can it go back?
If the sheets came in a bundle and were never cut, ask the supplier about a return before you assume you're stuck with them. Custom cut-to-length orders usually can't go back, because they were rolled to your measurements, and that's most roofing orders. Standard stock lengths bought off the rack have a better chance. It's worth a phone call either way.. the answer is either a credit or a no, and the no costs you nothing.
Store it so it's still worth something later
Steel that's stored badly stops being worth selling or reusing. The main enemy is water sitting between stacked sheets, which stains the coating and can start it corroding. If you're holding sheeting for the next job:
- Stack it off the ground on timber gluts, not flat on concrete or dirt.
- Give the stack a slight fall so water runs off rather than pooling between the sheets.
- Keep it out of the weather if you can, and don't leave it strapped up tight and wet.
Stored properly, roof sheeting keeps for a long time. That's what makes it worth holding or selling on rather than binning.
The offcuts
Short lengths aren't worthless, they're just not worth much to most people. Keep a few for flashing and capping on your own jobs. Beyond that, offcuts get used for shed walls, animal shelters, garden edging, raised beds and a hundred other backyard jobs. Someone building a chook pen doesn't care that it's a metre and a half of second-hand Trimdek.. that's exactly what they're after, and they'll come and get it.
Selling the full sheets
This is where the real money sits. Full-length surplus sheets in a common profile and colour are worth listing, because the person buying knows precisely what they're getting.. the profile, the colour and the length tell them everything. There's none of the guessing you get with second-hand timber or fittings.
This is the gap Overrun exists to fill. It's an Australian marketplace for surplus building materials and nothing else, so the people looking are building something, not scrolling past. You photograph the stack, note the profile, colour and lengths, and list it. Someone local finds it, collects it, and pays you directly. We don't take a cut of the sale.
You won't get new-stock money for it, and you shouldn't try. Price it as good surplus and it moves. Price it like it's still on the merchant's rack and it sits in the shed for another year.
The bit nobody counts
The reason spare sheets and offcuts end up in the skip isn't that anyone thinks they're worthless. It's that at the end of a job, under time pressure, the skip is the only option in front of you. Sorting a stack of sheeting takes ten minutes, and it's ten minutes nobody's been paid for.
But binning steel is paying twice.. once when you bought it, and again by weight to throw it away. Ten minutes of sorting turns that around. You're not saving the planet, you're just not paying for the same sheet twice.
Quick answers
Can you return leftover Colorbond roof sheeting? Custom cut-to-length orders usually can't be returned, because they were rolled to your measurements. Standard stock lengths bought off the rack have a better chance. Ask the supplier before you skip them.. a return is either a credit or a no, and asking costs nothing.
How do you store spare roof sheeting so it doesn't rust? Stack it off the ground on timber gluts with a slight fall so water runs off instead of pooling between the sheets, and keep it out of the weather. Water trapped between tightly strapped wet sheets is what stains and corrodes the coating.
Is leftover roof sheeting worth selling? Full-length surplus sheets in a common profile and colour are worth selling, because a buyer knows exactly what they're getting from the profile, colour and length. Short offcuts are better kept for flashing and small jobs, or given to someone doing a backyard build.