The first sign of trouble on a Cabarita shutter is usually a sound rather than a symptom. A faint grinding as the curtain drops means salt has worked into the guide rails and started pitting the aluminium behind the finish. The shutter still goes up and down for a while after that, which is why so many of these repairs get left until the unit finally binds.
We cover Cabarita in the 2137 postcode, from the streets around Cabarita Park through to the Concord and Mortlake boundaries, and Breakfast Point and North Strathfield are on the same run. Properties with a direct river frontage take the heaviest exposure and are the ones we suggest having looked at more regularly.
The housing is a mix of interwar and postwar cottages, later renovations, and modern apartment buildings closer to the water. Salt reaches all of it.
On a corroded unit the honest answer depends on where the damage is. Guides, end caps, locks and seals can all be replaced individually, and a shutter with a sound curtain and a good motor is usually worth keeping. Once corrosion has gone through the slats themselves, or the headbox has rusted at its fixings, patching it is money spent twice. We will tell you which of those you are looking at when we see it, and we will not push a replacement on a unit that has years left in it.
