Storm damage arrives quickly and it is rarely as simple as it looks. Wind lifts tiles and slate, driven rain finds joints that ordinary rain never reaches, and damage to a ridge, a chimney, a flashing or a flat roof can put water into a building within hours. T & T Roofing South Wales carries out storm damage roof repairs across fifteen areas of South Wales from our base in Neath.
Almost every roof we look at after bad weather falls into one of two categories, and telling them apart is the most useful thing we do on the first visit.
Sometimes a storm genuinely causes the damage. A branch comes down across a roof, a gust exceeds what sound fixings can hold, debris strikes a covering. The roof was in serviceable condition and the weather broke it.
More often, a storm finds something. Nails that had corroded through years ago. Ridge mortar that lost its bond a decade back. A valley quietly filling with moss. Flashing that was patched with mastic in 2011 and cracked in 2014. In those cases the wind did not create the weakness; it applied the load that finally found it.
Why this distinction matters to you and not just to us. It decides whether a patch repair will hold, it decides whether the sensible answer is a repair or a recovering, and it is very often what an insurer is actually asking about when they want to know the cause. We will tell you which of the two we think you have, and why, rather than describing everything as storm damage because that is the easier conversation.
When roofing material is loose or water is entering a building, the first job is not the permanent repair. It is removing the risk of something falling and limiting the damage inside while conditions are still bad.
What can be done on the day depends on three things: the weather at the time, safe access to the affected part of the roof, and how much has moved. We will tell you honestly what is possible. There are days in a South Wales winter when nobody should be on a roof, and a contractor who agrees to go up in a gale is not doing you a favour.
Once the building is secure, the permanent repair addresses the underlying defect properly rather than leaving a temporary measure to do a job it was never designed for. We will always be clear about which of the two we have carried out and what remains outstanding.
The single most important thing is this: do not climb onto the roof, and do not put a ladder up to get a better look. A wet, wind-loaded roof with material that has already moved is genuinely dangerous, and people are seriously injured every winter finding this out. Almost everything worth knowing can be established from the ground or from inside the loft.
If a ceiling is bulging or sagging with water, stay out of the room and keep children and pets out. A ceiling holding water can come down without warning and it is heavier than people expect. Turn off the electrics to that room at the consumer unit if it is safe to do so, and tell us when you call.
Wind almost never lifts a tile from the middle of a slope. It gets under an edge — the eaves course, the verge along the gable, the ridge, or the junction around a chimney, dormer or rooflight — and works inwards from there.
That matters for the repair. Once one tile has gone, the tiles around it have lost part of their restraint, and on an interlocking tile roof that restraint is what holds the system together. A repair that fills the gap without re-securing the surrounding area is a repair that gets tested again in the next storm.
On the older housing across South Wales — the valley terraces, the Victorian and Edwardian stock in the towns and cities — the covering is Welsh slate, and Welsh slate has a habit that catches people out. It outlasts the nails holding it.
So when slates come off, look at what landed. Broken slate usually means something struck the roof or the slate itself has delaminated. Slate that lands intact with clean nail holes means the fixings failed, and failing fixings are a condition of the whole slope rather than of one spot.
That distinction is what decides whether a repair is sensible or whether the roof is asking to be recovered. It is a considerable difference in cost and we would rather have the conversation openly than quote a patch and let you discover the answer over three winters.
The ridge is the most exposed line on any roof and the only one with no course of material above it for protection. Hips — the sloping corners of a hipped roof — are bedded the same way and there are more of them. Verges are the sloping edges at each gable.
Traditionally all three are bedded in mortar, and mortar is rigid while the roof beneath it moves with temperature. Over decades the bond cracks, and the component is then sitting in place rather than fixed in place. A storm does not have to be exceptional to find it.
Where a roof has reached that stage, re-bedding in mortar restores it to the condition it was in decades ago and starts the same clock running. A mechanically fixed dry-ridge or dry-verge system does not. We will price both and explain the difference rather than deciding for you.
A chimney is masonry standing clear of the roof in the fastest-moving air, taking weather on four sides. Storms find loose or leaning pots, cracked flaunching on the top, open mortar joints in the brickwork and lead flashing lifted where the stack passes through the covering.
Disused stacks deserve particular attention. A working flue dries a chimney from the inside; an abandoned one has nothing doing that job, so it stays damp and the mortar weathers faster. A stack that has not been used since central heating went in can be in considerably worse condition than it looks from the pavement.
Water can also track down inside a saturated stack and appear at ceiling level looking exactly like a roof leak. That is why we assess the stack and the roof covering around it together rather than treating them as two jobs.
Flashing is the weatherproofing at every junction: where the roof meets a chimney, an abutment wall, a dormer, a bay or a lower roof. It is the single most common cause of a leak that appears after a storm with no visible damage to the roof at all.
Wind gets under a lifted edge and works it repeatedly, opening it a little further with each gust. Once open, driven rain does the rest.
One finding comes up constantly and is worth naming: flashing previously repaired with mastic or roofing cement. Those materials set rigid, the roof and the masonry move at different rates, and the repair cracks — usually within a few years. Properly dressed and wedged lead accommodates that movement, which is why it is the material the job is supposed to be done in.
A flat roof is the most vulnerable surface on most buildings in high wind, because the whole area sits in the uplift zone and the covering is only mechanically held at its perimeter. Wind gets under an edge trim, an upstand or a corner and peels inwards.
In prolonged rain the problem is different: outlets block with the debris the same storm delivered, water stands, weight goes onto the structure, and standing water finds any weakness in a seam or a joint.
We assess felt, EPDM and other flat-roof systems together with the drainage, which on a flat roof is very often the actual problem. And we give a straight answer on repair against replacement: one split in a covering with service life left is a repair, and a covering that has now failed at several details is telling you something that repeated patching will not change.
Impact damage is the one category where what you can see is usually a fair guide to what has happened, and it is also the one where the damage most often goes beyond the covering. A branch of any size can crack battens and, occasionally, rafters.
Where something has struck a roof, we check the structure beneath the damaged area as well as the covering over it. Replacing tiles above a cracked batten produces a roof that looks repaired and is not.
If a tree or a large branch is still resting on a roof or against a building, treat the area as unsafe, keep people away and tell us when you call — removing it may need to happen before any roofing work can begin.
A leak is not a hole. Water entering at a lifted tile near a ridge can run along the underside of the covering, cross a batten, travel down a rafter and drop through a ceiling several metres from where it got in. Following a stain straight upwards is the most common way to repair the wrong part of a roof.
Our aim is to find where the water is actually getting in rather than to repair the first suspicious-looking area. That means checking the junctions and the drainage as well as the covering: valleys, flashings, abutments, gutters and the points where an extension meets the main roof.
One piece of information helps enormously. Whether the roof leaks in all rain or only in prolonged heavy rain. A leak that only appears in a downpour usually points to capacity — a blocked valley or an overwhelmed gutter — rather than to a hole, and that is a different diagnosis and a different repair. Tell us when you call.
These are two different pieces of work and it is worth being clear about which you are getting. Making a roof safe reduces immediate risk: securing or removing loose material, limiting further water entry, and making the area beneath safe to be in. It is done in conditions that are usually poor and it is not intended to last.
The permanent repair addresses the defect properly, in the right materials, when conditions allow it to be done well.
We do not believe every storm-damaged roof needs replacing, and we will say so when a repair is the right answer. Where damage is extensive enough that replacement makes better financial sense over any sensible timescale, we will explain why and quote for it. You should get both positions from a roofer, not just the expensive one.
If you are considering a claim, your insurer will normally want to know what happened, what the damage is and what it will cost to put right. We inspect the roof, identify the work required and provide a written quotation setting it out.
What we will not do is tell you whether your policy covers it. That depends on your policy wording and your insurer's assessment of the cause, and anybody who promises you a payout before you have spoken to your insurer is guessing with your money.
It is worth knowing that many policies distinguish between damage caused by a storm and deterioration that a storm revealed — which is the distinction this page opened with. We describe what we find accurately either way. An honest assessment is more use to a claim than an optimistic one that does not survive being examined.
We are a South Wales roofing company working from Neath, covering fifteen areas across the region. We repair storm damage on houses, rented and managed property and commercial premises, and we quote free and without obligation.
A word about doorstep offers after a storm. Bad weather brings people into an area who were not there the week before and will not be there the week after. We are not going to tell you that everyone who knocks is dishonest. We will say that before you let anybody onto your roof you should be able to find out where the company is registered, where it works from and how to contact it in six months' time. Our address is at the foot of this page. Ask anyone else for theirs.
Each area has its own page, written for that place rather than reprinted with the name changed. If yours is not listed, call and ask — this is where we work most, not a boundary.
Written in batches rather than published all at once. Guides still being written are marked as such rather than linked to a page that is not there yet.
Yes. We assess missing tiles, slipped slate, ridge and hip damage, verge and flashing problems and any other defect the wind has found, then quote for the repair required.
Keep clear of the area beneath, where further material could fall, and do not climb up to look. Photograph what you can see from the ground and call us so we can assess it properly.
Yes. The first task is to establish where the water is actually entering, which is often some distance from where it appears inside. We trace it back rather than repairing above the stain.
Yes, including brickwork, mortar joints, pots, flaunching and the lead flashing where the stack meets the roof. We assess the stack and the surrounding covering together.
Yes. We assess felt, EPDM and other flat-roof systems along with the drainage, which on a flat roof is frequently the real problem.
Yes. Whether replacing the missing slates alone is the right repair depends on the condition of the fixings across the rest of the slope, and that is what the assessment establishes.
Yes, subject to what can be done safely on the day. Call us if your roof has suffered sudden damage or developed a serious leak.
Often, depending on the damage, the access and the weather. We will always tell you clearly whether what we have done is a temporary measure or the permanent repair.
We inspect the damage and provide a written quotation for the roofing work identified. Whether it is covered is a matter for your insurer and your policy wording.
Yes. All our roofing quotations are free and carry no obligation.
Aberdare, Barry, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Cwmbran, Maesteg, Neath, Penarth, Pontypridd, Port Talbot, Porthcawl, St. Mellons, Swansea and Tonypandy, from our base in Neath.
Based in Neath and covering South Wales. Storm damage roof repairs, emergency make-safe work and insurance quotations.
T & T Roofing and Home Improvements Ltd
32, 34 Victoria Gardens
Neath
Glamorgan
SA11 3BH
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