What Should You Do If Roof Tiles Blow Off in Port Talbot?

Assume It Is Not Over

Storms arriving off the Bristol Channel commonly come through in waves rather than as a single event, and a front that has passed can be followed by stronger gusts behind it. On the seaward side of town, with nothing upwind to break the weather, that second wave arrives at full strength.

This changes the priorities. It means the ground below stays dangerous for longer than people assume, it means a roof that has started shedding material will probably shed more, and it means anything you leave loose becomes a projectile rather than staying put.

First Hour: The Ground, Not the Roof

1. Move everyone well clear of the ground below and around the roof, with a generous margin — in a strong onshore wind material does not land anywhere near straight down
2. Move cars off the drive and away from the wall, and out of the lee of the house where debris collects
3. Keep children and pets indoors and away from that side entirely
4. Bring in or secure anything loose in the garden — bins, trampolines, garden furniture, fence panels. In the next gust they do as much damage as the roof does
5. If material could reach a pavement, a shared area or a neighbour, tell them
6. Do not stand underneath it to take a photograph

Do Not Go Up, and Especially Not Now

Do not climb onto the roof, do not put a ladder against the gutter, do not send a relative up, and do not accept the offer from somebody who has arrived at the door with a ladder on the van.

This is not general caution. There is a wind speed above which nobody should be at height at all, and on an exposed seafront site that threshold is reached more often and for longer than it is inland. A sheet of roofing material or a tarpaulin in an onshore gale is a sail with a person attached to it.

If a roofer tells you they cannot go up yet, that is not reluctance. It is the reason they will still be trading next year, and you should be more worried about the one who agrees.

If Water Is Coming In

• Move furniture, electricals and anything of value clear
• Buckets and towels, and lift the carpet edge if you can
• If water is near a light fitting, a socket or the consumer unit, turn that circuit off at the board
• If a ceiling is bulging with trapped water, stay out of the room entirely and say so when you ring
• Check the loft only if the ceiling around the hatch is sound

Salt is worth mentioning here. Water coming in on a coastal site carries salt with it, which is harder on electrics, plaster and fabric than clean rainwater and does not simply dry out and go away. Get anything valuable out of the way rather than putting a bucket next to it.

Look at What Landed — Once It Is Safe

• Whole tiles or slates with clean fixing holes. The fixings failed. On a coastal roof this is the common finding and it matters.
• Tiles with clips or nails still attached, corroded through. The clearest evidence there is, and worth keeping.
• Several from unconnected parts of the roof. A general condition rather than one bad spot.
• Verge tiles or end caps. The perimeter is open, which is how wind gets under everything else.
• Broken material. Something struck the roof, or it was already deteriorated.

Keep it all, somewhere out of the wind. Corroded fixings still attached to a tile are the single most useful thing you can show a roofer, and if you are claiming, an insurer may want to see what came down.

Between the First Storm and the Repair

This is the gap that catches people out on an exposed site, because it is often several days and the weather does not wait.

• Check the ground below again after every spell of wind, not once
• Photograph the roof again if it changes, so you can show what happened when
• If more material comes down, ring back — the priority order is not fixed on the day it was set
• Do not let anybody fit a tarpaulin that is not properly weighted and fixed to something structural. In the next onshore gale a badly fitted sheet takes tiles with it when it goes
• Contact your insurer early and ask what they need before work is done

When to Ring Your Insurer, and What They Will Ask

Early, and before any permanent work is carried out. Most insurers run a claims line outside office hours precisely because storms happen at night.

They will normally want the date of the damage and the weather on it, a description of what has happened, photographs taken before any work, and a quotation for the repair. Most policies expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage — so making the property safe is generally fine and should be invoiced separately — while the full repair is better held until they have had the chance to say what they need.

One point that comes up more on the coast than inland: insurers distinguish between damage a storm CAUSED and deterioration a storm REVEALED, and corroded fixings sit close to that line. We describe accurately what we find either way. An assessment that overstates the case tends not to survive a loss adjuster, and it leaves you worse off than an honest one.

What to Tell Us When You Call

• Which elevation — and specifically whether it faces the bay
• How many, and whether from one area or several
• Whether what came down was whole or broken
• Whether water is coming in, and how soon after it started
• Whether anything is loose above a pavement or a neighbouring property
• Whether the wind is still up where you are

That last one genuinely affects what we can do when we arrive, and conditions on the seafront are not always what they are three miles inland. T & T Roofing South Wales covers Port Talbot from our base in Neath.