Active leaks, storm damage, slipped tiles, lifted ridge tiles and failed flashings need attention before water causes more harm. Serving Downham Market and the surrounding villages.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A leak that starts during heavy rain or after a storm is not something you can safely leave. Water finds its way through the smallest gap, and once it reaches the ceiling, timbers and insulation it causes damage well beyond the original fault. This page covers common roof emergencies in Downham Market and the surrounding villages, what you can do safely before a roofer has been out, and what to expect from temporary and permanent repair work.
Not every drip needs an emergency call-out, but some faults do need looking at before the next rainfall. A leak is urgent if water is coming through the ceiling actively, if a ridge tile, slate or tile has clearly shifted or come away, if there is a bulge or sag in the ceiling plaster, or if a flat-roof membrane or lead flashing has visibly split or lifted.
A sagging or bulging ceiling holds water above the plaster. Keep people out of that room and do not poke, prod or pierce the ceiling. A waterlogged ceiling can come down without warning and will bring plaster, lath and any stored water with it.
Blocked gutters, blocked downpipes and debris-filled valleys can also cause what looks like a sudden leak. Water backs up, overflows and runs into the roof space or behind the fascia rather than discharging safely. If you can see a gutter overflowing from the ground, mention it when you call, but do not go up a ladder to check or clear it.
Do not go on the roof yourself. Wet roof surfaces are extremely slippery, and without proper equipment and experience the risk of a fall is high. The temporary steps below are all things you can do safely from inside or from the ground.
When a roofer comes out to an emergency, the first job is usually to make the roof safe and weathertight, not necessarily to complete the permanent repair in the same visit. A tarpaulin secured over the affected area or temporary sheeting fixed below damaged tiles can stop water entering while materials are sourced and, where necessary, while scaffolding is arranged.
What temporary work can be done depends on safe access. A slipped tile low on a pitch can often be reached with roof ladders. A larger or steeper area, a high ridge or a flat roof above a two-storey extension usually needs scaffolding before any roofer can work safely. Scaffolding takes time to erect and adds to the overall cost, but it is not optional on higher or more complex roofs.
Once the immediate fault is made safe, a proper inspection follows. After any leak the roofer will check the underlay, battens and roof timbers around and below the entry point, not just the visible fault at the surface. On a roof without underlay, water through a gap can reach the timbers directly. On roofs that do have underlay, a missing or slipped tile lets water reach the underlay and battens together, and those components may need replacing even if the tile itself is the only thing visibly wrong.
Pitched roofs - slates and plain clay tiles. Slates slip when their fixing nails corrode and fail, a condition known as nail sickness. Because slates have no nibs, they rely entirely on those nails. A slipped slate leaves a gap, but plain slates are double-lapped, so a single missing piece does not leave a straight-through hole. However, wind-driven rain at an angle can still get behind adjacent slates and reach the underlay.
Plain clay tiles are also double-lapped and fixed differently, but they can slip, crack or lift at the edges in high winds. Ridge tiles on older roofs are bedded in mortar. That mortar weathers and cracks over time, and a ridge tile that has shifted or come off entirely is a common emergency fault. Newer roofs fitted with dry-fix ridge systems do not rely on mortar, so they are less prone to this particular fault.
Lead flashings. Lead flashings seal the join between the roof surface and a wall or chimney. Lifted lead can in some cases be dressed back into position. Cracked or split lead needs replacing, since no amount of dressing will close a crack reliably. Failed lead flashing around a chimney stack is one of the more common sources of water getting into a property without an obvious missing tile being the cause.
Flat roofs. A split or lifted flat-roof membrane lets water through quickly, especially if there is any ponding above it. Standing water on a flat roof usually means a blocked outlet or a fall that is too shallow to drain. EPDM rubber membranes and felt systems both fail at laps and joints first, which is where inspection starts. A temporary patch can buy time, but a membrane that has failed across a wider area needs replacing rather than patching.
Storm damage to a roof is often covered by buildings insurance, but the position is not always straightforward. Photograph the damage before any repair work begins, note the date and keep all receipts for any emergency work done. Contact your insurer as early as possible, ideally before commissioning any permanent repair, so they can instruct their own surveyor if they need to.
Insurers commonly decline claims where they judge that the storm only exposed existing wear and tear rather than causing the damage itself. Most policies define a storm by a recorded wind speed or rainfall figure, and not every bout of bad weather meets the policy definition. A refused claim can be taken to the insurer's complaints process and, if that does not resolve it, to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
No two emergency jobs cost the same. The main factors are the extent of the damage, whether the fault is on a single tile or across a wider area, whether temporary sheeting or a full repair is done in the first visit, and the access required. Scaffolding adds significantly to the total where it is needed. A straightforward slipped slate on a low single-storey roof costs far less than storm damage across a large pitch on a two-storey property that needs both temporary sheeting and a scaffold for the permanent repair.
Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers, who ring you back to talk through what has happened and arrange a visit.
When you call, try to have ready: what you can see from the ground or inside, when the leak started, whether any tiles or ridge tiles are visibly missing, and whether the ceiling is wet or bulging. The more detail you can give, the better the roofer can understand what is needed.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
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