Emergency call-out
Storm damage roof repairs
In short
After a gale, the roof gets checked for what came off, what moved and what is now loose but still up there. The last of those is the important one — the damage that shows on the first day is rarely all of it, and a roof that has lost fixings will fail again in the next storm unless it is looked at properly.
Also called: Wind damage roof repair · Roof blown off · Tiles blown off in the wind · Gale damage
Signs you need this
- Slates or tiles in the garden, the street or on a neighbour's property
- A visible gap or dark patch in an otherwise even roof slope
- A ridge line that has gone wavy, or a ridge tile sitting proud
- Lead flashing lifted, rolled back or flapping
- A flat roof membrane peeled up at a corner or an edge
- Guttering, fascia or a bargeboard pulled loose
- A chimney pot leaning, or debris in the fireplace
Wind does not lift a roof evenly. It gets under an edge — a verge, a ridge, a gable end, a lifted flat-roof corner — and peels from there, so damage clusters at the perimeter and at the high points. That is why the first thing to check after a gale is the ridge and the verges, not the middle of the slope.
What you can see from the pavement is the obvious half. Slates on the lawn and a gap in the covering are easy. The half that matters more is the material still on the roof that is no longer fixed to it: tiles lifted and dropped back into place, nails drawn, clips sprung, a ridge whose bedding cracked right through but which has not fallen yet. Left alone, that lot comes down in the next weather.
The high ground around this town takes a harder beating than the town does. Exposure rises steeply with height once you get east of Macclesfield — Kerridge Hill is 313 metres, Tegg's Nose 380, Shutlingsloe 506 — and the Met Office records materially more frost and harsher conditions on the high ground than on the Cheshire plain. Roofs in Rainow, Kerridge, Langley and Wincle are working considerably harder than the same roof in Broken Cross, and the fixing specification should reflect that.
Since 2014 the standard has agreed. BS 5534 requires ridges, hips and verges to be mechanically fixed rather than bedded in mortar alone, and it requires fixings to be specified against the actual wind exposure of the site rather than by habit. A great many local roofs pre-date that, which is precisely why gales here take ridges off. If a storm has taken your ridge, re-bedding it the old way is putting the same failure back.
On the insurance side, be straightforward. Storm damage is covered by most buildings policies; deterioration is not, and insurers are good at telling the difference. A claim that describes what actually happened, with photographs from the day and a scope that separates storm damage from pre-existing wear, gets settled. One that quietly bundles in five years of neglect gets refused, and the refusal makes the next claim harder.
Damage to a neighbour's property is worth thinking about early too. If your tiles ended up on the car next door, your buildings insurer is the right first call, and photographs of where things landed matter. Most of these resolve quietly if the paperwork is done on the day rather than argued about a fortnight later.
What the job covers
- A full post-storm check of the roof, not just the visible damage
- Ridge, hip and verge fixings inspected for what has been loosened
- Temporary weatherproofing where the roof is open
- Replacement of damaged slates, tiles and flashings to current standard
- Photographs and a written scope suitable for an insurance claim
- An honest split between storm damage and pre-existing wear
What it costs
We don't publish a price for this yet, because a number pulled out of the air is worse than no number at all — your roofer has to honour it. On roofing it would also be close to meaningless: access is often the biggest single factor, and it varies enormously house to house. You'll get a firm price for your actual job when they ring you back, before any work starts. The quote itself is free and there's no obligation either way.
Common questions
Does my insurance cover this?
Storm damage is covered under most buildings policies, though there is normally an excess and some insurers define 'storm' by a wind-speed threshold. What is not covered is gradual deterioration — a roof that was already failing and finally gave way. That is why the report needs to be honest about which is which; insurers check, and an overstated claim is worse than a small one.
The damage does not look bad. Do I still need someone out?
It is worth a look, because visible damage after a gale is usually the smaller part. Tiles that lifted and settled back, drawn nails and cracked ridge bedding all look fine from the ground and fail in the next storm. A check after serious weather is cheap; a second emergency call-out in February is not.
My tiles damaged next door's car. What happens?
Report it to your buildings insurer as soon as you can, and photograph where everything landed before it is moved. You are generally only liable if the damage resulted from something you failed to maintain rather than from an exceptional storm, but that is an argument best had with evidence in hand.
Why do roofs up the hill get hit harder?
Exposure. Wind speed and frost both increase with height and with how open the site is, and the ground east of Macclesfield rises fast — Kerridge Hill at 313 metres, Shutlingsloe at 506. The Met Office records substantially more air frost on the high ground than on the plain. A fixing specification that is fine in the town centre can be genuinely undersized at 300 metres.
Need this doing in Macclesfield?
Tell us the job and it goes straight to our local roofer — one call back, usually the same day. Free quote, no obligation.