First steps indoors
Start with the simple things. Put a bucket or bowl under the drip, with an old towel inside to stop splashing. Move furniture, electrics and anything you'd hate to lose out of the way, and roll back rugs.
If water is near a light fitting, a ceiling rose or a socket, keep away from it and turn that circuit off at the consumer unit if you can do so safely. A ceiling that is bulging with water can come down; keep people and pets out of the room.
Most importantly, don't climb onto the roof, especially in wet or windy weather. Pitched roofs are slippery, and that's a job for someone with the right access equipment. Once things are under control, give us a ring on 07399 680142. We offer emergency leak call-outs.
Why it often leaks only in heavy rain
Many people notice the leak appears in a downpour or a storm, then disappears for weeks. That pattern is a useful clue. A well-built roof sheds water downwards, but strong wind drives rain sideways and even up the slope, finding gaps that ordinary rain never reaches. Gutters and valleys also overflow in heavy rain, sending water where it was never meant to go.
So a roof that's dry most of the year can still have a fault. It just needs the wrong combination of rain and wind to show it.
The usual causes
- Slipped, cracked or missing tiles and slates, often after wind or because old nails have corroded.
- Ridge and verge mortar that has cracked or washed out, leaving gaps along the top or edges of the roof.
- Flashing where the roof meets a wall or chimney, if the lead has lifted, split or come out of its joint.
- Valleys, the channels where two slopes meet, which carry a lot of water and block up with leaves and moss.
- Chimneys with porous brickwork, failed pointing or cracked flaunching on top.
- Flat roof joints and edges on extensions, garages and dormers.
- Blocked or broken gutters that overflow back into the eaves.
Why the drip is rarely under the fault
Water is good at travelling. Once it gets past the tiles, it can run along a batten, a rafter or the top of the underlay for a metre or more before it finds a low point and drips. Then it may soak through insulation and spread across the ceiling before a stain shows. The mark in your bedroom might be well away from the actual hole in the roof.
That's why patching the obvious spot sometimes fails. The repair has to be at the point where water gets in, not where it comes out.
How we trace it and fix it
When we come out, we look at the roof from the outside and, where it's accessible, the loft from the inside. We follow the staining back towards its source and check the likely suspects above it: tiles, flashing, valley, chimney or flat roof detail. We'll tell you what we've found and why we think it's the cause.
If the roof needs urgent attention, it's made safe fast, then put right. A temporary measure stops more water getting in, and the proper repair follows with a free written quote. Depending on the cause, that could be a straightforward roof repair, work on the chimney, or replacing a worn-out flat roof covering. If your leak is coming through an extension or garage ceiling, our guide to a leaking flat roof goes into that in more detail.
Get it looked at
Leaks rarely fix themselves, and water left to soak into timbers and plaster makes the eventual bill larger. Call us Monday to Friday 8am to 5:30pm or Saturday 8am to 3pm, or send the details through our contact page. We cover Somerset and Devon up to about 50 miles from Taunton, for homes and commercial buildings.