Aberdare sits at the head of the Cynon Valley, and a valley head is a particular kind of place to own a roof. Wind that arrives across open ground is squeezed between the valley sides, and the closer it gets to the head the less room it has. The same weather system that passes over flatter country as a strong breeze can arrive here with noticeably more force behind it.
That is why storm damage in Aberdare is rarely spread evenly. After a bad night, one row of houses loses tiles and the row behind it loses none. T & T Roofing South Wales repairs storm-damaged roofs throughout Aberdare and the Cynon Valley, and the first thing worth understanding is why your roof was the one that was hit.
Below is what we are most often called to in Aberdare, roughly in the order it comes up. If what has happened to your roof is not on the list, call anyway — it is not an exhaustive list, it is the common ground.
Most of Aberdare's older housing was built for the ironworks and then the steam-coal pits, which means long, unbroken terrace rows following the contour of the valley side. A terrace is an unusually good piece of wind engineering, though nobody designed it that way. The middle houses shelter each other. Their roof slopes form one continuous plane, and wind travelling across that plane has nothing to catch.
The ends are different. At the end of a row the wind meets an edge, and edges are where roofs fail. Air accelerating around a gable creates suction along the verge, and the verge is exactly where a roof's covering is at its most vulnerable: the last course of tiles or slates, held by mortar bedding or a dry-verge system rather than protected by the course above.
If you are mid-terrace, this is not a reason to relax. It is a reason to check the ridge instead. The one part of a mid-terrace roof with no neighbour to shelter it is the ridge line along the top, and that is where mid-terrace storm damage in Aberdare usually turns up.
The older Aberdare stock is mostly slate, and slate fails in a way that catches people out. A slate is held by two nails near its head, and it is the nails that age, not the slate. Welsh slate can outlast the roof it was laid on. The nails corrode, thin and eventually let go, and until they do, everything looks fine from the pavement.
This matters after a storm because the wind does not have to break anything. It only has to find the slates whose nails had already gone and lift them clear. That is why a roof can shed several slates in one night having shed none in twenty years, and why replacing just the missing ones sometimes solves the problem for a season and sometimes does not last the winter.
When we assess a slate roof in Aberdare, we are looking at the condition of the fixings across the whole slope as well as at the gaps. If the nails are generally sound and a few slates have gone from an exposed edge, a targeted repair is the right answer and we will say so. If the nails are failing across the roof, patching one area simply moves the problem, and it is fairer to tell you that before you spend money.
Traditional ridge tiles are bedded on mortar. Mortar is rigid, the roof beneath it moves with temperature, and over decades the bond cracks. A storm then finds a ridge tile that is sitting in place rather than fixed in place, and lifts it.
A displaced ridge tile is worth treating as urgent for two reasons. It opens the highest point of the roof to driven rain, and on a terrace it can travel some distance before it lands. If you can see a ridge tile out of line from the ground, keep the area below it clear and call us.
A leak that appears after a storm is not always beneath the damage. Water entering at a lifted slate can run along a batten, cross a rafter and drop through a ceiling several metres away. Following the stain upwards rarely finds the entry point.
In Aberdare the two frequent routes are the ridge line and the junction where a rear extension or outhouse meets the main roof. Both take driven rain at an angle that ordinary rainfall never reaches. We work back from where the water shows to where it can actually be getting in, because repairing the first suspicious looking area is how a leak comes back.
Aberdare's terraces have a lot of chimney stacks, many of them shared between properties and many no longer in use. A stack that is not heated stays damp, and damp mortar weathers faster. Storms expose the result: loose pots, eroded flaunching at the top, open joints in the brickwork and lead flashing that has lifted where the stack meets the roof.
Where a stack sits on a party line, the sensible order is to establish what needs doing before anyone discusses who pays for it. We can assess the stack and the surrounding roof covering together and set out what the repair involves.
Most Aberdare terraces have gained something at the back over the years: a kitchen extension, a bathroom, an outhouse roof. These are often flat or very shallow, and they sit lower than the main roof, which means they catch whatever comes off it.
Storm damage here usually shows as water rather than as visible damage: a split at an upstand, a failed joint, an edge trim lifted by wind, or a drainage outlet blocked by debris that came down in the same storm. We can assess felt, EPDM and other flat-roof coverings and tell you whether a repair or a recovering is the honest answer.
When materials are loose or water is actively entering, the first job is not the permanent repair. It is stopping the situation getting worse and removing anything that could fall. What can be done safely depends on the weather at the time, on access, and on how much of the roof is affected — nobody should be on a wet slate roof in a gale, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Once the roof is secure and conditions allow, the permanent repair addresses the underlying defect properly rather than leaving a temporary measure to do a job it was never meant to do.
If you intend to claim, your insurer will normally want to know what happened, what the damage is and what the repair will cost. We can inspect the roof and provide a written quotation for the work we have identified.
We cannot tell you whether your policy covers it. That depends on your policy wording and on your insurer's view of the cause, and anyone who promises you a payout before you have spoken to your insurer is guessing. What we can do is describe the damage accurately, which is what a claim actually needs.
Photographs help, taken from the ground. Pictures of slates on the path, a displaced ridge tile or a damp patch on a ceiling, dated by your phone, record the condition before any work is done. Do not go up a ladder to get a better angle.
We cover Aberdare and the surrounding Cynon Valley communities. If you are not sure whether your address is in range, call and ask — it takes a moment to check.
Because an end house has an exposed gable and an exposed verge. Wind accelerating around that edge creates lift along the last course of tiles or slates, which is the least protected part of the roof.
Not necessarily, and we would not tell you it did without checking. The question is whether the nails are failing across the roof or only in the area that lost slates. That is what the assessment establishes.
Treat it as urgent. It opens the highest point of the roof to driven rain and it can fall. Keep the ground below it clear and call us.
Yes. We can assess the stack and the surrounding roof and set out what the repair involves, which is usually the information both households need before deciding how to proceed.
That is common. Water entering higher up can travel along battens and rafters before it drops. We trace it back to the entry point rather than repairing directly above the stain.
It depends on how many properties are affected on the day, which after a named storm can be a great many. Call us and we will tell you honestly when we can be there rather than promise a time we cannot keep.
Five guides written specifically for Aberdare. We are publishing these in batches rather than all at once, so some are still being written — those are marked, rather than linked to a page that is not there.
We cover fifteen areas from our base in Neath. If yours is not listed, call and ask — the list is where we work most, not a boundary.
Tell us what the weather has done and what you can see from the ground. We will assess the roof, explain what needs repairing and give you a free, no-obligation quotation.
Tell us what the weather has done and what you can see from the ground. We will come back to you — usually the same day.
If water is coming in now, please call rather than email — 07766 547309.
