On an exposed site like Port Talbot this question has an extra edge to it, because the honest answer sometimes is that the most urgent job cannot safely be done yet. Knowing which situation you are in is worth more than a promise of a same-day visit.
“Is this urgent?” and “can somebody fix it now?” are separate questions, and on the coast they often have different answers. A roof can genuinely need urgent attention while the conditions make going up on it unjustifiable.
When that happens, the right response is not to wait passively and not to send somebody up regardless. It is to do the parts that can be done — making the ground safe, limiting damage inside, clearing what can be reached from a ladder — and to go up as soon as it is defensible.
If a ceiling is bulging or sagging with water, stay out of the room and keep children and pets out. It is much heavier than it looks and it can come down without warning. Turn off the electricity to that room at the consumer unit if you can do so safely, and say so when you call.
This deserves stating clearly, because the industry does not usually say it out loud.
There is a wind speed above which nobody should be working at height, and on the seaward side of Port Talbot it is reached more often and stays there longer than it does inland. Above it, going onto a roof is not brave, it is a serious risk of somebody being killed, and it also produces bad work: nothing can be assessed properly and nothing fixed permanently in those conditions.
So if we tell you we will make the ground safe today and go up tomorrow morning when it has dropped, that is the right answer rather than a brush-off. Be more concerned about a contractor who agrees to go up in a gale than about one who declines — and particularly about one who turned up unasked.
The specific risk on an exposed site is not the damage that has happened. It is the damage that happens next, in the wave behind the first one, to a roof that is now open at an edge.
A roof that has lost material has lost the restraint around it, and wind gets under an open edge and works inwards. That is why a modest bit of damage on a Friday can be a large bit of damage by Sunday, and it is the strongest argument for getting a roof looked at promptly even when the immediate situation seems manageable.
A few days is reasonable. Months is not, because on this coast each of those degrades faster than it would inland: exposed underlay perishes, an unrestrained tile takes its neighbours in the next onshore gale, and salt-bearing water saturating a wall head does not dry out between events.
It removes danger and limits further damage. Securing or taking down loose material, making the ground below safe, temporary covering where the roof can be reached safely and the wind allows, and clearing a blocked gutter or outlet causing water to back up — the last of which is the most underrated emergency job there is and is often reachable from a ladder when the roof is not.
What it does not do is the permanent repair. Mortar will not cure in the wet or cold, lead needs a dry surface, and flat-roof systems have moisture and temperature limits. A repair done in the wrong conditions fails, and on this coast it fails sooner.
After a named storm every roofing company in the region has more calls than it can answer, and coastal towns generate a great many at once. Work is ordered by risk. If you are further down the list you should be told plainly rather than given a time that quietly passes.
And when the emergency work holds, book the repair before the urgency fades. The most common failure after storm damage is not the make-safe. It is that nobody ever comes back, the temporary covering perishes over a winter of salt and wind, and the roof is open again in the next storm.
T & T Roofing South Wales covers Port Talbot and Sandfields from our base in Neath, and we will always tell you clearly whether what we have carried out is temporary or permanent.
We will come out, make the ground safe and assess what we can. Whether anybody goes onto the roof depends on the wind, and on this coast there are days when the answer has to be no.
We would not. Working at height above a certain wind speed is a serious risk to the person doing it, and nothing assessed or fixed in those conditions is reliable. Take your time and check who you are dealing with.
Often yes, but check it after each spell of wind. On an exposed site a roof that is open at an edge tends to get worse in the next wave, so small on Friday can be considerably larger by Sunday.
Weeks, not seasons, and less on an exposed coastal roof than inland. It buys time for the repair; it is not an alternative to it, and it should never be sold to you as one.
Storm damage in Port Talbot? T & T Roofing South Wales will assess the roof, explain what needs repairing and give you a free, no-obligation quotation. Storm Damage Roof Repairs Port Talbot has the full detail, or call us on 07766 547309.
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.
