Most of the places we work are sheltered or exposed by something: a valley side, a ridge, a seafront. St. Mellons is exposed by the absence of anything at all. It sits on the eastern edge of Cardiff on low, level ground running out towards the coastal levels, and there is no hill, no valley wall and very little in the way of mature woodland upwind of it.
Open, flat ground does not reduce wind. It simply removes everything that would otherwise have slowed it down before it reached your roof. T & T Roofing South Wales repairs storm damage across St. Mellons, both in the older village and across the larger estates built from the 1970s onwards.
Below is what we are most often called to in St. Mellons, 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.
Wind slows near the ground because the ground is rough: buildings, trees, hedges and hills all drag on moving air. The rougher the surface upwind, the more the wind is slowed by the time it arrives. Flat, open, sparsely built ground provides very little of that drag.
The practical effect is that a house on the open edge of a development can be taking noticeably more wind than an identical house three streets in, sheltered by everything between it and the weather. That is why storm damage in St. Mellons is often concentrated on the outer edges of estates and on properties facing open fields.
Worth mentioning when you call. Whether your property backs onto open ground, fields or the edge of the estate. It changes what we expect to find, and it changes what we would recommend about how the repair is fixed down.
The older village around the church has period property with slate roofs and the failure pattern that goes with them: fixings that corrode while the slate itself remains sound, so slates slide out intact rather than breaking.
The large estates built from the 1970s onward are a different proposition — concrete interlocking tile, built at pace to a consistent specification, with mortar-bedded ridges and verges of the same age across whole streets. Those roofs fail as a batch rather than individually, so a cluster of similar damage on one road is information about the rest of it.
Interlocking tiles restrain one another. Only the perimeter tiles and periodic courses are typically fixed mechanically, and the rest rely on the interlock and their own weight. Wind that gets under an edge tile therefore does not take one tile; it takes the restraint away from the ones around it.
That is why a single displaced tile in an exposed position so often becomes a run of several. A repair has to restore the interlock and re-secure the surrounding area, not simply put a tile back in the hole.
Mortar-bedded ridges and verges from the 1970s and 1980s are now at an age where the bond has usually cracked. Thermal movement does that quietly over decades, and a strong wind on open ground then lifts a ridge tile that has been loose for years.
Where a roof has reached that point, re-bedding in mortar returns it to where it was decades ago and starts the clock again. A mechanically fixed dry-ridge or dry-verge system is worth considering on an exposed site, and we will price both.
Low ground near the levels drains slowly, and slow drainage matters to a roof indirectly: it is what happens to the water once the roof has handed it over. Downpipes discharging into gullies that cannot clear water quickly means water standing against the base of walls rather than going away.
After a storm it is worth checking, from the ground, whether downpipes are actually discharging and whether the gully at the bottom of each is clear. Storms deliver the debris that blocks them at the same moment as the water.
Newer estate housing has fewer chimneys than the older stock but plenty of abutments — points where a lower roof meets a higher wall, where an extension meets the house, or where a garage roof abuts the main elevation. Abutment flashing fails in the same ways as chimney flashing: lifted edges, mortar joints opened up, and previous repairs made in mastic that has hardened and cracked.
Where a stack is present, we assess it and the covering around it as one job, because repairing one without the other rarely stops the water.
Garages, porches, extensions and dormers across St. Mellons carry flat roofs, and on an exposed site those are the most vulnerable surfaces on the property. The whole area sits in the uplift zone and the covering is only held at its edges.
We assess felt, EPDM and other coverings and will tell you plainly whether a repair is worthwhile or whether the covering has come to the end of its service.
Where materials are loose or water is entering, the immediate work is reducing risk and limiting damage. On open ground the wind often does not drop as quickly as it does in more sheltered places, so there are occasions when the safe course is to secure what can be reached and return.
We will be clear about whether what has been done is temporary or permanent, and what still needs doing.
We inspect, identify the roofing work required and provide a written quotation setting it out. A specific description of the defect carries more weight with an insurer than a general statement that the roof was damaged in bad weather.
Whether the work is covered depends on your insurer and your policy terms.
Often position. Properties on the outer edge of a development, backing onto open ground, take wind that has not been slowed by anything, while houses further in are sheltered by everything between them and the weather.
Yes. Roofs built together in one programme reach the end of their mortar's life together, so damage tends to arrive in clusters across a street rather than at random.
That is how interlocking tiles behave. They restrain each other, so losing one takes support away from its neighbours. The repair has to restore that restraint.
On an exposed site it is worth considering, because re-bedding mortar puts the roof back where it was decades ago and starts the same clock. We will quote both so you can decide.
Check from the ground whether the downpipes are discharging and whether the gullies are clear. Storms deliver the debris that blocks them at the same time as the water.
Yes, both. They are quite different roofing propositions — period slate in the village, concrete tile on the estates — and we work on both.
Yes. We can provide a written assessment and quotation suitable for passing to a landlord, agent or managing organisation.
Five guides written specifically for St. Mellons. 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.
