Storm Damage Repairs · Croydon & the CR postcodes
Storm Damage Roof Repairs In Croydon
Has the wind taken something off your roof?
Make-safe, insurance documentation and permanent repairs after wind and storm damage in Croydon
Wind does not usually take a roof apart from the top down. It finds an edge - a loose verge tile, a lifted ridge, a gap where a slate had already slipped - and works underneath it. That is why the damage after a gale so often starts at a corner or along a hip, and why a roof that survived twenty winters can lose a whole course in one night.
Free storm damage repairs quote
Four details and somebody will come and look at it. There is no charge for the visit, no obligation afterwards, and if the answer is that your roof is fine, that is what you will be told.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
What you are seeing, and what it usually means
None of this replaces somebody actually looking at your roof, but it will tell you roughly what you are dealing with and how much of a hurry to be in.
Tiles or slates in the garden
The obvious one. What matters more is the gap they left, because that edge is now what the next gale will pull at.
Ridge or hip tiles visibly out of line
Mortar bedding has failed. On the interwar stock across Shirley, Selsdon and Coulsdon this is the single most common storm failure, and it is usually age rather than the storm itself.
Lead flashing lifted or rolled back
Wind has got under an unwedged edge. Common where a previous repair used mortar instead of lead wedges to hold the flashing into the joint.
A branch down across the roof
Croydon Council looks after around 33,000 street trees and there is heavy private planting across Shirley, Selsdon and Purley. Impact damage tends to break battens as well as covering, so it needs looking at from inside too.
Why use us for storm damage repairs in Croydon
Documented before it is touched
Photographs of the damage in the state the storm left it. That is what an insurer wants and it cannot be recreated afterwards.
A report that names the cause
Insurers distinguish sharply between storm damage and gradual wear. A written report that sets out which one this was is what makes a claim straightforward.
Made safe the same day
Sheeted and secured so the next band of rain does not turn a roofing job into a plastering job as well.
The whole roof checked, not just the hole
Wind that lifted one course has usually loosened others nearby. Fixing only what is visibly missing is how people end up ringing again after the next gale.
Matched materials
Concrete tile profiles from the interwar decades are still obtainable, and reclaimed slate is available for the Victorian stock. A patch in the wrong material is permanent and obvious.
Guaranteed for ten years
In writing, handed over on completion, covering the work carried out.
Croydon has form for this
The Great Storm of October 1987 went straight over south London, and Croydon lost a great deal of its finest woodland to it - Purley Beeches and Heathfield among them. Anybody who was here remembers it. What matters for a roof now is the pattern it demonstrated: the damage concentrated on the high, exposed ground in the south of the borough and along the tree-lined roads, and it started at edges and corners rather than in the middle of slopes. Nothing since has changed that. The roofs that lose tiles in a February gale are still the ones on the ridge, and still the ones with a loose verge nobody had noticed.
"After a named storm, the calls we get from the ridge at Sanderstead, Warlingham and New Addington run several times ahead of the calls from the low ground in the north of the borough."
Based on the storm damage repairs jobs handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
How a storm damage repairs job runs
You describe the symptom
Which room, which wall, and does it only happen when the rain comes from a particular direction? That last question narrows things down more than people expect, before anybody has been anywhere near the roof.
Somebody comes and looks - loft included
Free, with no expectation that it becomes a job. Half the evidence is on the underside of the roof, so the loft gets looked at as a matter of course rather than as a favour.
You are told the cause before the price
In plain terms, with photographs where they make the point better than words. If you want to take that diagnosis to somebody else for a second quote, that is entirely reasonable.
A written, itemised price
Access priced as its own line, so it is obvious what you are paying to reach the work as opposed to doing it. The figure on the quote is the figure on the invoice.
The work, back to something solid
Failed material comes out until there is sound timber and sound masonry underneath. Matched covering, code 4 lead at the junctions, mortar mixed to suit the brick it is going onto.
Checked, cleared and guaranteed
The details either side get checked while the access is still up, the site is cleared, finished photographs come to you, and the written guarantee is handed over the same day.
The 10 year guarantee, and why it is safe to offer
Promising a roof will stay dry is easy. What counts is what happens if it does not. Work booked through Roof Repairs Croydon carries a 10 year workmanship guarantee, on paper, handed to you on the day and written in language you can actually read. The slates, tiles, lead, mortar, membranes and rainwater goods carry their own manufacturer cover on top of that. It varies by product, so you get told which cover applies to your job rather than one headline number that would be wrong on most of them.
Here is the reason a guarantee like that is not a risk. Repairs come back for one reason above all others: the fault was never found in the first place. Somebody went up, saw a stain on the ceiling below, mended whatever looked worst directly above it, and left. Water does not cooperate with that approach. It lands on a slate, runs under it, drops onto a rafter and travels along the rafter before it finds anywhere to fall. On a wide hipped roof in Sanderstead or Shirley that can be five metres from where it came in.
Find the entry point and the repair holds for years. Miss it and no amount of guarantee wording helps anybody. That is why the survey happens before the price, and it is why, if the same water finds its way back into your house inside the guarantee period, putting it right costs you nothing.
10 year
Workmanship guarantee
1,000+
Roofs put right
Covered
Public liability insurance
Per product
Maker's own warranty
Three questions worth asking whoever you use
Including us. If the answers do not stand up, that tells you something useful.
Are they writing anything down?
A verbal assurance that it was storm damage is worth nothing to a loss adjuster. You want dated photographs and a written description of the mechanism of failure.
Are they looking beyond the gap?
The tiles that came off are the ones you can see. The ones that were lifted and dropped back are the ones that go next. A proper storm inspection covers the whole slope and the ridge line.
Are they pressuring you toward a claim?
Plenty of storm-chasing outfits appear in a borough after a named storm and push everyone toward a full replacement on insurance. Be wary. Much storm damage is a half day's work.
Storm Damage Or Wear And Tear?
This distinction decides whether your insurer pays, so it is worth understanding before you pick up the phone to them.
| Comparison point | Reads as storm damage | Reads as wear and tear |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Appeared during or immediately after recorded high winds. | Developed gradually over months or seasons. |
| What the break looks like | Fresh, clean fractures. Bright, unweathered edges where material has snapped. | Weathered, dirty, mossed edges showing the break has been open a long time. |
| Pattern on the roof | Concentrated at an edge, a corner, a verge or a hip where wind could get under. | Scattered across the slope, or a whole slope failing evenly. |
| Condition of the fixings | Nails intact but pulled, or battens split by force. | Nails corroded through, battens soft. Classic nail fatigue on older slate. |
| Usual insurer position | Covered, subject to your excess. | Not covered. Treated as maintenance. |
| What we give you | Photographs, a written report and, where it helps, the local wind data for the date. | The same honest assessment, and a price to put it right without a claim. |
Do not get on the roof to look
More people are hurt inspecting storm damage than are hurt by it. A roof that has just lost tiles has loose material on it, the surface is wet, and the wind that caused the problem has not usually finished. Photograph what you can see from the ground and from an upstairs window, look for daylight from inside the loft, and leave the rest. Attendance is free, so there is nothing to be gained by climbing up first.
See what a repair costs
What storm damage repairs costs in Croydon
Storm work splits into the make-safe and the repair. Refixing a handful of displaced tiles is usually a few hundred pounds. Rebedding a full ridge line runs higher because it is a day's work and the mortar has to be right. Where a claim is involved we will price the work properly and give you the documentation, and we will not inflate a quote because an insurer rather than you is paying it.
See the full cost guideStorm Damage Repairs - your questions
How windy does it have to have been to count as a storm?
Many policies use gusts of 47mph or above as the threshold, though the wording varies and some now avoid a fixed figure. What matters more in practice is that the damage is consistent with wind rather than with age. We will tell you honestly which of the two your roof looks like, because a claim built on the wrong story tends to fail at the survey stage.
Will you deal with my insurance company?
We will give you everything the insurer needs - dated photographs, a written report describing what failed and why, and an itemised quote. We are not loss assessors and will not represent you in the claim itself, which is a separate regulated business and not one to pretend at.
A tree came down on my roof. Who pays?
If it is your tree, your buildings insurance normally handles it. If it was a street tree, that is a matter for Croydon Council, or for Sutton, Tandridge or Bromley depending on which side of the boundary you are on. Either way the roof needs making safe first and the argument about who pays can follow.
Some tiles slipped but nothing is leaking. Is it urgent?
More urgent than it feels. A displaced tile exposes the felt below to sunlight and to wind, and it gives the next gale an edge to lift. Left through a winter, a job that was one tile becomes a job that is a slope. It is rarely expensive to deal with straight away.
Can you match tiles on a 1930s house?
Usually. The concrete tile profiles used across the interwar estates in Shirley, Selsdon, Sanderstead and Coulsdon are largely still made or still obtainable reclaimed. Where an exact match genuinely does not exist any more, the honest options are to take matching tiles from a less visible slope and put the new ones there instead, or to accept a small visible difference. You get told which situation you are in.
How long after a storm should I get it looked at?
Straight away for anything letting water in. Within a few weeks for anything else, and certainly before the next spell of wind. Most policies also require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, so leaving an open roof through a wet month can itself weaken a claim.
Also worth a look: Emergency roof repairs ·Chimney repairs ·Roof replacement
Where we work
Storm Damage Repairs across the whole borough and over the boundary where it makes sense - from the Victorian terraces at the Thornton Heath end up onto the chalk at Kenley, Coulsdon and Sanderstead, and out to Wallington, Caterham, Warlingham and West Wickham.
What Croydon homeowners say
From roads across the borough, once the ladders had gone.
"Damp patch on our landing ceiling for about three years. Two roofers had been out and both mended the tiles directly above it, and neither made the slightest difference. This chap spent twenty minutes in the loft with a torch before he even went outside, then showed me a photo of a split in the lead in the valley about four metres away from the stain. Fixed it in a morning. Three winters on and nothing."
"Water was coming down the front bedroom wall every time it rained hard and I had convinced myself the roof was finished. It was the gutter. Half of it had dropped so the water was sitting in the middle and going over the front rather than down the pipe. He reset the brackets and cleared the gully, charged me a fraction of what I had budgeted for, and told me the roof itself had years left. Could easily have sold me a new one."
"Ours is in the Chatsworth Road conservation area and I had no idea the rules on roof work here are stricter than the rest of Croydon. He knew straight away, explained what I could and could not do without an application, and did the repair in matching slate. That saved me a very awkward conversation with the council later on."
"Lost most of the ridge tiles along the back in a February gale. Rang in the morning, sheeted the same afternoon so the weather could not get in, came back the following week when it was dry and rebedded the whole ridge properly. Sent me photos of everything for the insurance without me even asking. The bill was exactly what the quote said it would be."
"Gutters had been overflowing under the trees for years and the fascia behind them had gone soft. What I appreciated was that he explained why the timber had rotted rather than just quoting to replace it, and pointed out the new soffits needed vents or I would end up with condensation in the loft instead. Nobody had ever mentioned that to me before."
Had us out to your roof?
Two minutes writing a review does more for a small local firm than any amount of advertising, and it helps the next person in Croydon work out who to ring.
Get a free storm damage repairs quote
Ring and describe what you can see, or send a message and somebody will come out and put their head in your loft. It costs nothing to find out what is wrong. The price you are quoted is the price you pay. And if the answer turns out to be that it can wait another few years, that is what you will be told.