What Counts as a Roofing Emergency?
Not every roof problem needs a night-time call-out, and we'd rather save you the emergency rate when a next-day visit will do. Here's how we judge it.
Call Us Now If:
- Water is actively coming through a ceiling or running down a wall
- A storm has removed tiles, slates or ridge tiles and the roof is open to the weather
- A chimney pot, stack or section of roof has fallen or looks about to
- A tree, aerial or debris has come through the roof
- A flat roof has lifted or torn and is letting water in
- A ceiling is bulging with water
Can Usually Wait Until Normal Hours:
- A single slipped tile with no water coming in
- A small damp patch that only appears in heavy rain
- Blocked or overflowing gutters
- Moss build-up or a dirty roof
- Cracked mortar on the ridge that's still holding
If you're not sure which yours is, ring anyway. We'll ask a few questions and tell you honestly whether it needs us tonight.
An emergency call-out is about making the roof safe tonight. The permanent fix follows once the weather allows: a standard roof repair, rebuilding storm-damaged ridges and verges (see storm damage repairs), or tracing a leak that keeps coming back with leak detection.
Our Emergency Response
An emergency call to a Sale roof follows the same sequence every time, so nothing gets missed in the rush.
Immediate Action
On the phone we'll tell you what to do right now: buckets under drips, piercing a bulging ceiling over a bowl, moving valuables, and switching off electrics if water is near a light fitting. Then we give you an arrival time.
Make Safe
Our first job on site is to stop water getting in and remove anything that could fall. Tarpaulins, temporary battens, emergency slates and tiles, and loose material cleared from the roof and gutters.
Secure Property
Where a roof is open or a chimney is unstable we secure the area, protect what's below and, if needed, arrange scaffold or a tower for the following day so permanent work can start safely.
Assessment and Quote
Once the roof is safe we assess the full extent of the damage in daylight, photograph it, and give you a written quote for the permanent repair. The photographs and report are what your insurer will ask for.
Permanent Repair
We come back as soon as the weather allows and repair the roof properly with matching materials. A tarpaulin is not a repair, and we'll never leave one on a Sale roof as the finished job.
Storm Damage in Sale
Every winter brings gales and driving rain across Greater Manchester, and the storm damage we see in Sale is predictable: ridge tiles lifted where the mortar had already cracked, slates stripped from nail-sick roofs, felt torn off garages and extensions, lead peeled back from chimneys, and fascias and gutters hanging. We work through storm calls across Sale, M33 in order of urgency, with water coming into a house always coming first. Once the weather settles we repair the damage permanently and, where we can, fix the cause so the next storm doesn't do the same thing. Converting a mortar ridge to a dry ridge system after a storm is the commonest example.
Insurance Claims Support
Most home insurance covers storm damage, and insurers want the same things every time. We provide dated photographs of the damage before and after make-safe, a plain-English report describing what happened and why, and an itemised quote laid out the way loss adjusters expect. We'll speak to your insurer or adjuster directly if you'd rather. We'll also be honest about what's likely to be covered: storm damage to a sound roof normally is, long-term wear and tear usually isn't, and we won't inflate a claim that's going to be rejected.
Emergency Callout Charges
During normal working hours there's no charge to come and look at an urgent problem in Sale. For evening, night and weekend call-outs a fixed fee applies, which we tell you on the phone before we set off, and which is deducted from the cost of the permanent repair if you go ahead with us. Temporary make-safe materials are charged at cost. You will never get a surprise bill for an emergency visit.