Storm Damage & Emergency Roof Repairs In Newcastle
Has last night's wind left tiles on the lawn and a drip coming through the bedroom ceiling?
Same-day make-safe, temporary sheeting and proper permanent repairs after wind damage across Newcastle, the coast and the rest of Tyne and Wear
When the wind gets up off the North Sea it goes looking for the weak spot on every roof in the city, and it finds a lot of them. We run same-day call-outs across Newcastle and Tyne and Wear for lifted tiles, ridge tiles blown off, chimney pots down and lead peeled back. First job is to make it safe and dry. Second is the permanent repair, with photos and a written report your insurer can actually use. If you have been knocked on by a van with no name on it, ring us before you pay them anything.
- Same-day make-safe across Newcastle and Tyne and Wear
- Temporary sheeting that stays put in the next gust
- Photos, written report and like-for-like quote for insurers
- Ten-year written guarantee on the permanent repair
Get A Free Roof Inspection
Tell us what is going on and we will ring you back to arrange a look.
What A Big Blow Does To A Tyneside Roof
Storm Arwen in November 2021 showed every roofer in the North East exactly where roofs fail under wind. The same faults turn up after every gale since, just in smaller numbers.
Tiles Lifted And Dropped Back Wrong
Wind gets under the bottom edge of a tile, lifts it, and lets it fall back a few centimetres out of line. From the garden the roof looks fine. From the loft you can see daylight. Those tiles will come off entirely in the next storm and take the ones below with them.
Ridge Tiles In The Street
Mortar-bedded ridges are the first thing to go once the bedding has cracked, and most ridges on 1930s semis in Fenham and Kenton have cracked bedding. A ridge tile weighs a few kilos and falls two storeys. We treat a missing one as urgent for the roof and for whoever walks underneath.
Chimney Pot Down
Pots sit in flaunching that has been crumbling for years, and a strong gust from the east is all it takes. The pot either lands on the roof, breaking tiles on the way, or on the pavement. Either way the flue is open to the rain and the stack needs looking at before the next one goes.
Lead Peeled Back Like Foil
Flashing that was only tucked in and never properly fixed gets caught by the wind and folded back on itself. The chimney or the abutment is then open along its whole length. This one usually shows as a sudden heavy leak rather than a slow stain.
Water Coming In Fast
Storm leaks are not the slow drip of a cracked tile. A section of roof with the covering gone lets in water by the bucketload, and a plaster ceiling will hold it for a while and then let go all at once. Getting a cover on within hours makes a real difference to what you are left repairing.
Aerial Or Felt Through The Roof
Aerials get bent flat and their brackets rip tiles off with them. On flat roofs the felt lifts at a loose edge and the wind peels a whole sheet back in seconds. Both are easy to see from the ground and both need sorting before the next front comes through.
What Happens When You Ring Us After A Storm
Emergency work has an order to it. Safe first, dry second, paperwork third, proper repair when the weather lets us.
Call Us And Tell Us What You See
Which bit of the roof, what is on the ground, whether water is coming in and where. We will tell you straight away whether it is a same-day visit or whether it can safely wait until morning, and what to do in the meantime.
Make It Safe
First on site, we deal with anything that could fall: loose ridge tiles, a leaning pot, tiles hanging by a corner. Then the area gets covered with heavy-duty sheeting battened down at the edges, not a tarpaulin held with bricks that will be in next door's garden by midnight.
Photograph And Record Everything
Before anything is moved we photograph the damage from the ground, from the roof and from inside. We note the date, the wind direction and what we found. That record is what makes an insurance claim straightforward instead of an argument.
Written Quote, Like For Like
You get a quote for the permanent repair that lists exactly what was damaged and what will be done to put it back as it was. Insurers want like-for-like, so that is how we write it. If something else on the roof was already failing, we say so separately and do not blur the two.
The Permanent Repair
Once the wind has dropped we come back and do it properly: tiles replaced and fixed, ridges re-bedded or converted to a dry system that cannot blow off, lead re-dressed and fixed, pots re-set in new flaunching. The temporary cover comes off the same day.
Guarantee And Follow-Up
The permanent work is covered by a ten-year written guarantee. If your insurer needs anything further, an invoice in a certain format or extra photos, we provide it. And if the next gale shifts something else, you have a number for a roofer who already knows your roof.
Safe Tonight, Fixed Properly, And Nobody Knocking On Your Door
Storm work attracts the wrong sort of trader, which is why we put everything in writing even when we are standing on your drive in the rain. The make-safe is priced before we go up, the permanent repair is quoted separately once we can see the full picture, and the guarantee on that repair is stated on the quote. You will not get a bill for something you did not agree to.
We also do not inflate the job for the insurer. A claim for three tiles and a ridge is a claim for three tiles and a ridge. Padding it out with work that was needed anyway gets claims rejected and gets you a reputation with your insurer you do not want. If your roof genuinely needs more doing, that goes on a separate quote with a separate explanation.
How To Spot The Roofers Who Follow The Storm
Nobody Honest Turns Up Unasked
The morning after a gale, vans with no company name on the side appear in streets across Newcastle, knocking on doors to say they 'noticed some tiles' from the road. A real roofer is on the phone to their existing customers at that point, not cold-calling. If someone you did not ring is on your doorstep offering to go up today, close the door and ring someone you choose.
Cash Up Front Is The Tell
Storm chasers want paying before the work, in cash, because they will not be around afterwards. We invoice when the job is done, and the make-safe and the full repair are two separate written prices. Anyone who wants a deposit for a two-hour emergency job, or who cannot give you a company name, address and phone number that you can check, is not someone to let on your roof.
You Choose The Contractor, Not The Insurer
An insurer can suggest a contractor from their panel, and you are allowed to say no and use your own. What they need from whoever does the work is evidence: dated photos, a description of the damage, and a quote that restores what was there. We provide all of that as standard. What you should not accept is a roofer who 'handles the claim for you' and asks you to sign anything over to them.
Make Safe, Repair, Or Claim?
After a storm there are three ways the next few weeks can go. This is how they usually compare.
| Make safe only | Make safe + permanent repair | Insurance claim route | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What happens | Loose material removed, damaged area sheeted and battened | As left, then the full repair once the weather allows | As left, plus our report and photos go to your insurer and the repair follows their approval |
| Guide price to you | £150 - £350 | £300 - £1,500 depending on damage | Your excess, with the rest covered if the claim is accepted |
| How fast | Same day where we can | Make-safe same day, repair within days | Make-safe same day, repair once the insurer agrees, usually a week or two |
| Paperwork | Invoice for the make-safe | Written quote and guarantee | Dated photos, written damage report, like-for-like quote, final invoice |
| Right choice when | You need it dry now and will decide later | The damage is modest and below your excess | Significant damage, or several areas hit at once |
| Watch out for | Leaving the sheeting on for months | Nobody; this is the normal route | Insurers rejecting claims where the roof was already in poor repair |
A Pantile Cottage After An Easterly Took The Ridge
The cottage in the photo has a clay pantile roof, the traditional covering up this part of the coast, and it took a beating in an easterly. Pantiles hook over the batten and sit loose against each other, which is fine until the wind gets under the bottom row and starts lifting them in a line. Three had gone, the ridge tiles above them had followed, and rain was running straight down the inside of the dormer cheek. We sheeted it that afternoon, came back when the wind dropped, replaced the tiles with reclaimed pantiles to match the weathered ones, and re-bedded the ridge.
That is what most storm work looks like once the panic has passed: a handful of tiles, a ridge, a flashing. The ridge and hip tiles are nearly always part of it, because the mortar under them is the oldest and most brittle thing on the roof. Where the wind has shifted a few tiles without taking any off, it becomes a slipped tile job and we price it as one rather than dressing it up as storm damage.
Every stage is photographed, which matters more on storm jobs than any other. Your insurer will want to see what the roof looked like before we touched it, and so will you.
Based on the storm call-outs we attend around Newcastle and the coast, well over half of the roofs that lose tiles in a gale had a fault we could have fixed for a fraction of the cost the summer before, usually loose ridge mortar or a tile already out of line.
Based on the enquiries and jobs handled by Huckleberry Roofing Ltd. A rough picture of what we see, not a formal survey.What Storm Repairs Usually Cost
A make-safe with sheeting is the low end. Replacing a run of tiles, re-bedding a ridge or re-setting a chimney pot sits in the middle. New lead to a stack, or a section of roof stripped and re-covered where the wind took the felt, is the top. Quoted in writing, VAT inclusive, before the permanent work starts.
£150 - £1,500
See The Full Cost GuideStorm And Emergency Roof Questions
What should I do in the first hour after storm damage?
Do you charge to come out after a storm?
How long can temporary sheeting be left on?
Will my home insurance cover storm damage to the roof in Newcastle?
Why do roofs on the coast get hit worse?
Do I need planning permission for storm repairs?
Storm Damage & Emergency Roof Repairs Across Tyne And Wear
Newcastle upon Tyne is home turf, and we cover the rest of Tyne and Wear from there. Pick your area for the local page, or just ring if you are somewhere in between.
Wind Done Its Worst? Ring Us, Not The Van At The Door.
Same-day call-outs across Newcastle and Tyne and Wear. We make it safe, record the damage and quote the proper repair in writing. Free inspection.