A roof leak can spiral from a drip to a structural disaster in hours. Mould colonises wet insulation within 24 hours. Timber starts to rot. Ceilings collapse. Whatever time it is when you notice it, these are the steps that matter.
Water ingress left overnight can easily double the repair cost. Don't assume it can wait until morning.
The First 30 Minutes
Get furniture, electronics, and rugs away from the drip zone. A saturated sofa or wardrobe can cost more than the roof repair itself.
Buckets, towels, plastic sheeting. If water is bulging a ceiling, carefully puncture the lowest point to drain it. This stops it spreading sideways.
Wet roof surfaces are dangerously slippery. Untrained access is how falls happen. Document from windows or a loft hatch and wait for a professional.
Shoot the damage before you move anything. You'll need this for an insurance claim, and it saves the roofer time, meaning cheaper labour.
When You Need an Emergency Roofer Now
Not every drip means a midnight callout, but some do. Call immediately if any of these apply:
- Water is near electrical fittings, consumer units, or appliances
- The ceiling is visibly sagging or bulging, and may collapse under the weight
- Water is coming in fast, not just a slow drip
- Storm damage has visibly displaced tiles, ridge caps, or flashing
- You have a flat roof and water is pooling
What an Emergency Roofer Actually Does
When your roofer arrives, expect three phases: make it safe, stop the water, then quote the permanent fix. Common first-visit remedies:
- Emergency tarpaulin
- Covers the affected area, battened or weighted to survive further wind.
- Sealant or roofing cement
- Applied around cracked tiles, failing lead flashing, or open ridge-cap joints.
- Tile replacement
- If one or two tiles slipped in a storm, this is often completed on the first visit.
Permanent repairs - re-pointing a chimney stack, replacing a section of flashing, or relaying tiles - are usually quoted separately after a daylight inspection.
Where Roof Leaks Usually Start
A leak rarely starts where the drip appears - water runs along timbers and felt before it finds a way through your ceiling, so the stain can be metres from the actual hole. These are the usual entry points a roofer checks first.
- Slipped or missing tiles: the most common cause, especially after wind
- Failed flashing: the lead seals around chimneys, valleys and abutments crack and lift with age
- Blocked or overflowing gutters: water backs up under the tiles - see our gutter cleaning cost guide
- Flat-roof splits: old felt cracks and ponds, letting water sit and seep
- Cracked or slipped ridge tiles: the mortar holding them fails over time
Will Your Insurance Cover It?
It depends entirely on the cause. Sudden, storm-driven damage is usually covered; a leak that's the result of an old, poorly maintained roof generally isn't. Either way, document everything before you touch it.
- Photograph the damage inside and out before any clean-up or repair
- Keep receipts for emergency make-safe work - most policies cover reasonable steps to limit damage
- Note the date and any storm or weather warnings
- Check your excess before claiming - a small repair may cost less
Our storm damage roof checklist walks through exactly what to record, and the roof repair cost guide shows what the permanent fix is likely to cost.
How to Prevent the Next One
Most emergency callouts are preventable. An annual roof inspection (typically £100 to £200) catches loose tiles, cracked flashings, and failing sealant before they become water ingress. If your roof is over 20 years old and hasn't been inspected recently, book one before the next winter. The inspection cost is a fraction of a single emergency callout, let alone the downstream damage.
If water is coming in right now, don't wait it out - the longer it runs, the more it costs. Get an emergency roofer on the way to make it safe, day or night.