Roof Repairs Wirral: What Does a Typical Repair Involve?

The Phone Call

Four questions, and they narrow things a great deal before anybody travels.

Where the water is showing - ceiling, wall, chimney breast, around a window. Each points somewhere different.

What the weather was doing. Wind-driven rain from one direction and prolonged heavy rain find completely different faults.

Whether it is wet now or an old mark.

Whether it has been repaired before, and what was done.

On an emergency we also ask whether anything is loose above a path or a door, and what is underneath the leak - which on a commercial building sets the priority.

The Inspection

The loft first, where there is one and it is safe to get into. Lights off, looking for daylight, then staining on the underlay and the timbers - and specifically the highest point it reaches, because whatever is wrong is at or above that.

Then the outside: the area the loft pointed at, everything uphill of it, and then the roof generally - covering, ridge, verges, valleys, flashings, chimney, penetrations and the rainwater goods. We look at the gutters whether or not anybody asked, because a real share of "roof leaks" are drainage.

Where a roof cannot be safely reached without a scaffold or a tower, we say so rather than guessing from a ladder. That occasionally means the inspection itself has to wait for access, which is frustrating and is better than the alternative.

The Quotation

It should name the defect, not only the work. "Renew lead soakers and stepped flashing to the east abutment, 4 metres" is comparable with somebody else's; "roof repairs" is not.

It should be clear about access - whether a scaffold or tower is included, and what is assumed. Two quotations that differ by hundreds usually differ because one includes access and the other assumes a ladder.

It should say whether what is proposed is a repair or a holding measure. Both are legitimate; being told which you are buying is not optional.

And it should say what happens if something is found once the covering is off - soft battens, decayed boards - because that is the finding that changes the job and it cannot be established beforehand.

The Work

Access first, and on many jobs it is the longest part. A scaffold has a delivery date and a collection date, and the roofing happens between them.

The repair itself is usually the shortest phase. A chimney flashing renewal is a day; getting to the chimney can be two.

Weather is a real constraint rather than an excuse. Mortar will not cure in a frost, adhesives need dry surfaces, lead work wants reasonable conditions. Work done in the wrong weather fails in a few years, so a postponement is usually somebody protecting you rather than themselves.

And clearing up: old mortar, offcuts and debris out of the gutters and valleys, because that is the next leak if it is left.

The End

Photographs. This is the one to insist on. You cannot see any of the work from the ground, and a set of before-and-after pictures is the only way you will ever know what was done.

A written description of what was found and what was renewed - not "roof repairs". That is what tells the next person, if there ever is one, what has already been tried.

And, where relevant, what was ruled out. Knowing the back gutter was clear and the pointing sound is genuinely useful information a year later.

What Varies Across the Peninsula

The method is the same everywhere; what changes is what we expect to find and how it gets specified.

On the west coast - Hoylake, West Kirby, Meols - non-ferrous fixings and clips at the perimeter as standard, because salt and uplift take out an ordinary specification years early.

On the older terraced stock in Birkenhead and Wallasey - shared chimney stacks, continuous roofs across party walls, and the question of who instructs the work on a converted or rented building.

On the inter-war housing in Bebington and the suburbs - hips, ridges and hip irons.

And in Heswall - complicated roofs with a great many junctions, where the answer is nearly always a detail rather than a tile.