Storm damage roof repair in Wisbech: the first hour, the claim, and the knock

Why Wisbech roofs fail at the edges

Wisbech stands on flat, drained fen beside a tidal river. There is no hill, no ridge line, no belt of woodland and very little dense built fabric between the open country and your roof. Wind arrives close to full strength, from whichever direction it likes, and that single characteristic shapes the whole pattern of storm damage here.

Wind damage to a pitched roof is mostly suction rather than pushing. Air accelerating over the ridge and around a gable produces negative pressure, and that pressure is highest at the edges of the roof: the ridge, the verge at each gable end, the hips and the eaves. So the money spent making a roof storm-resistant here belongs at the perimeter rather than in the field of tiles. A mid-slope tile has neighbours holding it down on every side. A verge tile has fresh air on one side and a strip of ageing mortar on the other.

What tends to go first

• Ridge and hip tiles. Traditionally bedded in sand and cement. Mortar loses its grip over decades, and once one ridge tile lifts the wind has a purchase on the rest of the run.
• Verges. The mortar edge at a gable is the most exposed line on the building. On a pantile roof it is also where losing one tile immediately exposes the next one along.
• Eaves underlay and the bottom courses. Driven rain gets under lifted tiles, and the eaves underlay is the last thing between it and the wall plate.
• Flashings and lead. Lead that has lost its clips or wedges lifts in a gust and does not lie back down.
• Anything already compromised. A cracked nib, a corroded nail or a tile somebody stood on last summer.

Water has always been taken seriously here

Wisbech has a long relationship with water that has nothing to do with roofs. A catastrophic flood in 1236 drowned hundreds of people and destroyed whole flocks and herds. A flood in 1978 claimed one life and led to the flood walls and gates that protect the town today.

It would be dishonest to draw a straight line from that history to your roof, and we are not going to. Flood defence and roof defence are separate problems, and a roofer leaning on the town's flood story to sell you tiles is selling rather than advising. What the history does illustrate is the geography behind both: a low, flat, open place beside tidal water where very little stands between the weather and the buildings. The town has invested heavily in the water that arrives from below. Owners are still responsible for the part that arrives from above.

Temporary cover: what it is, and what it should cost

Temporary cover, usually called a tarp, is a heavy duty sheet fixed properly over the damaged area with battens so it stays put in the next round of wind and sheds water off the roof rather than trapping it behind. It is not a bin bag and gaffer tape, and it is not a permanent repair. Done properly it needs safe access, and access is the expensive part: on a bungalow a competent roofer may manage from a ladder or a tower, but two storeys up on a Brink frontage in a gale it is a scaffold or nothing.

Emergency call-out pricing is legitimately higher than planned work, because somebody is dropping other jobs and working in bad conditions. What is not legitimate is a four figure number for a sheet over a hole, or a firm that will only sheet the roof if you sign for the permanent work at the same time. Those are two separate decisions and you are entitled to keep them separate.

• Ask what the cover costs as a standalone job, in writing or by text, before anybody starts.
• Ask whether that cost comes off the permanent repair if you use the same firm. Many will say yes. Get that in writing too.
• Ask how long it is expected to last. Weeks is normal. A whole winter on an exposed gable is optimistic.
• Photograph the damage before the cover goes on. Once it is sheeted, your evidence has disappeared under a tarpaulin.
• Keep the receipt. Emergency work carried out to prevent further damage is normally recoverable on a claim.

Wear and tear: the reason most claims get refused

Wear and tear is the commonest refusal and it is worth understanding rather than treating as insurers being difficult. Their position is that if a roof was already at the end of its life, the storm did not cause the loss, it exposed it. On a roof still carrying original mortar bedding and original nails after sixty years, that has some force. It also gets applied lazily to roofs where it does not apply at all, and that is where you push back. Two things decide it: your photographs, and how the roofer's report is worded.

• Dated evidence from before and after. Any older photograph showing the roof intact is worth a great deal, and most people have one without realising, in a family photo or an old estate agent listing. Failing that, photographs taken immediately after the storm at least establish the event.
• A report that describes cause, not just condition. A report saying the roof is old, the tiles are worn and a re-roof is recommended hands the insurer its refusal. A report identifying which components failed, in which direction, consistent with wind loading on a named date, and confirming the surrounding covering is otherwise sound, is a completely different document.
• The storm itself. Give the date and the storm name if it had one. Weather records are public and the insurer will check them.
• Consistency. Your account, the photographs and the report should describe the same event. Contradictions get seized on.

Ask a roofer directly whether they are used to writing reports for insurance claims. Plenty are, and it makes a real difference. It is also reasonable for them to charge for the report separately.

From temporary cover to a permanent repair

Once the water has stopped the pressure comes off, and that is exactly the moment to slow down rather than speed up.

1. Get the temporary cover on, the same day if water is coming in.
2. Notify the insurer even if you are not sure you will claim. Late notification is itself a reason claims get reduced or declined.
3. Get the damage assessed and photographed, and if you are claiming, get the report worded around cause rather than condition.
4. Get two or three quotes. Storm work is exactly when people accept the first number because they are rattled, and exactly when they should not.
5. Check the whole roof while there is access. If a scaffold is going up anyway, dealing with the rest of the ridge, the verges and the flashings costs very little next to doing it separately in two years.
6. Only then agree the work in writing, with the materials, the fixing specification and the guarantee all stated.

On an exposed site the sensible upgrade at this point is the perimeter. Mechanically fixed ridge and verge systems hold up far better than mortar bedding and remove the failure that most commonly starts a storm claim here. Pantile roofs covers what to ask for.

If the storm has exposed a covering that is genuinely finished, that is a bigger conversation. Guide ranges put a full re-roof at roughly £5,500 to £9,500 on a terraced house and £7,000 to £13,000 on a semi-detached. See roofing costs and roof repair cost.

For the work itself see roof repairs and, for the stack, chimney repairs. If the building is listed or in a conservation area, read listed buildings and conservation areas before agreeing materials, because like for like may not be your decision. The checks in how to choose a roofer are worth more in the week after a storm than at any other time.