Emergency Roof Repair Fleet

The team refixes a single slipped tile, a lifted ridge tile or an open lap during the visit, from a roof ladder. The roof then needs no temporary cover and no return visit. A director confirms on the roof that nothing else on the slope has moved, and prices any further work before leaving.

On the cottage-style inter-war properties of Fleet the clay tile runs steeply down to low eaves, so the team refixes a tile displaced at the eaves, at the verge or in the courses immediately above them, from a ladder positioned on the property.

A director establishes on arrival where the water is entering before anything is covered. An overflowing gutter, a blocked outlet behind a parapet or a failed seal at a pipe lets water into a house as quickly as a defect in the covering itself. The team clears a blocked gutter or outlet during the visit, so that fault needs no cover and no quotation.

Mature trees line the main roads in Fleet and stand in many gardens, so a gutter or downpipe outlet blocked with leaf litter is a frequent reason for a call-out here. The team clears the gutter and the outlet from the ladder during the visit and examines the downpipe and the fascia brackets that carry the gutter before leaving.

The team covers the opening and refixes every loose course the ladder reaches during the visit. The permanent repair is priced as storm damage once the whole slope can be seen in daylight, because a gale that lifted one course has usually loosened the ones around it. Where the visit falls in daylight, a director quotes on the roof and the team often completes the repair before it leaves.

Several of Fleet’s older streets occupy rising ground, and the inter-war properties there carry steeply pitched clay tile to a ridge well above the eaves. A director inspects the courses and the ridge above the opening from a roof ladder in daylight. Before pricing the permanent repair, a director confirms that the battens and fixings beneath the lifted tiles are sound.

A leak that has shown for weeks and is now water on the floor has usually soaked the insulation above the ceiling first. The team therefore makes safe an area larger than the point of entry. We trace and price the permanent roof leak repair once the roof is dry, because water travels a long way along a rafter before it shows.

The Victorian and Edwardian properties of North Fleet are mainly two storeys with pitched roofs and a loft beneath the slope, so the team traces the saturated rafter and underlay from the hatch during the visit. It then secures the cover above the highest saturated point on the rafter, which is rarely directly above the staining on the ceiling.

Water stands on a flat roof instead of running off it. The team first finds where the water is standing on the deck and clears it. A patch holds the membrane until the flat roof repair is completed, and that repair is priced on the whole deck, because water that has stood on the membrane has usually penetrated beneath it beyond the patch.

On the late-twentieth-century cul-de-sacs of South Fleet and Pondtail the team reaches an extension or garage roof from the driveway beside the property. On the estates constructed from the late 1990s the team reaches those roofs the same way. It clears the standing water from the deck and patches the membrane during the visit. A director prices the repair on the visit where the entire deck, its upstands and its outlet can be seen.

A director takes the call and asks:

• where the water is showing inside
• whether it is still coming in
• how the roof is reached from the plot
• whether the loft can be reached from inside

From those answers a director decides which ladders the van carries and which elevation the team attends first. While the team travels, stay off the roof. Position a bucket or a container beneath the leak and move furniture and anything stored beneath it. Leave the tiles, slates and underlay where they are, because the team lifts and refixes them from the roof ladder during the visit.

On arrival the van stops on the road, leaving your driveway clear for the ladder. A director confirms with you where the ladder is footed, whether a side gate reaches the rear elevation and whether the loft hatch is accessible. The team works from the roof ladder and from the loft, and no scaffold is erected for an emergency. Where the ladder cannot reach the defect safely, in darkness or in high wind, the team makes safe from the loft and returns to the elevation once the ladder can be positioned.

The team secures the cover to sound material on every edge and carries it considerably beyond the opening. The water lying on the cover and the wind beneath it cannot then displace it. Where the opening sits at a ridge, a chimney stack or a valley, the cover extends over the apron or the flashing as well as the slope, because the detail above discharges water onto the opening. Before the team leaves, a director explains what the cover will withstand and what it will not.

A director prices what the slope, the ridge, the flashings and the gutters reveal during the visit. It is a free, no-obligation quote, written and itemised with no hidden extras, and nothing proceeds until you have agreed it. Where the entire slope cannot be seen safely during the visit, in darkness or high wind, the quote follows within 24 hours of the visit. The cover remains in position while you decide.

The team completes a minor repair before it leaves. A slipped tile, an open lap or a lifted lead flashing is refixed on the first visit, and the property needs no second visit. How much is completed on the first visit depends on the severity of the damage. The team schedules a more extensive repair once you have agreed the quote, then removes the temporary cover on the return visit. Where the visit showed a covering failing in more than one place, a roof inspection of the entire roof precedes the repair. The inspection establishes the condition of the whole covering, so that we do not price a repair that would be repeated.

Yes, where the hatch and the loft boards are safe to use. Collect the water in whatever container is available and move anything stored beneath the leak. Leave the covering and the underlay undisturbed, because a tile or slate displaced from below opens the roof further. Leave the roof itself to our team, which reaches it from the roof ladder during the visit.

Yes. The temporary cover is secured in the rain, because the water entering the property is the reason for the visit. Our team works from a roof ladder and the loft, and the elevation does not need to be dry for a cover to be secured. The permanent repair is scheduled for a dry roof, and a director confirms the date with you when the quotation is accepted.

From a roof ladder positioned on the property and from the loft; no scaffold is erected for an emergency. Most of Fleet’s older properties occupy the original grid of plots. The team positions the ladder on the driveway or the front garden, against the eaves of the elevation that is leaking. On the later cul-de-sacs it positions the ladder on the hard standing beside the property. Several of the older streets in North Fleet occupy a steep gradient, so the plot is not always level. A director confirms on arrival where the ladder can be positioned and which elevation it reaches. Where neither the ladder nor the loft reaches the defect safely, the team makes safe from inside. It returns to the elevation once it can be reached safely.

Yes, for the conditions it was secured for. The team secures the cover to sound material beyond the opening, and a director explains before leaving the limit of what it will withstand. Mature trees occupy many Fleet gardens. Beneath a canopy the team secures the cover along every edge and clears the gutter and the downpipe below it before leaving. Leaf litter on a cover holds water against the opening. If conditions deteriorate beyond what the cover was secured for, contact us and the team returns.

Often, yes. The team refixes a slipped tile, an open lap or a lifted lead flashing before it leaves. Where a director can see the whole fault in daylight, the quote is given on the roof and the repair completed the same day. How much is done on the first visit depends on how severe the damage is. A slope a gale has opened, a leak that has soaked the insulation or a roof that cannot be reached safely is covered first. That repair is quoted within 24 hours of the visit and carried out once you have agreed the quote. We attend emergency call-outs everywhere in our Fleet service area.