Storm damage

Storm Damage and Insurance Work on Flat Roofs

After a storm the roofing is usually the easy part. What decides how the next month goes is whether anybody recorded the damage properly while it was still there to photograph, and whether what they wrote can be sent to an insurer without a covering letter. That record is what we produce, alongside the repair.

Tell us what happened

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On arrival

Making safe, and the judgement that comes first

The first question on site is not what needs repairing, it is what is still moving. Material lifted but not gone travels further in the next gust; a section peeled back over an occupied room is a different urgency from the same damage over a garage; debris on a parapet (the low wall round a roof) is a hazard to whoever walks underneath.

Where those can be dealt with safely they are, and temporary protection goes on to keep water out until a proper repair is specified. Where they cannot, that is said plainly instead: a wind that has not finished, an unstable edge, or access needing equipment nobody has yet is a reason to stop, and pretending otherwise is how people get hurt on roofs.

Evidence

Recording the damage while it is still evidence

Storm damage has a short evidential life. Temporary protection covers it, weather moves it, and a fortnight later the photographs that would have settled a question do not exist. So the recording happens on the same visit, before anything is tidied.

Dated photographs from more than one position. The general view showing where on the building it is, and the close work showing what actually failed.
The failure itself, described. Which detail let go, in which direction, and what that suggests: uplift at an edge behaves nothing like a puncture from something that landed on it.
The full extent, not the visible part. Wind lifts from an edge and works inward, so the checked area runs well past the obvious damage, and water already into the build-up (the layers of the roof) is recorded as part of the same event.
The condition around it. Recorded honestly, because an assessor will look anyway, and a report that quietly omits a covering already at the end of its life is worth less than one that does not.

The document

A report your insurer can read without ringing us

What you receive is one document: the photographs, a statement of cause and extent in plain language, and a priced scope separated into what is known and what cannot be known until the covering is open. It is written to be forwarded whole rather than summarised, because the person reading it at the other end has never seen your building and never will.

It is the same discipline as a condition survey and written report, aimed at one event rather than the whole roof. Where the inspection turns up a covering already finished before the storm, that goes in too, and the honest routes from there are repair, a felt overlay or replacement, priced on their own merits rather than folded into a claim.

Limits

What we are not, and will not pretend to be

Not loss assessors

We do not handle claims, correspond or negotiate with insurers on your behalf, or advise on what a policy covers, what an excess means or what a settlement should be. Those are somebody else's professions and doing them badly would cost you more than it saved. Where a loss is large or contested, a loss assessor works for you and is worth the conversation.

No outcome promised

Nothing here suggests a claim will succeed, that damage will be found to be storm related, or that an insurer will accept our figure. What a good report does is remove the argument about the facts. What happens after that is between you and the people holding the policy, and any firm saying otherwise before they have seen the roof is guessing.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Can you handle the claim for me?

No, and it is worth being blunt. We are roofing contractors, not loss assessors: we do not manage claims, we do not talk to insurers on your behalf, and we cannot tell you what your policy covers or what it will pay. We produce the evidence and the price. The claim stays between you, your broker and your insurer, and where a loss is significant a loss assessor is a real profession worth engaging.

What does the report contain?

Dated photographs, a plain statement of what failed and what appears to have caused it, the extent of what is affected including anything found beyond the obvious, and a priced scope for putting it right. It is written to be forwarded whole, so it holds up without anybody ringing us to explain it.

Will you make the roof safe straight away?

Where it is safe to do so, and that judgement is made on site rather than promised in advance. Loose material that could fall, a lifted section still catching wind and an open hole over an occupied room are the usual candidates. Sometimes the honest answer is that nothing should be done until the weather passes or the right access is on site.

Does storm damage always mean a new roof?

Rarely. Wind finds the weakest edge and lifts from there, so the damage is often local even when it looks dramatic from the garden. What the inspection looks for is the difference between a covering that failed at one detail and one already at the end of its life, because those lead to different work.

Do you charge for the storm report?

A price for the repair costs nothing, whether or not you go ahead. A written report you can send to an insurer is a document with its own value, so it is chargeable, confirmed before a visit is booked and credited against the works if we carry them out.

Wind has taken something off the roof?

Tell us what happened and when, and send a photograph from the ground if it is safe to take one. Do not go up to look.