Storm Damage Roof Repair in Birmingham and the Black Country
Storm damage roofing work runs in two stages — making the building safe, then documenting the cause and extent to a standard an insurer will accept — and the second stage decides who pays for the first. Call for storm damage and the make-safe is done before any quotation is discussed. On this page: Storm damage · Wind uplift · Cause assessment.
Call 07446 375079 for immediate make-safe attendance.
Storm work runs in two stages. The first visit makes the building safe and records the damage; the permanent repair and the written cause assessment follow once the weather allows the covering to be inspected dry.
Storm damage is documented before it is repaired, because the record is what decides who pays for the repair. Five losses recur, and they recur in the same places.
What the record has to carry
- Dated photographs Per elevation, and of the internal damage, taken before any repair or clearance.
- A gust record Local recorded wind data for the date of loss. It is publicly obtainable and it engages the policy's own storm definition.
- A cause assessment A written statement of what failed and why, distinguishing storm damage from pre-existing wear.
- Secondary damage The internal consequences of the ingress, which form part of the same claim.
Insurers most commonly refuse on gradual deterioration, so the assessment addresses wear explicitly rather than leaving it unmentioned. Documentation precedes clearance: temporary protection first, then the assessment, then the permanent works once the weather allows. Material blown onto adjoining land raises a separate liability question.
What we fix
What does storm damage to a roof look like?
Five losses account for most storm damage: coverings lifted from ridge and verge, displaced or fallen ridge units, torn or lifted flat roof membrane, chimney pots and flaunching brought down, and impact damage from branches or debris.
- The mechanism of the wind uplift is negative pressure over the ridge and at edges lifts units rather than pushing them.
- A cause assessment is a written statement of what failed and why, distinguishing storm from pre-existing wear.
How it works
Damage does not stop at your boundary.
- A negative pressure at ridge and edges lifts units, rather than pushing them.
- A cause assessment distinguishes sudden storm damage from gradual deterioration.
- Dated photographs and gust records support the claim.
- A pre-existing wear is the ground on which an insurers decline.
Straight answers
Why do the same parts of a roof fail every storm?
Wind crossing a roof creates negative pressure at the ridge and along the edges, lifting units upward rather than pushing them sideways. Those pressure-reversal zones fail first in every storm because uplift acts there hardest.
Dated photographs has an evidential value of images taken before repair, timestamped, per elevation. The evidential value of the wind speed record is local recorded gust data for the date of loss supports the claim.
- Insurance distinction: sudden storm damage is covered; gradual deterioration is not
What should be documented before anything is touched?
Photograph every elevation and the internal damage before clearing anything, record the date and time, obtain local recorded gust data for that date, and get a written cause assessment from the contractor attending.
- Secondary damage involves water ingress consequences internally, which form part of the same claim.
- An insurer declining on wear grounds is the most common outcome to plan for.
- Make-safe sequence: carried out first; costs normally recoverable and not prejudicial to the claim
Will the insurer accept it as storm damage?
Usually, where the evidence separates sudden damage from wear. Insurers decline most often on gradual deterioration, so an assessment that addresses the covering's prior condition directly is stronger than one that only describes the loss.
Material blown onto adjacent land raises a separate liability question. The repair sequence means temporary protection, then assessment, then permanent works once weather allows.
How soon can permanent repairs start?
Permanent repairs start once the weather allows a dry inspection and the insurer has been notified. Temporary protection holds the building in the interim. Beginning permanent work before notification risks the claim.
Debris on neighbouring property
Insurers most commonly refuse on gradual deterioration, so the assessment must address wear explicitly rather than ignore it. Clearing debris destroys the evidence; documentation precedes clearance even when the site looks unsafe to leave.
Getting storm damage assessed
Local recorded wind data for the date of loss is available and materially strengthens a claim. Losses cluster at ridge, verge and edges because those are pressure-reversal zones — which is also why the same places fail every storm.
Wind uplift, and 5 more
- wind uplift
- cause assessment
- make-safe
- secondary damage
- pre-existing wear
- gust record
Where we work
8 Birmingham and Solihull districts
- Sutton Coldfield
- Harborne
- Edgbaston
- Moseley
- Solihull
- Erdington
- Kings Heath
- Selly Oak
Postcodes outside that run are quoted case by case rather than turned away.
Related pages
Book a storm damage survey
A survey takes forty-five to ninety minutes and the written report follows within two working days. Nothing is charged for the survey, and nothing is charged if the report says nothing needs doing.