Emergency roof repairs in Bognor Regis

Wind finds the edges of a roof first, so storm repairs usually start at the ridge, the hips, the verges and the eaves.

After a gale the damage tends to sit along the edges of the roof. The ridge is the top line where the two slopes meet, and a verge is the edge of the tiling at a gable end. Each one is cut, bedded and exposed on more than one side, which is why high wind gets its grip there first. Where the pitch is under 30 degrees, Marley says suction on the windward slope can be severe, a negative pressure that tries to lift the tiles away from the battens. A slipped tile, a lifted ridge or an opened-up verge is a common result of bad weather conditions, and all three can be repaired. For the step-by-step version, see our guide to tiles blown off in a storm.

2.1 Checking from the ground

You can see a good deal without leaving the garden. Walk round the house in daylight and look for tiles or pieces of slate on the lawn, the path or a flat roof below. Look for gaps in the pattern of the tiling, a ridge line that no longer runs straight and gutters hanging at an angle. Use the zoom on your phone rather than a ladder, and photograph the debris where it landed, because that shows where it came from. Inside, a damp smell in the loft or daylight at the eaves tells you the covering is open. Send us what you find and the pictures help us plan the visit, whether the house has slate or tile roofing.

2.2 Slipped, cracked and missing tiles

A slipped tile has lost its grip, often because a nail has rusted through or the tile has snapped at the back. We lift the courses around the gap, check the batten (the timber strip the tile hangs from) and the underlay beneath, then fit a matching tile held with a proper clip or nail. Matching matters. Plain clay tiles on an interwar estate and concrete interlocking tiles on a 1960s bungalow need different replacements, and old slates may have to be sourced to suit. We recommend a repair of this kind only where the battens are sound and the quality of the surrounding tiling justifies it. Where slates have gone from a whole slope, the evidence under them decides whether we patch or advise re-covering.

Ridges and verges lifted by wind

Older ridges were bedded in sand and cement and nothing more. Since BS 5534 was revised in 2014, ridge and hip tiles are not left to rely on mortar alone: they get a mechanical fixing as well. We refix a lifted ridge with fixings added, or dry-fix it, which means clips and screws with no mortar. A verge gets the same treatment, with interlocking caps screwed down if the old mortar has gone. Our ridge tile repairs page compares rebedding with dry-fixing.

A cover or a patch buys time. It does not replace the permanent repair, and we tell you which one you are getting.

A temporary repair is what it says. It keeps water out for now so that the permanent work can be planned, priced and done in decent weather. It is a means to an end, and it should come with a clear plan for what happens next. If a roofer offers to cover the hole and offers nothing else, ask what the permanent repair is and when it needs to happen. The right roofing solution for a leaking roof is nearly always a short cover followed by a proper fix. Our guide to temporary roof repairs covers the options in more depth.

4.1 Sheeting, patches and temporary tiles

The simplest cover is heavy-duty sheeting stretched over the damaged area and battened to sound timber, with the edges tucked in so the wind cannot get under it and make it flap. It has to be fixed to the roof structure rather than weighted with bricks, and it should run up and over the ridge or be tucked beneath the tiles above the opening, so that water runs over it rather than under it. On a flat roof, a patch of compatible membrane or a sealed cover closes a split for the moment. On a pitched roof, a temporary tile or a lead patch can close a small gap. A reliable cover is fixed through sound timber, sits tight at every edge and can be lifted off cleanly when the permanent work starts. None of these suit being left to see out a winter, because sheeting chafes, patches lift and the hole beneath stays open.

4.2 Sealant, foam and other quick fixes

Bitumen paint over a split, sealant smeared across lead, or foam pushed into a gap may stop a drip for a few dry weeks. They also hide the fault, trap water behind the repair and have to be cut away before the real work can start. We would rather make a roof safe properly, with a cover that can be lifted off cleanly, than leave you with something that makes the permanent repair harder and dearer. If someone has already applied one of these, tell us when we visit so we know what is under it.

Planning the follow-up

When the weather settles we return for the permanent repair. Our survey photographs, taken with the cover in place and again with it removed, show what lay beneath. Ask any roofer to put the permanent repair in writing, with one total price, before the cover comes off, so you know what you are agreeing to, and so nothing changes after the work starts. Ask too how long their workmanship is guaranteed, and for that answer in writing.

Cost turns on access, the covering and what the damage reveals, and a patch stops making sense once the roof around it is failing.

Emergency work has no standard price list. The figure depends on what failed, how easy it is to reach and what the opened-up roof shows. For orientation, Checkatrade, in a table last updated in June 2026, prices tile and slate repairs at £90 to £220 per m² and puts roofers at about £35 to £45 an hour or £280 to £360 a day, excluding VAT, which is charged at the standard 20 per cent. Whoever you ask for a price, find out whether the figure covers VAT and scaffold. Ours is written after the survey as one total, with no obligation to go ahead. Our guide to emergency roof repair cost explains what moves the figure.

6.1 Access, scaffolding and highway licences

Access can cost more than the repair. Checkatrade's scaffolding table, updated October 2026, gives around £875 per month of hire for a two-storey semi and nearer £1,000 for a detached bungalow. A scaffold that stands on the pavement or road needs a licence under the Highways Act 1980, issued by the highway authority. West Sussex County Council asks for at least 10 working days' notice, charges £266 for one month, and offers a fast track within 1 working day for an additional £52. In Hampshire, which covers Havant and East Hampshire, the county council wants ten clear working days' notice and charges £211.90 for the first fortnight. That is why a make-safe is often done from a ladder, roof ladder or tower, with the scaffold following for the permanent repair.

6.2 Reading the survey before you commit

Ask for the verdict and the photographs before agreeing anything. A good emergency visit ends with a covered roof, a clear picture of the fault and a plain recommendation. We recommend the least work that fixes the fault properly, which is not always the biggest job a roof could take, and the quality of the finished repair matters more than the speed of the first visit. If you are weighing two proposals, compare what each one actually does to the roof, not just the total.

When a repair gives way to a new roof

Replacement comes up only when the evidence points to it: slates sliding across a whole slope, perished underlay, battens soft in several places or patch laid over patch. Checkatrade, updated October 2026, gives around £8,000 as an average roof replacement in the UK, and around £12,000 for a typical three-bedroom semi. Our roof replacement page covers a new roof, and our roof repairs page covers the planned repairs that can avoid one. Any new roof is a bigger decision than a repair, so it is made on evidence from the survey, never in the middle of a storm.