Water is coming in, it is evening or the weekend, and you want to do something. Understandable. But the most important advice I can give you is this: almost everything that helps, you do inside.
A wet roof is slippery, and in wind a tiled roof is extremely dangerous. Every year in the Netherlands people fall off their own roof during a storm while trying to seal a leak that an emergency fix inside could also have caught.
What you should do inside
Catch the water. Bucket, tub, towel. Put plastic under the bucket, because it splashes further than you think. With a drip coming from a beam, you can use a piece of string or a strip of cloth to guide the water into a bucket.
Pierce a bulging ceiling. If there is a water bubble in the ceiling, make one small hole at the lowest point and put a bucket under it. It feels wrong, but it stops a full board from coming down all at once.
Move things and cut the power. Move furniture and boxes, and switch off the circuit if water comes near a light or a fuse box.
“I've never helped anyone who regretted not going onto the roof in the dark.”
Fouad, owner of Astrodak Service
What you only do outside if it is safe
Safe means: dry, no wind, daylight, and a spot you can reach without climbing. Usually that is the flat roof of an extension or garage, or a gutter you can reach from a sturdy ladder. You don't climb onto a pitched tiled roof, not even for a moment.
Putting a slipped tile back. If you can reach a tile that is clearly out of position from a window or a safe ladder, that is the simplest and most effective fix there is.
Scooping out a gutter. A blocked gutter that overflows is a common cause of water inside. Often, removing a clump of leaves is enough.
Repair tape on a flat roof. Only works on a clean and dry surface. Nothing sticks to wet bitumen. Wipe the spot dry and press the tape down firmly.
A tarpaulin or emergency sheet. Well beyond the spot, fixed on all sides with battens or weights, and not with bricks on the sheet itself. Make sure water can run off over it instead of pooling in it.
A leak? Do not let it spread.
A leak you leave for a season usually costs ten times as much in follow-on damage. Call or send a message: you will get an answer today, from me personally, not from a scheduler.
What you'd better not do
Sealant or expanding foam in a hole on a pitched roof. It keeps the water out for a few weeks and makes the real repair more expensive afterwards, because it has to be removed first and often damages material. The same goes for a bucket of tar or a tube of roof repair paste on a tiled roof.
Also don't: nail a tarpaulin down through the roof covering. That makes new holes in the layer that is supposed to keep the water out. And don't push tiles aside to see what is underneath, because that opens up the roof at a moment when it needs to stay closed.
Call even if you have caught it yourself
An emergency fix is exactly that: an emergency. Almost every policy expects you to limit the damage, but also to have the leak repaired afterwards. And more importantly: the moisture now in the structure has to come out before the boarding and the insulation are damaged.
We respond to a request the same day, seal the roof first and then look for the cause, see
tracing a leak and
roof leaks and emergencies. If you live in Vught or the surrounding area, I'm often there within the hour.
How long an emergency fix can stay
As short as possible, and that is no formality. A tarpaulin or tape keeps the water out but doesn't let the structure dry, so the moisture already in it stays there. With an emergency fix that stays in place all winter, damage is added that wasn't there when we sealed it.
On top of that, almost every policy expects you to have a leak repaired and not just covered. An emergency fix is therefore a bridge to the repair, not an alternative. With us, there are usually only days between the emergency measure and the repair.
Frequently asked questions about emergency repairs
