Roof leak preparation

Do these before you clean up. 1. Photograph the stain with today's date showing (a phone screen or a newspaper in shot). Then put the bucket back. 2. Write down the weather when it started. Wind-driven rain off the Irish Sea points at slates, ridges and verges. Heavy rain with no wind points at valleys and gutters. A drip on a dry morning after frost points at flashings. 3. From the garden, photograph the part of the roof above the wet room. Look for a slipped slate, a valley full of moss or lead that has lifted. No ladder. 4. If the loft hatch is safe to open, look at the underside above the stain. Daylight through a nail hole and a damp patch on dry felt are different findings. 5. If there are sockets or lights in the wet room, turn off the power to that room at the fuse board, but only from dry floor, and mention that on the form. Two more checks. Is the stain on a wall just under the eaves rather than on a ceiling? Photograph the gutter and the hopper first, because gutters that overflow after leaf fall wet the same rooms a roof leak does. Is the wet patch over a bay window? Say so. Bays on older streets such as Clanbrassil Street and Park Street have their own small roof, and it leaks separately from the main ridge. If a neighbour had scaffolding up lately, or your terrace shares a valley with the house next door, put that on the form too.

The roofer should trace the stain to a point on the covering, a valley or a flashing, and tell you which before any talk of price.

Date-stamped photo of the stain, the weather it came in, a ground-level photo of the roof above. Stay off the roof.

Harbour-side slate takes the wind off the bay. The concrete tile estates toward Muirhevnamor and the Dublin road more often leak at later extensions.