Storm damage is often quiet. A slate can slide a few centimetres and stay hooked on its nail. A ridge tile can loosen without falling. A flashing can lift at one corner. None of that drips straight away, so nothing tells you to look. Then the next heavy shower finds the gap.
This is a self-check you can do on foot. It covers the order to walk round the house in, what each kind of storm damage looks like from below, what to look at in the loft, which photographs are worth taking, and the point at which the sensible move is to stop looking and phone someone. If tiles have already come off, tiles blown off in a Stroud storm picks up from there. The wider roof repairs service covers the repair side.
Before you go outside: safety and timing
Wait until the wind has genuinely eased. Roof coverings that were loosened in the gusts can still drop in the tail of a storm, and so can branches that have been split but not yet fallen. Treat the ground beneath eaves, chimneys and nearby trees as a danger zone until you have looked up.
What to wear and carry
Sturdy shoes, a phone for photographs, a torch for the loft and, if you own them, binoculars. Gloves are useful for clearing debris you might handle, such as shards of slate, which are sharp. Do not climb a ladder to peer over the gutter. A ladder against a wet wall or a gutter that may have loosened is a common route to a fall, and you can learn what you need from the ground.
Keep other people clear
If you can see a tile, slate or chimney pot hanging at an angle, rope off the ground below with something obvious and keep children and pets away. Falling pieces seldom drop straight down; wind carries them. If a large branch is across the roof, or a tree has moved, that is a matter for a tree surgeon first, and it is covered in our answer on a tree that has fallen on a roof.
Check the power and water
If you notice a wet patch on a ceiling, particularly one near a light fitting, leave the lights off in that room and read our advice on water near lights before using the circuit again.
Walking the house: an order that works
Pick a starting corner and go round the house in one direction, stopping at each elevation to look at the whole roof edge, then the slope above it. Doing it in a fixed order stops you jumping about and missing a side. Keep a note on your phone for each elevation.
First, the ground
Before looking up, look down. Broken tile or slate in the border or on the path is the clearest early clue, because it tells you the direction the wind came from and roughly how many pieces have gone. Pick up nothing barehanded and photograph any fragments where they lie, with a coin or a pen for scale. Fragments that match your roof covering in colour and thickness came from your roof, not a neighbour's. Pieces that are lighter, such as a bit of ridge mortar, tell you about the ridge.
Then the eaves and gutters
Look for gutters that sag or have pulled away from the fascia, downpipes that have been knocked off their brackets and fascia boards that have lifted. Wind can get under the edge of a roof and prise at the boards; a lifted fascia can leave a gap that lets rain run behind the gutter and into the wall. A gutter full of grit and moss that has come off the roof can mean the surface is wearing, or that pieces came away in the gale.
Finally, the slope
Now scan the roof in horizontal bands from the eaves to the top. Your eye will catch a tile that is out of its row faster if you work across rather than up. The next sections list what to look for.
What wind damage looks like from the ground
Wind does a few things to a pitched roof, and each leaves a recognisable pattern. Knowing the patterns tells you whether you are looking at a loose piece or a bigger problem.
Slipped and lifted slates and tiles
A slate that has slipped shows its tail hanging below the line of the rest of its course. A tile that has lifted catches the light differently, or shows a dark crescent of shadow beneath its edge. On older roofs the nails or pegs fixing the covering have often worked loose over the years, so a storm finds them one by one. Clay and concrete tiles are usually nailed only at intervals across the slope, with clips at the edges on newer work, so a run of edge tiles missing along a verge points to a failed fixing there.
Ridge and hip damage
Ridge and hip tiles sit at the most exposed part of the roof. Look at the silhouette against the sky. A ridge that has a break or a dip in its line, or a hip tile that sits at an angle, has moved. Pale mortar fragments on the ground below a ridge tell the same story. Since BS 5534:2014, these tiles are expected to have mechanical fixing as well as mortar, and a ridge that came loose in a gale is often one that relied on mortar alone.
Verges and barge boards
The gable end takes wind from the side and from underneath. Look for mortar missing from under the edge tiles, or a bargeboard (the board that finishes the roof edge on a gable) that has bowed outward.
Chimneys and pots
A chimney pot that leans, a cowl that has turned or a cap that has shifted should be photographed and reported. A stack that is moving at the top affects everything beneath it, and we would want to look at it before it is used again.
Flat roofs, extensions and outbuildings after a storm
Flat roofs lose different things in a storm. The covering rarely blows off in sections, but edges lift, trims come away and debris punctures the surface.
What to look at from an upstairs window
If you can see the flat roof safely from a window, check for torn edges, a flashing lifting at the wall junction and any new bubbles in the surface. Branches and slates from neighbouring roofs can land on a flat roof and gouge a membrane. A single puncture in EPDM or felt can let water into the deck, and from there into the room below.
Standing water
Pools that appear after a storm are not always new, but a pool that is bigger than you remember, or one beside a gutter outlet, suggests the outlet is blocked with debris from the wind. Blocked outlets overload a roof. Clearing leaves from a gutter at ground-floor level is straightforward from a short stepladder on firm ground, but do not reach out over a roof edge.
Sheds, garages and conservatories
Outbuildings with light felt roofs, and conservatories with polycarbonate or glass roofs, are more vulnerable than the house. Polycarbonate panels can crack or lift from their glazing bars, and felt shed roofs lift at the edge. A conservatory roof is a separate subject, but from the garden look for a panel out of line, a gap at the ridge or water in the cavities of a twin-wall sheet.
What to check in the loft
The loft tells you what the outside cannot. You are looking for the new rather than the old, so go up with a torch in daylight and try to recall how it looked before.
Light and draughts
New chinks of daylight, particularly near the edge of the roof or under the ridge, suggest displaced coverings. A cold draught across your face on a still day is as good a clue. Check each slope in turn, standing on joists or boards that are fixed down.
Wet timber and underlay
Run a hand along the rafters and the felt between them. Any new damp patch, drips from the underlay or a shine on a batten shows water getting in. The underlay (the sheet laid beneath the tiles or slates as a second line of defence) can be torn by wind lifting tiles above it, and a tear near the top of a slope will let water run down onto the insulation.
Insulation and ceiling
Lift a corner of the insulation where you have seen a stain, or where the rafters look damp. Wet insulation is heavy and cold to the touch. If it is soaked, photograph it, then see our answer on wet loft insulation. A ceiling that has started to bulge or darken in the room below needs prompt attention; see water through the ceiling for what to expect.
Chimney breast
Check the chimney breast up there for fresh damp marks, fallen mortar or soot spots. The flashings around the stack are harder to see from inside, but a damp breast is a warning that water is getting around them.
What to photograph, and how to record it
Photographs do three jobs. They show a roofer what to expect before the visit, they give you a baseline for later comparison and they support an insurance claim if you make one. Take them before anything is moved or tidied.
A sensible set
One wide shot of each elevation, showing the whole roof. Then close-ups of anything wrong: the slipped tile, the damaged ridge, fallen pieces lying in the border beside a coin. Photograph the loft in the same way, wide first, then a close-up of the stain, the daylight or the wet timber. Check that each picture carries its date and time, as most phones do by default.
Notes alongside
Write down when the storm happened, when you noticed damage, and what you did. Keep receipts for anything you paid for, such as an emergency make-safe or tarpaulin. If you plan to claim, the process is outlined in our guide to storm damage claims, and your policy wording governs what is covered.
Keep the broken pieces
Do not throw away tile or slate fragments. They help match the replacement, and they are evidence. A roofer can usually tell from a broken slate whether the break is fresh or old.
A fresh break shows clean, pale edges. An old one is stained and weathered. Pictures taken the same day let both you and an insurer see the difference.
When to stop checking and call
Some findings are straightforward to log and deal with in the coming weeks. Others mean you should phone a roofer now.
Call promptly if
Water is entering the house. Tiles or slates are missing, hanging or have exposed the underlay. A chimney, ridge or gable end is visibly moving. A ceiling is bulging. There is a hole in a flat roof. We give leaks and storm damage priority. Where a roof is open to the weather, the first visit makes it safe with temporary cover, and the permanent repair follows.
Book a visit if
You have found one or two slipped tiles with no leak, a lifted flashing edge, mortar missing from a ridge or a gutter hanging off the fascia. These are not emergencies, but each is a way in for water, and a storm-damaged roof loses ground quickly in the next wet spell.
What it may cost
As a national guide, MyBuilder's 2026 roof repair figures put storm damage fixes at roughly £500 to £1,500, and moderate repairs at £500 to £1,000. Your job may differ, and ours follows a survey, so the figure reflects the scaffold, materials, labour and clearing away your roof needs. After a storm, some faults are better tackled together; the planned roof repairs guide explains how small jobs can be grouped into one visit.
Repairs carry a written 10-year workmanship guarantee, and we take the waste away. You can reach us on 01453 933613 or by WhatsApp, and the enquiry form is on every page.