Lead flashing dressed where a new tiled roof meets the wall

Roof Repairs in Torbay and South Devon

Slipped and broken tiles, ridge and hip tiles re-bedded or dry-fixed, leaks traced to where they start, flashing and leadwork, and the mess a storm leaves behind. Send a photo of what you can see and we will tell you what it is.

Call 07376 442 795 Send a photo

Send us a photo, get a price

Name, number and your town, plus a picture if you have one. We ring you back with a price or a time to come and look.

The Job

A roof repair is mostly about finding the fault, and the fault is hardly ever where the water shows up. Water on a bedroom ceiling near the chimney is usually flashing that has lifted or cracked a metre higher up, or a back gutter behind the stack that has filled with mortar and moss. A damp patch at the top of a wall on the windward side is often a verge where the mortar has gone and the wind is driving rain under the tiles. A drip in the loft that only appears in a south-westerly is a slipped tile, a broken tile, or a nail that has rusted through, and it has probably been letting a little in for a long time before anybody noticed. So the first thing we do on any repair is get up there and look, with a camera. We photograph what we find and we send you the photos with the price, so you can see the crack in the lead or the tile hanging by its nib for yourself. Then we fix that, and we tell you about anything else we saw while we were up there without turning it into a sales pitch. Some roofs need three tiles and a tube of lead sealant. Some have reached the point where every repair is buying six months, and we will say so, because a homeowner who has been told the truth about a tired roof comes back to us when the time comes.

Signs You Need Us

A damp patch on a ceiling that grows after rain and dries out in between
Tiles or slates on the lawn, in the gutter or in the flower bed
A ridge tile sitting proud or missing, visible from the road
Daylight showing in the loft, or wet on the underside of the felt
Staining on a chimney breast or round a roof window
Moss and debris piling up in one spot on the roof or in a valley

Roof leaking? Send a photo.

What We Check

Every tile and slate on the slope, not just the one that fell
The ridge and hips: mortar bedding, fixings, and whether they lift by hand
Lead flashing, soakers and back gutters at the chimney and any abutting wall
Valleys for cracked lining, blocked outlets and moss
The felt or membrane underneath where we can see it from the loft
The gutters and outlets, because an overflowing gutter is a roof leak by another name

What We Do

Slipped and broken tiles replaced like for like, or the nearest match if the tile is no longer made
Ridge and hip tiles re-bedded in mortar, or converted to a dry-fix system that does not rely on mortar at all
Lead flashing redressed, re-welted or replaced; back gutters cleared and re-lined
Valleys re-lined in lead or GRP where the old lining has failed
Storm damage made watertight first, then repaired properly once the weather allows
Photos from the roof before and after, sent to you with the invoice

On the Day

Most repairs are done from a ladder or a small tower and take a few hours. For anything at height on a two-storey house we use a tower or a short run of scaffold and tell you beforehand. We tidy the gutters as we go, bag the broken tiles and take them with us, and the photos from the roof come through the same day.

The Cost of Leaving It

A slipped tile lets a small amount of water onto the felt every time it rains. The felt was never meant to hold water for long, so it rots, then the batten under it rots, and after a few winters what would have been a single tile is a patch of stripped roof with new battens and membrane. A leaking chimney flashing does the same to the chimney breast plaster inside and to the timbers around the stack. The cheapest repair is always the one done the year the tile slipped.

Our Roof Repairs Work

The full gallery

Lead-lined flat section dressed into a tiled roof, welted joints along the edge

Grey tiled roof at a valley where the new tiles meet the neighbouring slope

Materials We Fit

RedlandConcrete and clay roof tiles, and the dry ridge and verge systems that go with them.

MarleyInterlocking concrete tiles, plain tiles and roofline fittings.

VELUXRoof windows and the flashing kits that let them into a tiled or slate roof.

FirestoneEPDM rubber membrane for flat roofs, in a single sheet.

Cure It GRPGlass-reinforced fibreglass flat roofing, laid wet and trimmed to the edge.

Questions About Roof Repairs

Can you tell me from a photo whether it is a repair or a new roof?

Often we can see enough to say which way it is going. A photo from the garden showing the whole slope, plus one of the stain inside, is enough to give you an idea. We confirm it when we get up there.

Do you use the same tiles?

Where we can, yes. Most concrete interlocking tiles are still made in the same profile and colour. Old clay tiles and some slates are no longer made, so we match from reclaimed stock or the nearest new equivalent and tell you which.

My ridge tiles keep coming loose. Why?

Mortar bedding fails on this coast because the wind gets under the ridge and works it. A dry ridge system clips the tiles down mechanically and has no mortar to crack. It costs more than re-bedding once and less than re-bedding three times.

The leak only happens in certain weather. Is that normal?

Yes. A leak that only shows in a south-westerly is wind-driven rain getting under a verge, a ridge or a slipped tile on that side. Tell us which way the weather was coming from when it leaked; it narrows the search.

Will you tell me if it needs more than a repair?

Yes, and we will show you why with the photos. We would rather quote you for a repair you need than a roof you do not, and if the roof has had its time we will say so plainly and let you decide.

Customer Reviews

Had Kyren and his team out to sort a leaking roof valley on our terrace after the heavy rains last month. They turned up when they said they would, got straight to work, and cleaned up all the old tile debris properly before leaving. Fair price and solid work.

Called Roofsure after noticing a couple of slipped tiles and loose mortar around the chimney stack. Kyren popped round to take a look, gave a reasonable estimate, and had the job done by the end of the week. Honest, reliable service.

We needed composite cladding put on the back extension to replace some old timber that was rotting. Kyren gave us a straightforward quote with no hidden extras. The finish is spot on, and the lads worked right through a couple of miserable weather days to get it finished on schedule.

Kyren and his team repointed the entire side gable on our cottage. Very tidy workers, raked out the old crumbling mortar cleanly, and matched the new pointing nicely with the rest of the brickwork. Polite, punctual, and easy to deal with.

Full re-slate and lead flashing job on our bungalow. Kyren explained exactly what needed replacing without trying to upsell unnecessary extras. Scaffolding went up and came down on time, and the roof looks great. Good, hard-working local crew.