Leaking roof? What to do first.

Catch the water first. A basin under the drip, a towel round it, and anything electrical moved out of that room. A ceiling sagging with water is better pierced at its lowest point with a screwdriver, so the water comes out in one place, than left to bring the plaster down. Then stay inside. The source of a leak is almost never where the water shows on the ceiling, so there is nothing to be gained from going up a ladder in the rain.

Then ring. The Delta Roofing mobile, 087 645 9553, is answered 24 hours for emergencies. In office hours, Monday to Friday 9:00 to 18:30, the landlines answer too. Tell Jordan where the water is showing, whether any slates are on the ground and how long it has been happening. If water is pouring in, the first visit is about stopping it: the roof is sheeted or the slate refixed, and the proper repair is priced after a survey on a dry day.

Where roof leaks start on Dublin houses

Water finds the joins. On the slate and tile roofs across Dublin, the same few places account for most of the leaks Jordan is called to:

• The lead flashing where the roof meets a chimney or a wall. Lead lifts, cracks or was never dressed in properly, and the water tracks down the chimney breast.
• A slipped or broken slate. One slate out lets rain onto the felt below, and if the felt is old it goes straight through.
• A worn lead valley, where two slopes meet. Valleys carry more water than any other part of the roof and wear through first.
• Felt that has rotted at the eaves, so water runs behind the gutter and down the wall instead of into it.
• Ridge and hip tiles whose mortar has gone, letting water in along the top of the roof.
• A roof window, or the flat roof over an extension, where the seal or the covering has given up.

A damp patch in the middle of a ceiling often comes from a flashing a good way uphill. The water runs down the felt or along a batten before it drops. That is why the survey looks at the whole roof, from above with a drone survey where it helps, rather than at the slates over the stain.

What decides the cost of a roof leak repair

There is no price for a leak over the phone, because the price is set by what the survey finds. These are the things that move it:

• Where the water is getting in. A slipped slate refixed with a hook is at the small end. A chimney that needs new lead flashing and repointing is a bigger job.
• How much of the roof has to be lifted. Fixing one slate disturbs a few around it. A valley has slates taken up on both sides, the lead replaced and everything put back.
• What is underneath. If the felt or the battens have rotted where the water has been getting in, that section is replaced while the roof is open, and you are shown it before it is priced.
• Access. A bungalow is a ladder job. A three-storey terrace, or a roof above a conservatory, needs scaffold or a tower, and that is in the price.
• Whether it is a repair at all. If slates are failing across the roof and the felt has gone, a repair buys months, not years, and Jordan will tell you that rather than patch it twice.

Every job starts with a free survey, and the price is written down before any work starts. If rotten timber turns up once the slates are off, Jordan shows you and prices it before going further.

Repair or re-roof?

The question behind most leak calls. If the slates and the felt are sound and the leak is at one point, you are quoted for the repair. If the roof is at the end of its life, with slates slipping across it and felt crumbling in your hand, a repair is money spent twice. Jordan shows you why on the survey and you decide. One customer put it this way in a Google review: "I felt they gave good advice and didn't oversell."