How soon after a storm should a roof be checked?

As soon as it is safe to do so. Hail and wind damage is easiest to confirm while the cause is still evident, and a leak that starts in the following season is much harder to connect back to the storm, which matters if you are claiming on insurance.

Can hail damage a roof without cracking anything?

Yes, and it is the most common form of hail damage. Hail strips the protective surface off concrete tiles, leaving them porous. The tiles still look whole, but they now absorb water, so the roof starts leaking in later seasons and deteriorates each year.

Will a storm-damaged roof need replacing?

Not usually. Cracked tiles, dented sheets and torn flashings are repaired. Replacement becomes the sensible answer when a large share of the covering has lost its surface, or when sheeting has been opened up across a whole section.

Storm, hail and wind damage

Storm Damage Roof Repair

When the rain gets in, we get to work.

South Africa does not do gentle weather. Highveld hail, Cape winter fronts, coastal storm wind and Free State cloudbursts all cause roof damage that is often invisible from the ground and only shows itself at the next downpour.

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Hail damageWind damageStorm repairsRe-roofing

What South African storms do to roofs

The Highveld storm season from October to March is where most hail damage happens. Hail does not have to crack a tile to ruin it: it strips the protective surface, leaving tiles porous and absorbing water instead of shedding it. On metal sheeting it dents and opens seams, and on tiled roofs it shatters the ridge and valley mortar that holds the roof together at its joints.

Coastal storms work differently. Wind is the destructive force rather than hail. It lifts sheet edges, pulls fixings, tears flashings and drives rain into laps that stay dry in normal weather. Salt in the same wind means the fixings were already weakened before the storm arrived.

Inland cloudbursts cause a third pattern: short, violent rain that overwhelms gutters and valleys. The covering may be untouched while water backs up under it and travels inside the roof structure.

Why storm damage is easy to miss

From the ground, a hail-damaged tiled roof looks like a tiled roof. The damage that matters is not visible from a driveway: a porous tile surface, a cracked sheet, a mortar joint that has lost its bond. And it does not leak immediately.

The leak usually arrives in the following season, when the weakened covering finally lets water through. By then the connection to the original storm is easy to lose, which matters if you intend claiming on insurance.

That is why a post-storm roof check is worth doing even when nothing appears to be wrong yet. It records the condition of the roof while the cause is still obvious.

Covering checked for cracked, porous, dented or displaced material
Ridge, valley and penetration mortar checked for shattered joints
Flashings checked for bends, tears and pulled fixings
Fixings checked by hand for grip, not just visually
Drainage checked for storm debris
The roof space checked for water that already got in
Damage recorded while the cause is still evident

Repair, or replace after a bad storm

After a severe hail season, the honest question is whether the covering still has useful life in it. Individual cracked tiles and dented sheets are repaired. A roof where a large share of the tiles have lost their surface, or where sheeting has been opened up across a whole section, is usually better replaced than patched.

We would rather explain which of those applies to your roof than sell a replacement for damage a repair would fix.

When a repair is not enough: full re-roofing

Not every roof can be saved with a repair, and pretending otherwise wastes your money. If the covering has gone porous, the sheeting has rusted through, the battens have rotted, or the same area has been repaired repeatedly, the roof has reached the end of its service life.

We arrange the whole job when that happens: strip and dispose of the old covering, replace damaged timber, battens and underlay, and install the new roof in tile, slate, IBR or corrugated sheeting, with new flashings and gutters where they are needed. If a repair will genuinely hold, we would rather do that and say so.

Storm damage we handle

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Hail Damage Repair

Tiles stripped of their surface, cracked sheeting, shattered ridge and valley mortar after a hail storm.

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Wind Damage Repair

Lifted, torn or missing sheeting, displaced tiles, and flashings pulled away by gusting wind.

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Heavy Rain Damage

Damage caused by volume rain overwhelming drainage and finding weak points across the roof.

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Lifted And Missing Sheeting

Metal sheets that have lost their fixings or been torn off, leaving the roof open.

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Displaced And Broken Tiles

Tiles shifted, cracked or removed by hail and wind, and the leaking that follows.

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Damaged Flashings

Chimney, wall and valley flashings bent, torn or pulled loose during a storm.

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Storm Water Ingress

Water that came in during the storm and the ceiling and insulation damage it left behind.

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Post-Storm Assessments

A roof checked after a storm to record damage, including for insurance purposes.

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Impact And Debris Damage

Damage from falling branches, hail and wind-blown objects hitting the covering.

See all roof repair services

Other roof repair services

Every service below is handled by the same team, so a leak that turns out to be a different problem is not a second appointment.

How urgent is your roof problem?

Choose the rating that best describes the problem. Ratings of 7 to 10 go into the emergency queue, and those jobs are attended before anything in the standard queue. If you want your emergency seen sooner than the emergencies ahead of it, Priority Booking can move it up for a fee. Jobs rated 1 to 6 stay in the standard queue and have no priority fee.

10My roof has blown off and I can see the moon from my Lazy Boy in the lounge.

9Water is pouring into the house and causing active damage.

8Several rooms are leaking and buckets are everywhere.

7Water is coming through the ceiling whenever it rains.

6The leak is getting noticeably worse.

5New water stains are appearing.

4Damp patches are spreading.

3I have one small damp patch.

2Something does not look right.

1I have noticed a possible early warning sign.

Selected urgency rating: 7/10. Emergency queue

Priority Booking

Need your emergency seen sooner?

Your report goes into the emergency queue and is attended before anything in the standard queue. Add Priority Booking to move it ahead of emergency reports that have not booked it. The fee is from R1,000, it is a scheduling and dispatch fee paid to Leaky Roof Repair and separate from the repair quotation, and we only charge it once we confirm that a faster slot is available.

Add Priority Booking, from R1,000

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Areas we cover

Storm damage roof repair dispatch across South Africa’s major cities.

Cape TownLeaky roof repair in Cape Town → DurbanLeaky roof repair in Durban → JohannesburgLeaky roof repair in Johannesburg → PretoriaLeaky roof repair in Pretoria → East LondonLeaky roof repair in East London → BloemfonteinLeaky roof repair in Bloemfontein → Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)Leaky roof repair in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) →

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Need help with a leaking roof?

Call Pete on 081 554 9231 or send a WhatsApp message with your location and photos of the problem.

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