A roof repair is only worth paying for if it fixes the actual problem. That sounds obvious, and it’s the reason most people call us for a second opinion after someone else’s repair didn’t hold.
We find the source of the leak before we quote for anything. Then we fix that.
Here’s the thing almost every homeowner gets wrong, entirely reasonably: the leak is hardly ever directly above the stain on your ceiling.
Water comes in through a defect — a cracked slate, a failed flashing, a gap at the chimney — and then it doesn’t drop. It runs. It travels along the underside of the sarking, along a rafter, sometimes several metres, until it hits an obstruction or a low point, and then it drops. By the time it appears on your ceiling it can be well away from where it got in.
Which is why “there’s a stain in the back bedroom, can you fix the roof above the back bedroom” is a request we gently push back on. If we repair the roof above the stain and the water was coming in from the ridge six metres away, you’ve paid for a repair and you still have a leak.
Getting into the loft, in daylight, and looking for the water trail on the sarking and rafters — the staining tells you where it ran from.
Getting onto the roof and inspecting the likely candidates: flashings, valleys, ridge, abutments, chimney.
Understanding the specific building. A Victorian terrace in Craigie fails in different places from a 1970s detached in Scone.
Occasionally, a water test — running water onto sections of the roof in sequence and watching from inside. This takes longer than a look from the ground. It’s also the difference between a repair and a repair that works.
Individual slates that have come loose or broken. On a slate roof these are refixed with slate hooks or lead tingles — we don’t nail into a slate that’s already in place, because you can’t reach the original nail without lifting everything above it. If we’re seeing slipped slates all over the roof rather than in one place, we’ll have a conversation with you about nail sickness (below).
The lead where the roof meets something else — a chimney, a wall, a dormer cheek. This is where a huge proportion of Perthshire leaks actually originate. Old flashings are often mortar-pointed cement fillets which crack and fall out, or lead that’s been fitted too short or in one long piece and has split from thermal movement. We renew flashings properly, in lead, in appropriate lengths, dressed and wedged into a raked-out joint.
Where two roof slopes meet. Old lead valleys corrode and split; old fibreglass or mineral felt valleys perish. A failed valley leaks a lot of water because that’s where the whole roof’s runoff is concentrated.
Bedded on mortar which cracks and washes out over decades. Loose ridge tiles are a genuine safety issue in high wind as well as a leak path. We can rebed or, better, refit with a dry ridge system that doesn’t rely on mortar at all.
See chimney and leadwork. Chimneys are the single most common leak source on Perthshire houses.
Failed seals, flashing kits fitted badly or not at all, condensation mistaken for a leak.
The mortar edge at the gable. Cracks, falls out, lets water and wind under the slates.
We get asked this on nearly every survey, so here's the honest framework we use.
What we won't do is tell you that you need a new roof when you don't. It's a bigger sale, and it's also the fastest way to destroy a reputation in a town the size of Perth. If you need a repair, we'll quote you for a repair.
→ More on new roofs and reroofingWe're based in Perth and we work across Perthshire and Kinross-shire.
Not on the list? Give us a call — if you're within reasonable reach of Perth, we'll likely come out.
See all areas we coverMost straightforward repairs are a half-day to a day. If scaffolding is needed, add a day either side for erection and removal.
Yes — if that’s genuinely what makes sense for you, we’ll do a temporary make-safe and be honest that it’s temporary. What we won’t do is take money for a “permanent” repair we know won’t hold.
Regularly. We’ll provide photographs, a written report identifying the damage and its cause, and an itemised quote. See storm damage repairs.
Come to us for a second opinion. This is a genuinely common call and it’s almost always the same story — the repair was made where the water appeared, not where it got in.
No. Free, no obligation, and you get the photographs whether or not you use us.
Most calls answered inside 30 minutes during working hours.
