30-minute roof leak triage: what to do right now

Step 1 — Safety (first 60 seconds)

Do these in order. They're all about stopping the situation getting worse before you start fixing it.

1. Move people and petsout of the affected room. Close the door behind you. Don't come back in for anything small.
2. Turn off electricsin any room where water is near a ceiling light, socket, or exposed wiring. Go to the consumer unit and flip the relevant circuit. If you're not sure which circuit, flip the main switch — losing lights for an evening is better than the alternative.
3. Don't stand directly under a bulging ceiling. A filled ceiling gives way without warning and five litres of water falling two metres through plasterboard has hurt people badly.

Step 2 — Contain (next 5 minutes)

While you're doing step 1, start thinking about where the water is going to pool and how to catch it. Buckets and towels are fine — tupperware, washing-up bowls, any pan deep enough to hold a few litres.

• Put a bucket under every drip.Line the bottom with a tea towel so it doesn't splash when the rate picks up.
• Move furniture, rugs, electronics, paperworkout of the affected zone. If it's too heavy to move, throw a plastic sheet or a bin liner over it. A £2 bin bag beats a £400 sofa stain.
• Lift lamp cords, power strips, and extension leads off the floor in rooms next to the leak. Water travels under carpet edges and finds electrics you forgot were there.
• Open the door of any cupboard or wardrobe backing onto the wet areaand check inside. Water runs down joists and drips into places you wouldn't expect.

Step 3 — Relieve a bulging ceiling (carefully)

A ceiling with pooled water behind it is a bigger problem than the original leak. If it's visibly bulging or sagging, the water needs to come out in a controlled way before the ceiling fails on its own.

1. Put a bucket, washing-up bowl, or two underneath the bulge.
2. Use a long screwdriver or a knitting needle — not a knife, not a finger — to pierce the centre of the bulge from the side, standing clear of the fall line.
3. The water comes out in one go. Let it drain, catch it, then walk away. Don't try to patch the hole — that's a job for a plasterer next week.

If you're not confident doing this, don't. Leave the room, shut the door, and put this in the hands of the emergency roofer when they arrive. A damaged plaster ceiling is fixable. A fall off a stool reaching up is not.

Step 4 — Document everything (5 minutes)

Before anything is cleaned up, your insurer needs to see the state of it. This is the difference between a claim paying out and a claim being argued.

• Photo every affected room wide first, then close-up on the damage. Ceiling, walls, floor, furniture, any wet electronics.
• Take video walking through the property narrating what you see — timestamped video is very hard to dispute.
• Don't throw anything away. Damaged materials, soaked carpet, wet plasterboard — keep it all until your insurer has told you in writing it can go. Loss adjusters want to see it.
• Save any warranty or workmanship paperwork from the last roofer who touched the property. If they did work in the last 6 years, their workmanship warranty may still apply under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and they might be the ones paying.

Step 5 — Call an emergency roofer

What you're asking for is a make-safe, not a repair. Two different jobs.

A make-safe is a temporary fix that stops the water until a proper repair can happen in daylight and reasonable weather. Usually a tarp over the damaged area, weighted with battens, or a temporary seal on a cracked flashing. It buys you three or four days.

A script for the phone call, if you want one:

"Hi, I've got water coming through my ceiling in [room]. I think it's from [best guess]. I need an emergency make-safe tonight, and then I'll get a quote for the proper repair separately. What's your earliest slot and roughly what does a make-safe cost?"

Realistic make-safe cost: £250 to £600 in normal hours, £350 to £1,200 out of hours including weekend premium. Anything over £1,500 for a single make-safe visit is a roofer trying to bundle a full repair quote into the emergency price — separate it, tell them you'll get repair quotes over the next few days. Make-safe tonight, proper fix next week.

Step 6 — Call your insurer within 24 hours

Every home insurance policy has a notification clause. Most require you to report within 24 to 48 hours of discovering the damage, even if you're not claiming yet. Missing the notification window is one of the most common reasons claims get reduced or rejected.

The call is short. You're telling them, not asking them. "I've had a roof leak, water damage to [rooms], I've done an emergency make-safe to stop the water, I want to log the incident and I'll come back with a full claim once I know the scope." Ask for a claim reference and write it down.

They'll usually send a loss adjuster within a few days. Don't dispose of damaged materials until after the adjuster has seen them, or until the insurer confirms in writing that you can.

What NOT to do

• Don't climb on the roof in the rain.Falls from height kill more people in UK construction than anything else and more homeowners than you'd believe. A wet roof is a slide.
• Don't touch wet light fittings, sockets, or exposed wiring until the circuit is off at the consumer unit.
• Don't pay cash at the door to a cold callerwho "noticed your roof on the way past". Cold callers during storms are a specific scam pattern. They fix nothing, take the cash, and drive away. Use the hiring checklist even in an emergency — especially in an emergency.
• Don't agree to a full repair on the first phone call.Get the make-safe booked, then shop three quotes for the proper fix when the water has stopped and you're not panicking.
• Don't throw away damaged itemsuntil your insurer has seen them. Even if they're ruined.
• Don't try to patch a flat roof from underneath. Nothing you apply from inside the loft will hold against external water pressure for more than a few hours.

When it's safe to wait until morning

Not every leak is an emergency. If the water ingress is small, contained, and slowing down, and the weather is forecast to clear, sometimes the right call is to put a bucket under it, document everything, and phone a roofer at 8am instead of midnight. The tell: if the rate of drip has slowed in the last ten minutes and the bucket is catching everything, you can probably wait.

If the rate is getting worse, water is spreading to a second room, or there's any risk to electrics, don't wait.

After the make-safe

Once the water has stopped and you've slept, the next job is to get three quotes for the proper repair. The UK roof repair costs guide will tell you what a fair price looks like for the job you need. The hiring checklist will help you rule out the roofers you shouldn't be phoning. The quote form will pass your brief to roofers who cover your postcode if you want us to do that for you.

Emergencies end. The decisions you make in the first 30 minutes decide whether the recovery is a bad week or a bad year.