What counts as an emergency roof repair?

Coverings gone and the structure exposed. Slates, tiles, ridge components, leadwork or a pot liable to fall onto an area people use. Water entering in quantity, or reaching cables and fittings. Structural movement, or a ceiling holding water.

Outside these, most roof problems are urgent rather than emergencies, and are better served by a planned diagnostic visit that gets the repair right first time.

Making safe and making watertight: removing or securing what could fall, temporary covering over an opening, and easing pressure where a ceiling is holding water. It is done in whatever conditions exist, which limits what can sensibly be attempted.

It is temporary by design. A permanent repair follows once the roof can be inspected safely and the full extent established.

Keep clear of the area below anything loose. Protect the room, contain water, and isolate electrics if water is near fittings. Photograph the damage as found — that record cannot be recreated afterwards.

Do not go onto the roof. Most serious injuries in these situations happen during an attempt to sort it out in bad weather.

Confusing an urgent repair with a genuine emergency can lead to work being carried out in poor conditions when it did not need to be, or conversely to a genuine risk being left unattended because it did not look dramatic. The distinction rests on whether anyone is at immediate risk and whether the building is actively losing protection, not on how alarming the damage looks from the ground.

Where you are unsure, describing what you can see and how the property is affected — rather than trying to categorise it yourself — allows the decision to be made properly. A slipped ridge tile resting where it fell is different from the same tile balanced above a path, even though the visible damage may look similar in a photograph.