Guide
Roof leaking? What to do in the first hour
What you do in the first hour affects the damage bill more than how fast a roofer arrives. None of it involves going on the roof.
Move things, then contain the water
Electronics, documents, anything upholstered. Then a bucket under the drip, with a towel in the bottom of it — the towel stops the splashing that spreads the water across the floor. Empty it before it gets full, not after.
A bulging ceiling is a bag of water
Do not stand under it, and do not poke at it from below with your face over it. If it is bulging, the safest thing is to make a small hole at the low edge of the bulge, from the side, with a screwdriver, and let it drain into a bucket. It is counter-intuitive to make a hole in your own ceiling, and it is much better than several litres arriving at once along with the plaster.
Electrics
If water is anywhere near a light fitting, a socket or a consumer unit, turn that circuit off. Water tracks along joists and appears at the nearest fitting, which is often a downlight — a light that has water coming out of it is a hazard, not a curiosity.
Photograph it before you tidy up
The photographs taken in the first hour are the ones an insurer finds useful: the water arriving, the extent of it, the damaged contents where they fell. Photographs of a cleaned-up room prove nothing. Keep receipts for anything you buy to limit the damage.
Stay off the roof
More people are hurt trying to sheet a roof in bad weather than by the leak itself. Wet slate is dangerously slippery, tiles crack under a foot in the wrong place, and a ladder in a gale is its own emergency. There is nothing you can do up there in the rain that is worth it.
Is it actually urgent?
Water coming in now, storm damage that has opened the roof, anything loose at height above a street or a garden, or a ceiling that has come down — yes, urgent. A stain that appeared some time ago and is dry now is not, and paying an emergency rate for it is money wasted. Something in between is worth a phone call to describe rather than a guess.
What happens next
Emergency work makes a property safe and dry: sheeting, battening, sealing what can be reached. It is not the repair. The permanent fix should be quoted afterwards, in daylight, once someone has been able to look at the roof properly — and you are free to get that price from more than one roofer.
What emergency roofing covers has more on the make-safe work itself.
Want someone to look at it?
An inspection ends with a written report and photographs, whether or not you go ahead with any work.